Aggressive Cat Tearing Family Apart

We own 4 cats. The mother, who's name is Hanabi...her babies Yuna, Kairi, and Yondaime. Hanabi is 6 years old, her children are 4. About a year ago, Yuna and Hanabi started fighting. At first we thought they were just annoying each other and it would die out on it's own. However it's gotten worse and worse. So much to the point now that Hanabi pees and poops outside the litter box every so often. She hides in corners, under tables, and cowers in fear. This isn't play fighting either. When we pull them apart Yuna has Hanabi's fur in her teeth and claws. Luckily no blood has been shed.

This aggression has caused the other cats to attack Hanabi as well. I read something about how the dominate cat can influence the others. Kairi hardly does anything, in fact she takes off and hides when a fight starts. But Yondaime will copy Yuna and at the same time still try to be friendly with Hanabi.

Hanabi is afraid of all of them, expect Kairi sometimes. We've tried everything from my research on the web in this order:

1. We let them duke it out. I thought eventually they'd settle down, but Hanabi is losing weight and not using the litter box.

2. The cats have their own room to sleep in at night. We put Kairi, Yuna, and Yondaime in there. We crated Hanabi downstairs.

3. We sprayed the feline-feel-good spray in the living room, since that's where they hang out the most. (Perhaps I'm not spraying enough)

4. Tried giving them affection at the same time, to show we love them both and they can be around each other without fighting. They ended up fighting.

5. Tried banging on loud objects to break them up.

6. Tried putting Hanabi and Yuna in a crate together to force them to get a long. We sprayed the feline stuff in there and gave them a teddy covered with catnip. They didn't fight in their, but they growled and hissed the whole time.

7. Tried breaking up the fights. Grabbing Yuna by her scruff ( to remind her of her mother's discipline) and hissing at her. She minded us better, but continued fight.

8. Tried giving her a spank. I know, I know, this is very frowned on by the cat owner's community, but I want to be honest about it. I am asking for advice, so please refrain from giving me the riot act on this one.

9. Tried giving Hanabi more freedom to make her more confident. The other cats stand up to Yuna, but Hanabi just cowers and hisses. So we thought if she got access to treats, crated Yuna in front of her, and gave her lots of praise....alas that didn't work either.

I can't think of anything more. I know the last resort is to give her up. We don't believe in that, so please don't suggest it. She's a part of our family and we don't want to give up on her because she has issues. I'm not expecting them to be buddy buddy again, but at least keep the hostility low.

When searching across the web, I found a lot of ppl going through this similar problem, but haven't seen one who has had success. I'm really hoping to find one, because it wasn't always like this. They all used to get along so well and I don't know what went wrong. I know animals can be animals, but sometimes I want to blame myself. :( Good luck to us both.

All the cats are spayed. Yuna was the last one to be, but we thought it might help stop the fighting. It only stopped for a couple days and restarted. I feel like we just wasted our money. I have some spray I got from Target, I'll recheck the brand. I didn't realize there was a plug-in, so I'll give that a try. My fiancee suggested a muzzle, lol, joking.

Seriously though, I cross my fingers it works for you. All my cats used to be aggressive with behavior problems until we got them spayed. 3 out of 4 cats prove it works.

Yeah, it's just my fiancee was keen to keep their bloodline going for some reason. We basically used all our anniversary money at the time on her spaying. So my disappointment stemmed from there. We had planned on getting her spayed eventually.

Even if it stops some of it would be great. If he didn't work days and I work nights, I don't know what poor Hanabi would do.

Yeah. I've read about the mother attempting to kick the children out of the nest, but it's a reverse situation.

Thanks for the link! I haven't tried the calming collar yet, but seems like a good idea.

Has anyone heard of a medical problem for this type of situation? I read there is medication a vet can perscribe to aggressive cats, but I don't want force pills down her throat all the time.

Or would this perhaps get better with age? Is 4 the "aggressive" age for cats?

@P3 and the King Putting them in the crate together gave them no real room for fighting. That's really the only time it ever stopped. But I see your point psychologically.

Thanks! I will def try it. I don't particularly care who's the alpha. I just don't want Hanabi too scared to use the litter box or freely move about the house.

So, I wanted to update everyone!! Things have gotten better.

We tried the spray, but it didn't help. I bought the collar, didn't seem to help much. I put it on Yuna first, but she still attacked Hanabi. I put it on Hanabi, but she still hisses and growls at all the other cats.

What I believe has helped:

We kept Yuna and Hanabi separated for some days. Yuna was kept in our spare bedroom, Hanabi was free to walk around the house and feel a bit braver.

When we DID let Yuna out in the same area as Hanabi, every time, Yuna went to attack her, we put her back in the bedroom. Of course letting her know we were VERY unhappy with her. By grabbing her by the scruff, turning her over on her back and saying, "No! Bad!" She hissed and growled back, but never attacked us.

Also, a method I got from the animal planet, was to feed Hanabi treats after an attack or making sure she eats treats first. For instance, we give canned food as treats every so often. I usually split it up evenly, but I gave all of it to Hanabi and the others couldn't eat until she was finished. I think this really, really helped her become more confident. I can tell you, it was very hard to watch the other 3 beg for treats while Hanabi ate. But it was very nice to watch Hanabi not run away or get bullied into abandoning it like she used to. They growled, puffed up at her, but she never backed down. I kept a close eye to make sure no one attempted to blitz her.

So far I haven't had to stop any fights. There have been plenty of near fights. I usually hear them growling first. I call Yuna over to me, sometimes she listens, sometimes she doesn't. She'll like, slowly turn towards me like she's possessed. It's really weird. If she listens I give her a treat. Nowadays she'll watch Hanabi's movements, but rarely stalks her around the house. It's been sooooo nice, after this year of violence.