Pet Exchange Corner

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Dr. Marci Koski is a certified Feline behavior and training professional who received specialized and advanced certificates in Feline training and behavior from the Animal behavior Institute. While Marci has been passionate about all animals and their welfare, cats have always had a special place in her heart. In fact, Marci can’t remember a time when she’s been without at least one cat in her life. She currently depends on her five-member support staff  to maintain the feline responsibilities of her household.

Marci’s own company, Feline behavior Solutions, focuses on keeping cats in homes, and from being abandoned to streets or shelters as the result of treatable behavior issues. Marci believes that the number of cats who are abandoned and/or euthanized in shelters can be greatly decreased if guardians better understand what drives their cats to certain behaviors, and learn how to work with their cats to encourage suitable behaviors instead of unwanted ones.

Do you have a question for Dr. Marci?
Leave it in a comment, and she’ll answer it next month!

Aggression after vet visit

I have 4 cats; 3 female (2 are litter mates, 3 years old, and the other is about 9) and one male cat, Sandy, who is 8. Sandy has always been the “man of the house”, the dominant one out of all of them. 3 weeks ago, I took Sandy to the vet to get groomed (he tends to get nasty so the vet’s office can deal with him better). He has a lot of Maine coon in him so his hair was incredibly long and he received a lion cut so granted, he did look a lot different. So when I got home with him, I let him out of the crate and of course everyone was hissing at him…I was not amazed because he smelled like the vet (which they all HATE) and he looked different so possibly they did not recognize him. I chose to separate everyone; putting the females in a separate area and keeping Sandy separate overnight to give him time to clean himself etc. The next day, I reunited everyone and there was still a bit of hissing going on but not bad…they were smelling each other and getting reacquainted so it seemed like everything was ok although Callie who is typically very docile and frightened of her own shadow was very upset by him. I went outside for about an hour and when I came in to my horror, I found Sandy laying in his bed bleeding from several places…bad…blood soaked his bed etc. and Callie was blown up like a balloon looking like devil cat, I swear! She had become incredibly aggressive toward him and still is 3 weeks later. I kept them separate for numerous days, trying little at a time with supervision to have them together but Callie would always stalk him and now he is so paranoid around the house that it breaks my heart. all of his old practices have changed and he doesn’t even act like the same cat these days…he used to strut around like the big man on campus but now he is always cowering or sitting up high so he can see Callie coming. The really confusing part is that Callie was the most docile cat before all of this and it surprises me how awful she is toward him. I can understand a few days of this after coming from the vet but at 3 weeks now I’m very concerned. I would really appreciate any guidance that you may have. thanks so much! – Karen Morgan

Hi Karen,

Oh, I’m so sorry that you’re having to manage these two kitties who used to get along well together. This is not altogether an uncommon occurrence – cat goes to vet, comes back smelling weird, cats at home act like they’ve never met him before. This is “feline non-recognition,” and it happens just as you described. Cats rely heavily on scent to tell who is friend from foe (this might be as much, or more, essential than visual recognition) and if someone comes into their territory smelling foreign, it’s bad news for the “newcomer”.

At this point, keeping the two cats separate and working on a slow reintroduction is necessary. The altercation that Callie had with Sandy served to create a negative association between cats. While we are unable to identify how the fight started, I can tell you that Callie was (and continues) to probably act out of worry and territorial insecurity – NOT a desire to just kick Sandy’s butt. After all, to her, a new cat came in and is now competing for her resources! She should defend what is hers. and Sandy, who used to be confident, is now like “what the heck is going on?” He’s now fearful of Callie and also facing some territorial insecurity.

The first thing I want you to work on is rebuilding a “group scent”. When kitties live together there’s typically one cat who serves as an “allogroomer”, and she goes around and grooms all of the other kitties so that they all start to smell the same. You are going to have to be the allogroomer for your kitties, so take a soft-bristled brush (one that will be good at absorbingnullnull