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Aggressive cat behavior toward self
We have a spayed, female, seven-year-old indoor cat, Schroeder, that
has always had small episodes of apparent stress where she aggressively chases her tail, hissing and growling. In the past year, a number of life changes seem to have escalated Schroeder's behavior: We moved to a new home and had a baby. She had a chance to adapt to the new home before the arrival of our son and she seemed to adjust fairly well. However, now that we have a very vocal seven-month-old, she has become increasingly more aggressive towards herself. She chases her tail still but has begun to screech when she does it rather than the old ways of simple hissing. This has escalated in the past few months. Most recently, we moved the cat litter into the basement in preparation for our soon-to-be-mobile son. This seems to have put her over the edge. Schroeder's episodes have moved into the night and are interrupting our sleep to the point that we find that we have to lock her in the bathroom to get a decent night's sleep. In addition, our second cat stalks her. She corners Schroeder under the bed or in rooms that have only one exit. We scold her when we catch her but since we aren't always there, we can't always prevent it. It seems like some of Schroeder's episodes occur when our son is vocal or crying which makes me think that he is causing her stress. However, as I mentioned before, she also screeches in the middle of the night when our son is sound asleep so I am uncertain as to what is causing these particular episodes. I understand that cats are creatures of routine and all of these factors have contributed to disrupting her routine but it also seems that she is not readjusting over time. We took Schroeder to the vet and all of her tests determined that there was nothing physically wrong. We even went as far as giving both cats parasite medication to be certain that they weren't the cause (recommended by our vet). We are doing our best to give both cats individualized attention everyday and play their favorite games with them. We really don't know what to do. The vet suggested that we might be able to put her on Prozac which may have to be our next step if we can't figure out an alternative solution. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Moving the cat litter back into the house is not an option since we live in a one-floor condo and have limited space as it is (and I also don't think that moving the cat litter is the main issue here). Thanks! |
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