Cat aggression

My cat is currently nine months old--she was the sweetest little kitten ever, and loved everybody up until I spayed her at six months. Since then, she has an extremely different personality. Nothing has really changed in her home life. She alternates between being nice, and biting and scratching company. She hisses at me sometimes, at my husband, my friends, and growls low in her throat. I definitely know the difference between "play biting" and what my cat is doing, for the record... she frequently bites and scratches full force, my arm is a matrix of scarring cat scratches and bite marks. We have come to the realization that we cannot pick her up under most circumstances, and even when petting or just sitting, she attacks us. I have raised this cat from six weeks old, and I really don't know what to do anymore. She has always been so sweet, always got easily in her cat carrier, let us clip her claws--now we can't even dream of these things.

Now I am taking care of three three week old kittens, one of which I will be keeping, and I cannot introduce her to them. She hisses and growls if she sees them, so they are sequestered i the bath tub.

Help.

I hope you've lined the tub with something coarse,because the kittens won't develop proper walking muscles in there. As far as the older cat goes, her hormones have changed as a result of the surgery, but it's not her fault and maybe she could be given some leeway for a while and not be expected to be a lapcat. Some female cats never change back, and we have to let them be themselves if they're uncomfortable with a lot of fussing and being picked up. The babies need to be taken care of properly outside of the tub, but you may be surprised in future if some of them (after the usual 10 days of hissing and swatting) do become friends with the older one. Of course please wait til they're a couple of months old before exposing them to the older one, and do be there at all times, but she may not hurt them, just let them know she's #1 in the territory and give them a hard time for a while.

Originally Posted by Larke

I hope you've lined the tub with something coarse,because the kittens won't develop proper walking muscles in there. As far as the older cat goes, her hormones have changed as a result of the surgery, but it's not her fault and maybe she could be given some leeway for a while and not be expected to be a lapcat. Some female cats never change back, and we have to let them be themselves if they're uncomfortable with a lot of fussing and being picked up. The babies need to be taken care of properly outside of the tub, but you may be surprised in future if some of them (after the usual 10 days of hissing and swatting) do become friends with the older one. Of course please wait til they're a couple of months old before exposing them to the older one, and do be there at all times, but she may not hurt them, just let them know she's #1 in the territory and give them a hard time for a while.

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Currently the bath tub is lined with towels, I let them out on the floor often but they spend a lot of their time sleeping right now... I've only had them inside for two days, their mother is an outdoor stray cat, and we have built a large outdoor crate for them so they can spend days outside with momma, walk, play, bond, etc. Right now she comes in several times a day (and night...) so she can nurse, and stays in the bathroom.

It isn't exactly that my kitty doesn't act like a lap cat. I could live with that. I think she's actually becoming a bit of a danger. I'm afraid of her seriously hurting me sometimes. I keep scolding everyone who comes in to stop messing with the cat and trying to pick her up, because I know she hates it. Nevertheless, I seem to be in the line of fire more often than others, and I never really hassle her that way. Today I brought her food to her, and she growled and bit me (she's never had food aggression). She attacks from out of nowhere, even when she is being ignored. She walks up to you looking for attention, purrs for awhile, then bites the crap out of people. She is especially mean to me, she'll growl/hiss at me, bite me, scratch me, then let the husband pet her... and really, I'm the one who plays with her, feeds her, has patience, etc..

Sigh. It's very discouraging to hear I can't do anything about it. I try to encourage everyone to have patience with her, not to scold her too much, to ignore her when she bites, but it's very sad to see her like this. Thank you for your comments though.

I find it strange that her personality changed so much after the spay. In my experience, 3 months after surgery, my females are back to their old selves - even the TNR ones.
Is it possible that she may be in pain? Maybe when she is touched in the area of her discomfort, she suddenly turns mean. I am not saying that it may be the spaying, she could have gotten hurt afterwards.

Yayi, I wondered about that myself. Her incision did seem to take an uncommonly long time to heal--which I can understand, since my body does the same thing. I know she wasn't chewing on her stitches, either. I called the vet, but they seemed unconcerned about it, and she never acted as if she was in much pain unless someone accidentally touched her underside.

She is due in the vet's office ASAP for some vaccinations anyway. I'll have them take a look at her, see if anything is unusual, any pain etc. I think being jealous of the kittens has really put her over the edge these past few days, but it did make me realize that she's been acting peculiar for several months now.... we are moving in August to a new apartment where she will be able to go outside on the back porch, and will be keeping one of the current kittens. Perhaps a change of scenery and a carefully introduced play mate will help her out a little and curb her urges to attack people. I suppose boredom or feelings of neglect might be causing her to act out, then again I'm not sure if cats do that.

Oh well. Thank you for your suggestions.