Aggressive feral female--possibly in heat?

I have 4 feral cats that I feed and shelter. 3 males and one female--all are neutered/spayed (TNR).  I am trying to catch a 5th one (Luna) that has been hanging around my property for years (I just learned about the TNR program or else she would have been done a long time ago).  I was observing the cats today and noticed that Luna was stalking and then attacked one of my fixed males. I ran outside as quick as possible but they had ran into a nearby field but I could hear the fighting.  She has never done this before to my knowledge. I called for the male to come and he eventually did and looked ok.  He immediately went into his shelter and I did not see any injuries, I gave him a treat since I think he was a little scared.  So my question is, is she in heat?  Do female cats become aggressive and attack during this time?  I am now nervous that TNR'ing her may not be a good idea if she is going to be attacking my other ferals.  I am torn on what to do with her now.  I guess I will get her spayed and see how her behavior is and then go from there. If she is still aggressive I could possibly find another colony for her.  I hate to take her to the shelter because I know she will be euthanized right away since she is definitely feral with no human contact ever.  Can anyone offer advice?  If she gets spayed is it likely her behavior will be more calm? 

Whether this is dominance behavior or she's in heat, it will most likely stop once she is fixed.  She may be trying to put everyone in their place - some females tend to want to be Queen and have everyone bow down to them.

Lochness350 said:

 
I have 4 feral cats that I feed and shelter. 3 males and one female--all are neutered/spayed (TNR).  I am trying to catch a 5th one (Luna) that has been hanging around my property for years (I just learned about the TNR program or else she would have been done a long time ago).  I was observing the cats today and noticed that Luna was stalking and then attacked one of my fixed males. I ran outside as quick as possible but they had ran into a nearby field but I could hear the fighting.  She has never done this before to my knowledge. I called for the male to come and he eventually did and looked ok.  He immediately went into his shelter and I did not see any injuries, I gave him a treat since I think he was a little scared.  So my question is, is she in heat?  Do female cats become aggressive and attack during this time?  I am now nervous that TNR'ing her may not be a good idea if she is going to be attacking my other ferals.  I am torn on what to do with her now.  I guess I will get her spayed and see how her behavior is and then go from there. If she is still aggressive I could possibly find another colony for her.  I hate to take her to the shelter because I know she will be euthanized right away since she is definitely feral with no human contact ever.  Can anyone offer advice?  If she gets spayed is it likely her behavior will be more calm? 

Click to expand...

I agree with Ondine. It will be better after the spaying, whichever reason it was.   The only problem is, what if  her aggressiveness was because she has pains somewhere.  Cats in pains has much less patience then otherwise.  And usually its not humans who get the lessen they didnt asked for, but their fellow cats.   This observation is about home cats, but the homeless has it surely similiar.

Anyway, go forward with your spaying planes.  The vet is usually checking up some the cats they TNR - if they seems to be severly sick, they either try and cure it, or if a quick cure is impossible, etc.

After the spaying is done, you will decide if add her to your colony, or try and find her some other place.

Good luck!

Has she ever had kittens, brought them around for food? After several years I imagine there would be a lot of her kittens in the neighborhood. If she hasn't had any I wonder if she's already spayed or infertile.

Anyway, even cats who normally get along sometimes get into tiffs. Unless it becomes a regular occurrence I wouldn't worry.

I know she has had kittens once because she had them in our barn 2 years ago. They were only a few weeks old when we saw them. We contacted some kitty rescues and they said as long as she was still taking care of them, they were better off with her and to leave them be until they were older. Well of course I had to check on them everyday to make sure they were ok and I guess she didn't like that because she moved them and we never saw them again.  I think the last male cat I TNR'd may have been one of her offspring.  He is guesstimated to be 8 months old and is black and white.  She is all black. 

Tonight, I had two of my ferals eating and playing by my back door, and noticed once again that she was stalking them.  =(  I have never seen her act this way before.  She is usually very timid and runs off but she isn't even running when I go outside which is pretty rare.  I am hoping to trap her tomorrow (or tonight) but it is near impossible with my other cats.  They keep wanting to go in the trap to get the food.  They are rotten!!!  This is going to be a chore.  I will surely get her TNR'd and go from there.  I am hoping it is something that will go away once she is spayed.  Thank you everyone for the advice.

I had the same problem with Susy. She turned up very skinny and very pregnant about four years ago and she'd attack the all other cats, male and female, if they came to close to her.

I got her spayed about two months after she'd had her kittens. She's still very bossy, but no where near as aggressive as she used to be.

Does your trap have a door that opens outwards or inwards? With the outward opening doors you can prop them open with a pet bottle full of sand or water to give it some weight. Tie a piece of string around the bottle and wait until the cat you are trying to catch goes in, then pull the bottle away so the door swings shut. 

You'd think being trapped once would stop the other cats going into the trap again right? I had a bunch of dumb old boy cats who kept getting trapped with the food, I'm sure they knew I'd come and let them out again as soon as they'd eaten.

Well there is good news and bad news. 

Good news: I was able to trap the black cat (I hope it is the female I think it is). 

Bad news: I was unable to trap it until 2 pm and so now the poor thing has to stay in the have-a-heart all night since the cut off time for TNR is 11am.  I can bring it in tomorrow at 8:30am.

It is EXTREMELY aggressive.  I have done 6 TNR's so far, and I have never had one hiss and swat like this one. I have it in my dark garage with a black sheet over the cage. I surely hope that after this process of getting it fixed, its behavior changes.  I am still very concerned and scared that it will attack my other cats again.  I am hoping they will tell me if is a she and that she was in heat which is why she was so aggressive.  Fingers crossed!

And please, please, please, let this be the last feral to wander on my property!  I am still waiting for the whole "colony will keep other strays away" thing to happen. =)

Lochness350 said:

 
Well there is good news and bad news. 

Good news: I was able to trap the black cat (I hope it is the female I think it is). 

Bad news: I was unable to trap it until 2 pm and so now the poor thing has to stay in the have-a-heart all night since the cut off time for TNR is 11am.  I can bring it in tomorrow at 8:30am.

It is EXTREMELY aggressive.  I have done 6 TNR's so far, and I have never had one hiss and swat like this one. I have it in my dark garage with a black sheet over the cage. I surely hope that after this process of getting it fixed, its behavior changes.  I am still very concerned and scared that it will attack my other cats again.  I am hoping they will tell me if is a she and that she was in heat which is why she was so aggressive.  Fingers crossed!

And please, please, please, let this be the last feral to wander on my property!  I am still waiting for the whole "colony will keep other strays away" thing to happen. =)

Click to expand...

Oh, it istn so bad as it sounds, with waiting 20 hours in the trap.   In fact, it is a tip to do so if necessary.   Homeless are used to hide in a hole many hours, as long they feel safe in the hole. Compare, if  you take a shy cat home, the chance is big it will hide somewhere and be there hidden, perhaps two full days.  Not eating, not drinking, not even relieving himself.

Also, now she has a chance to cool down.   You dont want to bring her to the vets fully loaded with adrenaline and aggressiveness. Its not fair if the vet isnt experienced with ferales.

Also, its more difficult to give exact dosage of  narcose and sleeping agents, if she is sky hight with adrenaline...

So it is really a big advantage she has possibility to calm down some.

And not eating the night before is another advantage, before putting into narcose, no??

So, hope for the best, you are on good way!

Good luck!

Good job with the trapping.



I agree with StefanZ, over night in the trap won't do her any harm and at least you'll be sure she has an empty stomach before surgery. Just make sure she has some water to drink.

Many vibes for a hitch-free spay.

*Update*

Yesterday (when she was under anesthesia) the vet called me letting me know that Luna had a scar and looked like she had already been spayed, but she couldn't be sure because there was no tattoo.  She said that she has had a few instances where the scar was from something else so she did exploratory surgery to make sure.  Now I am bummed that I put this cat through trauma for no reason.  She was microchipped, tattooed, ear tagged, and vaccinated which was necessary, the surgery was apparently not. My concern now is why she was being so aggressive and where did she come from?  She obviously ran away or was abandoned but I would think she would be a little more open to human contact.  She isn't.  Also-- I wonder what happened to the black cat that had kittens in my barn a few years back because this isn't her.  Weird.  I could have sworn this is the same kitty I have been feeding forever.  I released her as soon as I got her back home because there were feces and urine on the pad in the trap and I certainly did not want her staying in there longer than she had to. She ran as fast as she could to my neighbors barn which is where I think she lives.  I tried to feed her in the trap but she ate nothing. She knows where the feeding station is, so no doubt she will visit it once she calms down.  I sure hope her attitude changes though.  I was really hoping she was in heat which may explain the aggression, but now I have no idea what to do if that continues.  I am worried for my other ferals because they are very sweet.

So the vet opened her up but found she was already spayed, with the exploratory surgery??

Yes. She said the scar that was there was very small and there was the possibility that it was not a spay scar (that has happened before). Since Luna was a TNR cat, neither she or I wanted to risk it and with releasing her back into the wild, I may never be able to catch her again.  If she had kittens after all of this, I would have been devastated. I am very sad that the surgery was for nothing, but I do feel it is better to be safe than sorry.  She is now ear tagged, tattooed, and microchipped so this will never happen to her again.  I hope she heals fast and isn't in too much pain or mad.  She is a tough girl.  I am sure she is just super happy to be free and no longer in fear. I am doing my best to keep an eye on her and have been watching her with my binoculars walking around in a field. Maybe one day we can be friends and she will get along with my other ferals.  I can only hope.