Mother cat hissing at daughter after Spay

My 8 month old kitten was spayed today.

Something I wasn't prepared for -- when I brought the kitten back home today, the mother hissed at her (and continues to do so). 

This sucks. I know cats go by smell and, surely, my kitten smells like the clinic. She's also been walking funny from being drugged out. All of these factors combine to make her unrecognizeable or undesireable to the mother cat. But it's been hours and the mother is still hissing. She even appears to be hissing at me. My cat has been remarkeable because she never hissed at anyone or other cats before. And now she's hissing at her one and only best friend and daughter.

It is likely you've already hit the nail on the head about what's going on- mom can't recognize her because she smells different.  This is really really common even in related cats after a vet visit, unfortunately.There are many ways in which cats are very smart and this just isn't one of them :/

Unfortunately the best thing to do at this time is probably reintroduce the cats.  I know this probably sounds frustrating and ridiculous on some level but for their peace of mind and maybe even safety this is probably the best thing. This will basically involve putting the spayed cat into her own room and doing some scent swapping.  It likely will not be necessary to do a complete introduction (the spayed kitty will be able to get the vet smell off her this way which will help). Use a towel or blanket to rub/pet the mom and then rub down/pet the kitten to transfer/blend the scents.

In some cases it might also be helpful/necessary to 'scent' all the cats with a certain scent so they all smell alike again.  I seem to remember someone suggesting vanilla at some point but am not positive about that.  I have heard stories about the water from canned tuna working too.

Good luck and please don't hesitate to ask if you have questions!

I've taken a wet soggy cat toy used by the mother and rubbed it all over the daughter's face. But that's not working. I will try the towel trick next.

What's really sad is that the mother doesn't want to stay anymore and for the first time in over 8 months, she's hanging by the door and meowing -- she wants to leave from here. Maybe it's the Spring time and she hears the birds chirping. Or maybe she no longer feels comfortable in my home and wants to leave. Very curious.

Maybe the mother cat knows its her daughter but that's not what the problem is. Is it possible my kitten has acquired some sort of cat virus and the mother cat senses it and doesn't want to be near the infection?

What's really new to me is that my cat not only hisses but she growls like a dog...Grrrr.

Separate them for a week and follow this article
http://www.thecatsite.com/a/the-ultimate-yet-simplified-guide-to-introducing-cats

Is mother cat fixed?

mwallace056 said:

Separate them for a week and follow this article
http://www.thecatsite.com/a/the-ultimate-yet-simplified-guide-to-introducing-cats

Is mother cat fixed?

Click to expand...

The mother cat was fixd in December.

The daughter cat has no idea of what's going on and doesn't know the mother cat currently hates her so much. But my fear is that the kitten will try nestle and groom her mother and get her eyeballs clawed out.  This is why I asked for a few days off to coincide with the spay.

Chloe sounds just like a dog when she's growling. Epescially when she's growling and eating at the same time. 

I agree with others. Separate for a few days. Put the kitten in a to of her own with litter box, bed, food/water. She needs a few days of being quite and low activity level anyway.

I've had it take cats about 3-5 days to readjust after a vet visit (and I took the whole litter to the vet!) Momma will come around.

I wouldn't deviate from Momma's normal routine; so, if she has been indoors only while with you, leave her inside. Allowing her to escape outside will just prolong the problem.

Very doubtful Momma has just suddenly decided she is unhappy with the care you are providing. She just knows there is a new smell in the house and it is making her uneasy.

Give it a feed days and I highly suspect all be will ok.

My cats now are about 95% back to normal, and I have even seen them groom each other and sleep on the same bed - my bed. (Although -- I subtract 5% because I did hear Chloe growl again at some point during that grooming).

For cats that know each other and are not fighters, I don't recommend keeping them in seperate rooms. Such a thing seems to delay the progress. I'd recommend bringing them together in a small room, but keep them seperated just in case. And then have them interact with toys -- a common foe, a laser light or something. That's what I did and that's my tip. Whenenver my cats see me with an infrared thermogun with laser pointer in my hand, and they hear me click it, they start looking everywhere for a red dot on the floor. When Chloe was growling and hissing, I'd simply click on that thermogun and immediately she would snap out of that mental state and focus on finding the dot. I think this was the key to placing Chloe in the right track.

Anyway, I'm going to rant. I refuse to believe a cat is stupid. In fact, I believe my cats are very intelligent sentient beings. Yet with her daughter, Chloe has been like a person with Alzeimer's or amnesia, yet the kitten was only away for about 7 hours, during which time Chloe was sleeping anyway. I'm often gone from home for more than 11 hours and smell all kinds of different and new, yet my cats recognize me by sight just fine. 

I refuse to believe that Chloe simply didn't recognize her own daughter after the spay. I believe there's more to it than that, because she would hiss and growl even at the sight of her from across a hallway or something. Light travels faster than smell, right?

I believe it's possible cats don't want their children back after they believe "they've left" and that's why they hiss? Or maybe the kitten smelled too much like the clinic, which is where Chloe has traumatic memories of? I wonder if the results here would be different if Chloe hadn't gone to the clinic?

Or maybe it is simply a matter of not recognizing the cat after all. Maybe there's an overwhelming smell of a un-neutered tomcat on the kitten that repulsed my cat so much?  A gender change?

How ironic that getting the spay done on one cat didn't change the cat that went to the clinic. It changed the personality of the cat that stayed at home! I hope hissing and growling doesn't become a new habit for my cat. She has growled and hissed at me a dozen times during these past 4-5 days.

I think i agree with you when you say she recoginized her by sight at first but when she smelled her, she smelled different to her and have all kinds of scent on her like other cats, dogs and whatever animals your vet deal with

Cat rely strongly on smell