Aggression with sick cat

Thanks in advance for your help.

I found out today that my 15 yr old female is in the early stages of kidney failure. This explains the increased aggression between her and her two younger brothers... who up to this point, have basically gotten along. However, now they don't and I'm concerned mostly for the comfort of my 15 year old.

I'm wondering what course to take. Do I reintroduce them? I put a couple of Feliway diffusers in the house yesterday. How long do I wait to see if this does the trick? If it doesn't work, do I reintroduce? How do I determine who goes where? I'm tempted to put the 2 brothers in the basement together. A NICE basement and let my older cat have free reign of the house. My husband is having an issue with this because his "favorite" child will be banned to the basement. Lol.

My husband and I both work and I worry about what is happening now when we aren't at home. They are aggressive when we ARE home.

Any help is appreciated.

Deborah

Welcome to TCS, Deborah!

So the two boys are being aggressive towards the 15 year old?  How old are the boys?

I don't have an answer to your question but I was surprised how my other two cats acted towards our oldest female cinnamon when she became sick,Chirpers who is normaly the most mellowest cat in the world would walk by and hiss at her.I didn't separate them as I have no room where I live to do so.After a while things settled down and chirpers no longer hisses or acts aggressively towards cinnamon.They now act like nothing was ever wrong and groom each other.Best of luck with your cat.I hope that her kidney problem isn't a fatal one.

They are both 3. Adopted at the same time 3 years ago.

I ended up separating all of them last night after two more bouts of hissing and growling.

The reintroduction process has begun. Other than this, I'm not sure what else to do.

Deborah

Thanks. It will eventually be fatal. I had another cat die of kidney failure before.

I think it's a good plan, Deborah. Are you using a pheromone spray or diffuser like Feliway?

Let us know how you get on. 

I'm sorry to hear about your girl.. I lost a lovely lady to kidney failure too.

Hopefully she has some good quality time with you for quite a while yet.

Sigh. My 15 year old kept coming up to my bedroom last night and meowing. Every time I'd get up she would lead me to the basement door. This is where her brothers are and also where the litter boxes are. I had already put a litter box in the dining room where she was urinating, but I though maybe she needed to defecate. Anyway, I got another litter box out of basement, put it in the dining room and she is still meowing. So, I let her brothers back out. (That didn't last long). They pretty much stayed in my room last night, so it was quiet and I put them back in the basement today while I'm at work. I just ordered 3 more Feliway diffusers and some spray. Hoping to put them all up and see how they do.

What do you all feel as a solution to keep aggressive cats in basement while I'm not there to monitor and let them out when I'm home. My husband is worried that all of this is going to negatively effect and change his favorite cat, because he's confined to the basement..

Thoughts on that approach? They will still most likely be aggressive to Cissy, but at least I'm home to diffuse it.

It isn't a terrible thing to confine a cat. In fact it's commonly advised to keep new cats or kittens, or those recuperating from an illness or injury, in a small space temporarily. Cats are usually comfortable in a relatively small (to us) space. So long as all the cats have access to everything they need, and they do get to interact with the rest of the family some of the time, I don't think there's anything to worry about.

I think it's probably a good solution for now, keeping them separated when you aren't there to intervene if they get aggressive. Hopefully adding more Feliway will help too. Have you looked into calming treats? Some people have had success using them to reduce aggression.