one kitty suddently hisses at the other!

Hi,
I had a small problem that started last night with my two kitties that I thought I would approach you guys for...

I have 2 cats, one male and one female (both fixed), whom I've had for 5 and 4 years. They've always been friendly since the beginning. Last night, my male, Aidan, had to go to the vet, and when I got back with him about 1 hour later, Mina (the female)went to sniff him, and hissed. I thought this was no big deal at first, because he may have smelled like other animals, people..an overall "vet" smell. But the hisses continued all night (one-sided...he never responded to her, just walked away), ending up with her hissing and growling all night long. I woke up 3 AM this morning to her uttering her very low growl. It continued this morning as I was getting ready to leave.

I am concerned. I thought it was vet smell that was initiating this behaviour, but she seems very irritated with him for some reason. I can't think of anything else it might be stemming from! Right before I went to the vet, they were acting like their normal selves. Any ideas??

Hey there

hmmm, the only thing that really comes to my mind is that she doesn't like the "vet" smell as you said. other than that I can't think of any other reason why she would start to act like that.

I'm thinking maybe in a couple of days she might stop, but if she doesn't that'll be a mystery to me :/

Sorry I couldn't have been more help

If you place a drop of vanilla on your kitties nose she won't be able to smell the offending vet scent. This usually works well to introduce a kitten to a nurcing mom when it isn't hers. I take this precaution when introducing a new cat to the house. Hope it helps!

That's some good advice DragonLady ! better then mine anyways lol

I've been thinking about getting a new kitten lately and anticipate the hissing problems since I had that when I got my 2nd kitty. So now I know what to do when that happens.

Hey,
Thanks for the responses! I will try the vanilla drop tonight. I am concerned for them, but also sad, since I must say that I am very lucky to have these two cats (my babies ) that get along so great!

I will keep you guys posted as to how Aidan and Mina are doing. And I would love to hear more suggestions!

You can also take a towel and rub your female down first, then rub your male then rub both kitties again to blend the smell.

One of our past moderators Dawn told us that she uses perfume and mists the air in front of her, sticks her hands into the mist and rubs both kitties down so they smell the same. But she does not spray the perfume directly on them, that would be bad and possibly hurt them if they licked it off.

My two fell out in a major way a few weeks ago, which they had never done before. I did what Hissy suggested, and brushed them both with the same brush, so they ended up smelling like each other again, and they ended up both sitting on my lap within hours of doing this. All is calm in the house of Flimflam.

Hissy, you are the fountain of all cat knowledge. The guru of the cat world. Thank-you for all your help and support.

also good suggestions...I am trying all of this tonight. Thanks so much!

Everyone, thank you for all your suggestions. Fortunately, I didn't have to do anything last night with the 2 kitties because when I returned from school after speaking with all of you, they were back to their normal behaviours! YAY. No more hissing from Mina. She apparently was either A) hating the vet smell, as we discussed, or B) upset that he had left her for an hour (which is what my mom thinks.. ).

Thanks again for all your help.

It was probably the vet smell. He didn't smell like her friend, and they do recognize each other by smell. Next time you take one of them to the vet, put a little vanilla on a towel and rub down both of them before letting them come in contact again, or use the perfume trick. That way they smell like each other without having to go through the hissing part.