Sudden and violent aggression towards dog

My cat is an 8.5 year old 30lb Maine Coon who was neutered prior to my adopting him at 6 months old. The dog is an 8 year old Boerboel (mastiff) who is also neutered. He weighs 180lbs and is active and agile. He was purchased when he was 10 weeks old. Both are current on vaccines. The dog has had extensive training. The cat has always been aloof towards humans and aggressive if provoked by petting. He has occasionally attacked a person without provocation. 

Two weeks ago, I had to have my 16 year old spayed cattle dog euthanized due to old age related ailments. 

Since the passing of the older dog, the cat has become violently aggressive towards the dog. The cat will stalk and attack the dog both when the dog is asleep and when the dog is awake. The attacks include biting and scratching.

They have always gotten along prior to the other dog's passing. What can I do to save this poor cat's life? I'm afraid the dog is going to reach his breaking point and kill the cat. 

I do have an appointment with the vet so I can discuss the cat's sudden change in behavior--if the dog doesn't kill him first. I'm not being flippant--this is an urgent situation.

Okay....well thanks.

Thank you for your helpful response! Here is my (long) reply to many points you've brought up. I hope I've addressed them all. If not...ask again. I want help and I'm not trying to hide anything.

The aggression is definitely offensive. His posture is described perfectly in the ASPCA article. He also does most of the following when attacking the dog:

·         Swatting, striking with paws

·         Biting

·         Fighting

·         Growling, shrieking

·         Scratching

·         Preparing for an all-out attack by rolling onto side or back and exposing all weapons: teeth and claws

The cat is also guarding the dog’s resources. He will lie on or near the dog’s food bowl (I’ve started picking it up) and the dog’s toys (which I’ve also started picking up) and will growl at and/or chase the dog away from those items.  Incidentally, this is behavior that the cattle dog (RIP) used to do to the mastiff.

Most of the attacks have happened when the dog is asleep or laying quietly on the floor.

When they were much younger; the dog was chasing the cat when the cat stopped suddenly and the dog ran over him. The cat’s ACL was torn. This was 6-7 years ago.

As far as being able to get vertical—the cat has a 7-8’ climbing tower. It is home made of carpet covered 2x4’s. It has a solid box on the bottom (all carpeted) with an access hole to out the top and another hole  out to  the side. The middle and top shelves have access holes as well. The upright posts are covered in various types of rope and it has hanging toys. He loves it. His litter box and food are inside an un-used bathroom with access via a small doggie door.

He also has access to a large screened in porch via a small doggie door. The porch is 30’ long by 14’ deep. It has patio furniture (tables, chairs, couch, futon,  chest freezer, etc.) that he likes to lay on. He loves the porch.

We live on acreage—and he also goes outside. In 8 years, I’ve never seen him off of our property. Our neighbor’s don’t even know we have a cat.

The cat weighs a lot…and I’m sure he’s over-weight. I’ll find out for sure when he goes to his appointment. He only eats the food prescribed by the vet. The cat is vicious to the vet and caused one vet to get stitches in her hand. He now has to be “boxed” before handling—that is gassed inside his carrier prior to handling.

He has aggressively attacked us—but we respect his boundaries. We cat pet him on the head only—about four strokes before he gets annoyed. I can pick him up and carry him, but my husband cannot. He will sleep in the bed with us, but we can’t touch him or he will growl and bite.

We adopted him, but he was originally purchased from a breeder as he was micro chipped by that breeder. Apparently, he was played with too aggressively in his first home and was dump for aggression on a hwy outside a rural town. The only rescue in town wound up with him and they had to keep him in a kennel in someone’s office because he was aggressive to other shelter animals and staff. We’ve made our peace with him and I think he likes us and he used to love the dogs. Now that one has passed—he is very openly aggressively to the remaining animal. 

1. Dog is fed and watered inside the house and always has been. The dog (named Brew) lives in the house, but uses a doggie door that gives him access to a fenced yard. 

2. I will have the vet check the ACL. The appointment is Friday.  It did not require a surgical repair. He has not been limping. 

3. His name is Logan. 

I don't know if this is relevant, but Brew is currently injured and on restricted exercise. The sequence of events in the last two weeks happened as follows:

1. Dog Brew beings limping on both front feet. Went to vet and was diagnosed with injured paw pads--probably from a sliding stop on gravel he did a day or so before. Vet prescribes rest, anti-inflammatory and pain medications. His allergy medications are temporarily stopped.

2. The very next day, our older female cattle dog (Sydney) falls and can't get up. To the e-vet we go. After extensive diagnostics and talks with the vet, she is euthanized. Her hip is broke and she has the pre-existing conditions of arthritis and Cushings. It was a sudden end that left us all shocked and sad. 

3. A day or two after putting the cattle dog down, Brew becomes very depressed. He is both injured and in mourning.

4. A day or so later, Logan seems to realize Sydney is missing.  He begins being aggressive towards Brew; and his behaviors seem to be mimicking those of the cattle dog. The behaviors have been increasing with the passage of time. 

Thank you! I look forward to it.

Yes. Brew was chasing Logan when Logan was hurt. When they were younger; the "chaser" and "chasee" often changed in the same play session. One or the other would start the play and then they would chase each other.

Brew plowed into him because at that time, we just had our floors re-done. Carpet was removed and the concrete was stained and polished. Brew put the brakes on, but trampled Logan as he was trying to stop. I initially thought Logan's back was broke... Brew was a large (100+lb) clumsy puppy who wanted to play, play, play. 

After the injury, I discouraged the game and taught Brew a, "leave the kitty" command; which he learned very well.  Brew went on to receive his CGC and TDI as well as agility and lure course training. After Logan recovered, he received his exercise and stimulation by us (humans) playing with him. Logan is very easily aroused during play time and often winds up attacking us by lunging full body at our faces, trying to bite and scratch. We tried to engage him in calmer play/petting sessions, but he wants none of that and will bite and growl to tell us to go away. When we play with him now, we play for a few minutes and discontinue before he gets overly aroused. When we are doing this, we crate Brew with a Kong so that Logan doesn't transfer his aggression to Brew. 

Logan goes to the vet tomorrow for an exam and vaccines. Unfortunately, the vet will not work with Logan when he is conscious, so he may not be able to tell if Logan is in pain as he (cat) will be asleep during the exam. Any diagnostics will have to be done via blood work, x-rays, physical exam, or by observation after the cat awakes. 

I don't know what I'm hoping for with the exam and with answers from this forum. A magic pill would be nice... Mostly, I don't want the dog to kill him as he is certainly capable of doing so.

No problem with the questions!

My answer this time is: OH HECK NO!!! We would draw back bloody stumps! The dangling end of the rope wrapped around the upright posts of the cat tower are what we usually use. In the past we've used various store purchased cat, "fishing pole" type toys. Those never last long as it usually only takes a few seconds for him to chew through the string portion.

More back story: We were actively looking for a young cat when we found Logan. At the time we had two aging cats (in their 20's) who were healthy, but aged. We wanted a younger, more active cat. We looked at various shelters for a few weeks. I wanted another lap cat as our two elderly cats were both very loving. We heard that a shelter in a remote rural town was having trouble with their "No Kill" policy as they had too many animals and too few adopters. Logan was due to be euthanized as he was not friendly to people, dogs or other cats. He was stunningly beautiful and a registered pure bred Maine Coon. They waived the adoption fee as he was not fully vaccinated and identified to be behavioral. It wasn't exactly love at first sight! The shelter staff tried to take our picture while we were holding Logan. He was trying to scratch our eyes out! We knew he was going to be a difficult cat. Our vet made suggestions that we followed and Logan warmed up--a bit.  Logan seemed to know he was home and he formed relationships with the dogs, but not the cats. He seemed to like being near us (he sleeps with us); but he only wants attention and affection on his terms. 

Both of the elderly cats died when Logan suffered kidney damage from the melamine tainting that occurred back in 2006 (I think); which was when Logan was about 2.5 years old and the mastiff Brew was about 2 years old, The melamine also damaged the recently departed cattle dog and our English Bulldog--who passed of kidney failure at age 15 in 2009. We stupidly fed the same "super premium" brand to all of our animals. Brew was the only one who suffered no lasting damage. We think it was because of his youth and his size (mastiff). 

Logan didn't seem to mourn the passing of the other animals, but we had a lot of animals and now we only have him, Brew and a 70 year old Amazon parrot.

Nice to meet you too!!

Logan was purchased by a family from his breeder. He was found on a rural highway when he was about 5-6 months old and taken to the shelter. Since he was microchipped, the shelter was sure that he was just lost, but the family who purchased him didn't claim to own him--although they were the family on his chip. He was many miles from home--over 100. The breeder also did not want him back (boo!). 

The shelter believes that the children in the family (said to be young teen boys by the breeder) played too roughly with him and "riled" him up without giving him the chance to recover when he got over stimulated. The shelter also thinks that it was likely that Logan got too aggressive and was driven "out to the country" and dumped. He was un-neutered when they acquired him.

His registered name contained the word Regal and his breeder's name. The family called him Regal. The shelter re-named him Rogue. We originally kept Rogue, but he never seemed to know it was his name. We also tried calling him Regal (though we hated that name!), but he didn't know or respond to that name either. Hubby started calling him Logan out of the blue and the cat looked. We call him Logan and/or Lo and he knows and responds to his name by running towards us. He also responds to, "Kitty."

Incidentally, he never meows and rarely purrs. I've only heard him purr when he is getting fed. He will manage one or two short--like 1 second long--purrs. 

Onto the other questions!

Litter box habits-- He always uses the litter box or outside. Shortly after we first got him, he developed horrible smelly diarrhea that was mostly deposited on our leather furniture--which he ruined. We took him to the vet and he had a terrible intestinal infection. What a trip it was trying to get a course of antibiotics into him, but persevere we did!

Petting --He likes and enjoys short term (3-4 strokes, max) petting on top of his head including scratching behind his ears. Just recently he started tolerating and even liking scratching at the base of his tail. His back, belly, feet, tail and legs are totally OFF LIMITS! Under the chin is a no go as well. He has never sat on or near us--except at night. Very rarely he will sleep at night on my hip or try too---he's heavy!!

Adding--I've never known him to pee outside the box. He has access to our yard and property, and I've seen him mark on bushes and whatnot. 

I will request a kidney profile and observation of his torn ACL.

I'm not against any type of remedy--including flower power!

Okay, I read the Xena link. She looks like a smaller, tidier version of Logan! I see some similarities with the aggression towards Brew. Logan's aggression towards us has mostly faded, but he does still randomly bite me in the shin (while I'm sitting) or on the scalp (while I'm sleeping). I think the biting on the scalp is his way of waking me up to feed him at night. It's never overtly aggressive. The shin thing is aggression. Of course, we can provoke him into attacking--but we never intentionally antagonize him.

Tomorrow--we see the vet. I'll report back with what the vet suggests. We're seeing our vet's son who has joined his mother's practice, so we might get a different perspective from him.

In the past the vet had suggested to allow for the passage of time--which worked, somewhat. She wanted us to give him all the time he needed to become comfortable. She also prescribed a sedative that we rubbed into his ears. That also took the edge off in the very beginning. She wanted us to play with him during regularly scheduled intervals with toys, not hands. 

Logan is at vet now. They are doing vaccinations, kidney analysis, complete dental, full blood panel and external exam. They did find a broken tooth with pulp exposed--that was certainly causing a lot of pain. Bill is now around $800.00. YIKES!!!

edited to add--they are also doing a grooming (bathing and brushing) to remove as much hair as possible because I told them he has hairballs and isn't tolerant of a brush. 

Logan got a clean bill of health except for the broken tooth with exposed nerve--it was a canine tooth and it's been extracted. Now I'm going to wait until his mouth heals and his pain recedes to see if he is any better--behaviorally. 

...and the bill was "only" $788.00!

Right now he's sleeping off the anesthesia in his bathroom. I haven't heard a peep out of him--so I checked and he was sleeping comfortably. I'll let him out to resume normal routines tomorrow morning. He has two doses of pain meds that I need to administer starting tomorrow afternoon. That should be fun....

Logan seems to be doing well enough. He bit the "you-know-what" out of me when I reached down to pick up his food bowl yesterday. No growl, no warning--just a very painful bite to the inside of my arm--above the elbow. I didn't react at all--just ignored it as I know he is on pain meds and he is still sore.

Giving him his metacam was a non-issue: I squirted it into his canned food and he gobbled it right up. 

He's loving the canned food--too much, methinks. 

He spent the first morning post surgery throwing up and he was still very, very groggy and unsteady. Vet said that was due to the long acting nature of the pain reliever.

He quit puking mid-morning yesterday and has been mostly sleeping and begging for the soft food!

Thank you both for your responses.

To address the metacam issue: the cat received three doses of the medication. One was given as an injection while he was at the vet's office and I gave the other two doses orally. The cat weighs 25lbs (I said 30lb in my OP, but that was an estimate). He also received a long term pain control medication, intravenously. I don't know what it was,exactly. The bill says it was an "advanced pain control package" and that it was administered via IV catheter. 

Logan is not, nor has he ever been the alpha of the household, nor was the elder cattle dog. Brew has been alpha since he was 4 months old--which was the time that he wrested "alpha" from the former alpha dog--our dearly departed English Bulldog. 

When Logan first came into our household--he was the newest addition to a large pet population. We had a 23 year old cat (Maggie) and a 21 year old cat (Jazzman); the English Bulldog (Bos'n) who was about 8-9 years old; the Australian Cattle Dog, Sydney who was about 6-7 years old; and Brew, the mastiff, who was a puppy. Logan was about 6 months old when we adopted him and Brew was 8 weeks old. Brew arrived first and then Logan a few weeks later. 

The two elderly cats died a year or so later--when they suffered melamine poisoning. Jazzman died within a few days and Maggie within a few months. Logan was also injured by the melamine, but recovered. Logan seemed not to act any differently with the passing of the two cats. He didn't interact with them over-much as they didn't like him any more than he, them. A few years later, the English Bulldog passed away suddenly at the age of almost 15. The cattle dog mourned him, but the others seemed fine. Fast forward a few more years and Sydney dies at age 16. Now there are only two pets and both mourned the passing of Sydney. Surprisingly, Logan more so than Brew. 

Yes, Logan has a history of being aggressive. We would never consider re-homing him for the aggression he displays to us--it's just his "baggage." Now that he is attacking the dog--it's a different story. The dog can kill him. I do not want that to happen--nor do I want to re-home either pet. That's not an option. 

I can attempt to play with Logan with balls and other 'chase' type toys. The problem with having small toys around is that if I forget to retrieve them all--Brew can swallow and choke. 

Oddly, Logan is now fascinated with Brew's toys and I have to keep Brew's toys picked up or Logan with "guard" them.