I apologize if this gets long. I feel like I should know the answer to this question, but I've never personally dealt with this before so I have to admit that I haven't paid a lot of attention to the solutions that I've read over the years.
I currently have my friend's cat (Moe) at my house. I actually fostered Moe when he was about 2-3 weeks old (he was fostered from a local vet, not a shelter). At the same time I was fostering my friend's cat while she was out of town for several months. The 2 cats got along WONDERFULLY! So when she got back and took her cat back, she also adopted Moe because they were so attached to each other.
So fast forward to 7 months later. My friend called me in a panic a few nights ago because Moe had just violently attacked her other cat Larry. It had happened several times before this, within the same time frame, but this time it was near her 7 month old baby. While neither cat went for the baby, apparently the attack was violent enough that they could have seriously hurt her if she had been just a few inches closer.
Moe wasn't neutered (I took him to be neutered today), and Larry is, so in my non-professional opinion, I am assuming that the sudden vicious behavior is typical un-neutered male cat behavior. Because she is worried about the baby, I told her to bring Moe to my house for now, while we figure out what to do to solve the problem. I have 9 cats in my house, and they generally accept new cats pretty well because they've gotten used to me always bringing more inside. I don't know if Moe remembers my cats from being fostered here, but my friend dropped him off and there was minimal hissing, so I let him wander around freely.
Almost immediately, he started spraying. Within 10 minutes I saw him spray 4 different places in my house. Again, I'm assuming this is un-neutered male behavior. Moe became a problem for me when one of my male cats decided that he was going to spray in the same places that Moe just sprayed (my male is neutered, but he was a stray and he definitely wasn't neutered as a young male). I'm thankful that I saw this happen so I didn't have to go searching to the sources of the smell in my house. But not wanting this behavior to continue, I pulled out my large dog crate and moved Moe to the garage. He can't walk around freely in the garage because there is WAY too much stuff for him to spray and destroy.
I made him an appointment to get neutered today, and I have to go pick him up in a few hours. My friend wants to try to re-introduce him to her other cat, but I know that it takes a while for the hormones to fully leave his body. I told her that I can keep him here for a while, until it seems like a "safe" time to bring him back to her.
So my question is...when is a good time to bring him back? How long does it generally take for a male cat to stop spraying once he is neutered (this is of course assuming that he'll stop - I know they don't always)? And do you think that his violent behavior will calm down once he's neutered? I told her that she can have one of my feliway diffusers, because I'm thinking that plugging one in when he's re-introduced would be helpful.
I also don't know if and when I can let him back into my house. I can handle cleaning the occasional cat pee spot or spray spot, but if its going to be continuous spraying from both Moe and my own cat, I dont think I can really deal with that on a daily basis. I hate leaving him in the crate, but its large enough for him to have a litter box and bed, and still move around a bit.
I've never had to deal with this problem because I always get my cats spayed/neutered ASAP, so if anyone has any advice on re-introducing him back to her home I would really appreciate it!
I currently have my friend's cat (Moe) at my house. I actually fostered Moe when he was about 2-3 weeks old (he was fostered from a local vet, not a shelter). At the same time I was fostering my friend's cat while she was out of town for several months. The 2 cats got along WONDERFULLY! So when she got back and took her cat back, she also adopted Moe because they were so attached to each other.
So fast forward to 7 months later. My friend called me in a panic a few nights ago because Moe had just violently attacked her other cat Larry. It had happened several times before this, within the same time frame, but this time it was near her 7 month old baby. While neither cat went for the baby, apparently the attack was violent enough that they could have seriously hurt her if she had been just a few inches closer.
Moe wasn't neutered (I took him to be neutered today), and Larry is, so in my non-professional opinion, I am assuming that the sudden vicious behavior is typical un-neutered male cat behavior. Because she is worried about the baby, I told her to bring Moe to my house for now, while we figure out what to do to solve the problem. I have 9 cats in my house, and they generally accept new cats pretty well because they've gotten used to me always bringing more inside. I don't know if Moe remembers my cats from being fostered here, but my friend dropped him off and there was minimal hissing, so I let him wander around freely.
Almost immediately, he started spraying. Within 10 minutes I saw him spray 4 different places in my house. Again, I'm assuming this is un-neutered male behavior. Moe became a problem for me when one of my male cats decided that he was going to spray in the same places that Moe just sprayed (my male is neutered, but he was a stray and he definitely wasn't neutered as a young male). I'm thankful that I saw this happen so I didn't have to go searching to the sources of the smell in my house. But not wanting this behavior to continue, I pulled out my large dog crate and moved Moe to the garage. He can't walk around freely in the garage because there is WAY too much stuff for him to spray and destroy.
I made him an appointment to get neutered today, and I have to go pick him up in a few hours. My friend wants to try to re-introduce him to her other cat, but I know that it takes a while for the hormones to fully leave his body. I told her that I can keep him here for a while, until it seems like a "safe" time to bring him back to her.
So my question is...when is a good time to bring him back? How long does it generally take for a male cat to stop spraying once he is neutered (this is of course assuming that he'll stop - I know they don't always)? And do you think that his violent behavior will calm down once he's neutered? I told her that she can have one of my feliway diffusers, because I'm thinking that plugging one in when he's re-introduced would be helpful.
I also don't know if and when I can let him back into my house. I can handle cleaning the occasional cat pee spot or spray spot, but if its going to be continuous spraying from both Moe and my own cat, I dont think I can really deal with that on a daily basis. I hate leaving him in the crate, but its large enough for him to have a litter box and bed, and still move around a bit.
I've never had to deal with this problem because I always get my cats spayed/neutered ASAP, so if anyone has any advice on re-introducing him back to her home I would really appreciate it!
