I posted about 2 weeks ago about reintroducing 2 cats that have been fighting. The short version of the story is that I'm helping a friend out. She had 2 males - 1 neutered, 1 not. She also has a 7 month old baby and one day the cats were violently fighting basically right on top of the baby. They weren't trying to hurt the baby, but they definitely could have hurt her just by where they were. I took the cat because she was pretty stressed and panicked at that point. I took him to get neutered immediately, kept him at my house for over a week and then brought him back to her. I know it can take a while for his hormones to leave his body, but after 2 nights home after almost 2 weeks being gone, the fighting is still pretty bad (and the cats did recognize each other so I dont think they have forgotten and this is like a new cat coming in). I gave her a feliway diffuser which she has plugged in, but today the fighting came too close to the baby again, so now I have him back here again.
She doesn't want to rehome this cat, but she also need to have a safe place for her baby and as it stands right now, she can't just put the baby down and walk away for even 2 minutes. If the baby is sleeping, everything is ok because the cats don't go in her room, but right now her solutions seem to be to constantly have the 2 cats separated (which in her house, doesn't work well just based on how the house is set up - she doesn't really have an area to confine one cat too) or constantly hold her baby (and while she's a great mom, she DOES have to put her down occasionally!)
I'll hold on to him at my house for another week or so and then try to reintroduce them again. However, now my house is having problems. One of my cats has started spraying because of this new cat. Its definitely spraying, and not peeing - I've seen him do it. My cat is neutered but he was older when we found him as a stray so he definitely didn't get neutered at a young age so I know that the spraying can be normal for him. When I first took my friends cat in, he also sprayed, but after getting neutered, I took him in again, and he didn't spray...but my cat did.
So I'm trying to come up with options for both my friend and myself. I have her cat in a dog crate in my garage right now because I can't keep an eye on my cat 24/7 and he doesn't spray unless my friend's cat is in the house too. I want to find a way to calm both of them down and either have this work out so that I will keep her cat forever and just add him to the 9 that I already have, but ideally he'll go back to her.
I have feliway plugged into 4 rooms in my house (I always have this, so they weren't just plugged in today), but even that isn't stopping the spraying. My cat has separation anxiety issues, so I'm wondering if he just needs to stake his claim on our house out of fear. I've heard that using rescue remedy along with Feliway often has good results, but I live on a tiny island and to get to a Petsmart, it takes an hour or more depending on traffic. There is a tiny pet store in town here that sells something called "Calm Down". I looked it up online and can't find anything bad about it, but I'm hesitant to use something that I really know nothing about on my cats. I know that OTC flea meds are bad, so I'm a little nervous about using something else thats over the counter that I've never heard of.
So has anyone ever used this Calm Down stuff and had luck with it? And if not, do you have any suggestions for how to deal with this? I don't want to keep this cat in a crate forever, and if he can't go back to my friend's house, I don't want him going to just anyone, which is why I said I would keep him. But I just can't handle my cat spraying non-stop. I can deal with the occasional cat pee accident or the occasional cat spraying, but this is happening several times a day, every day, ever since this new cat was brought in. So any help would be appreciated!
She doesn't want to rehome this cat, but she also need to have a safe place for her baby and as it stands right now, she can't just put the baby down and walk away for even 2 minutes. If the baby is sleeping, everything is ok because the cats don't go in her room, but right now her solutions seem to be to constantly have the 2 cats separated (which in her house, doesn't work well just based on how the house is set up - she doesn't really have an area to confine one cat too) or constantly hold her baby (and while she's a great mom, she DOES have to put her down occasionally!)
I'll hold on to him at my house for another week or so and then try to reintroduce them again. However, now my house is having problems. One of my cats has started spraying because of this new cat. Its definitely spraying, and not peeing - I've seen him do it. My cat is neutered but he was older when we found him as a stray so he definitely didn't get neutered at a young age so I know that the spraying can be normal for him. When I first took my friends cat in, he also sprayed, but after getting neutered, I took him in again, and he didn't spray...but my cat did.
So I'm trying to come up with options for both my friend and myself. I have her cat in a dog crate in my garage right now because I can't keep an eye on my cat 24/7 and he doesn't spray unless my friend's cat is in the house too. I want to find a way to calm both of them down and either have this work out so that I will keep her cat forever and just add him to the 9 that I already have, but ideally he'll go back to her.
I have feliway plugged into 4 rooms in my house (I always have this, so they weren't just plugged in today), but even that isn't stopping the spraying. My cat has separation anxiety issues, so I'm wondering if he just needs to stake his claim on our house out of fear. I've heard that using rescue remedy along with Feliway often has good results, but I live on a tiny island and to get to a Petsmart, it takes an hour or more depending on traffic. There is a tiny pet store in town here that sells something called "Calm Down". I looked it up online and can't find anything bad about it, but I'm hesitant to use something that I really know nothing about on my cats. I know that OTC flea meds are bad, so I'm a little nervous about using something else thats over the counter that I've never heard of.
So has anyone ever used this Calm Down stuff and had luck with it? And if not, do you have any suggestions for how to deal with this? I don't want to keep this cat in a crate forever, and if he can't go back to my friend's house, I don't want him going to just anyone, which is why I said I would keep him. But I just can't handle my cat spraying non-stop. I can deal with the occasional cat pee accident or the occasional cat spraying, but this is happening several times a day, every day, ever since this new cat was brought in. So any help would be appreciated!
