HELP!! Bathed one cat....second cat has gone INSANE!!!

I got home today and my male cat (Nebby) had gotten pollen all over his face from a flower we had on the table. It was really bad! He is all white, and he made his face all reddish/yellow. So my wife and I decided to give him a bath. We used Johnson's Tearless Baby Shampoo. All went well, most of it came off. But when we let him outside, our female cat (Rory) absolutely flipped out!! She hissed in his face, and then made this horrifying screech that made myself and wife very worried! Rory has never done this before. She has in the past hiss at Nebby when we give them a treat like tuna or something, but never like this! She will not let him get near her, she keeps hissing and screaching at the top of her lungs! We tried calling our vet, but it was already late here and got no answer. So I said we should just give Rory a bath so that they both smell the same. Nothing has changed. My wife is worried that we might have to get rid of her. PLEASE HELP!!

Hello, sorry you are having trouble. And please, don't "get rid" of her because of this incident.

First, do you know for sure that the plant and pollen is safe for cats. There is a very long list of plants that cause various problems for cats.

I am only throwing out my thoughts and hope others will come with suggestions. The best and first would be to find an emergency vet if yours does not have an after hours number. This could be a reaction from the plant, even if she was not the one with pollen on her.

I don't know about using baby shampoo on your cat. I do know that he smelled different "long enough" for her to become unhappy. (hissing, etc)
Although you then bathed her, the upset had already taken place.

My opinion would be to separate them for the night and tomorrow if they are unsupervised and let them calm down. In the sticky above there are links that have advice on how to introduce cats. This might help. Many suggest putting a dab of vanilla flavoring on the back at the tail base.

Contact your vet and make sure they are ok, then let them calm down and reintroduce.

I've noticed that it usually takes three to four days for scent to build up and return to normal. Your scent will transfer over too, and that will help.

As long as it is only growling and hissing, just let them be. Your cats will need to "pick up" the house and human smells, and letting them lay about in their normal places usually helps.

This type of thing happens every time I bring just 1 cat to the vet. They smell different when they come home. The vanilla trick helps. So does rubbing Nebby all over with a towel (ALL over) and then rubbing Rory with the same towel. It helps to transfer his smell to her. Then tomorrow do it the opposite way. This may take a few days, but life will get back to normal.