Help! Cat attacks!

I don't know what to do. A cat expert told me that the most humane thing to do would be to put my cat down. I have had her for 6 years and I don't want to do that. She has always been kind of aggressive. Always bit and scratched with intention to harm. It is weird because she can be very sweet. She sleeps on my chest sometimes and headbutt my face while putting ferrociously. She hurts me about twice a month now. I think I know some of the triggers now. I have to keep her in my room most of the time because I live with a room mate who has 2 cats and who my cat attacks if she sees them. I let her out when I can supervise. If she sits meowing at the door for too long and I don't let her out, she runs up to me and bites the **** out of me. It hurts and I bleed. She won stop biting my unless I use force against her and j hate doing it and I feel really bad but when you are in that moment it us really hard not to because you are in shear panic aND are just trying to get her off whiles she is brutally gnawing and clawing and making these horrible noises. I have tried a spray bottle and loud noises but they don't seem to work. Why is she biting the hand that feeds? I love and care for her but she gets so angry...like a spoiled little child. If she doesn't get what she wants she throws a temper tantrum...but her temper tantrums are aggressive and dangerous. She Has Even Bitten My neck once while in the middle of yoga (it wasnt as bad as usual, but still its pretty bad when she reaches that level). Does anyone know what behavioral interventions I can use to get her to stop being so angry and agressive?

I forgot to add that I have also used kitty pheromones and rescue remedy to help with her aggression...but I don't think they worked. Maybe the rescue remedy did a little but I am not sure if that was just coincidence.

Hi, and welcome to TCS

This sounds like a pretty severe case to me. I'd just like to check some basics. Do you have daily interactive playtime with her (using a wand style toy to make sure you stay safe)? Does she have plenty of places to 'own' such as cat trees etc? Did you have her from a kitten, or do you know much about her past? What are the triggers you've identified?

I think that keeping her confined to one room is likely to be exacerbating the problem - cats need space, and being stuck in one room will increase her stress levels. I appreciate you can't force your roommate to change, but if you can pursuade her to work with you, it could make a big difference long term.

It really would get worth talking to your vet as well. Sometimes aggression is caused by a chemical imbalance, and medication is needed to resolve the problem.

Hang in there. There is hope.

These articles may help :-
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You sound like you have tried out a few things like the loud noises and spray bottle, calming remedies, and talking to a cat specialist.   Was this a specialist in cat behaviour, or a veterinarian specialisting in cat care?

I share some of Coumbine's thoughts about how living in the one room might contribute to how your cat is behaving, esp if this room does not have a wide range of safe spaces and areas for exploration and for hiding / feeling calm and watching over the room from a height .   It would also be helpful to know how much time your cat is in your company and has access to social and ineractive play and how much time they spend on their own.

Do the other cats come in to your room or is this space only used by you and your cat?   If others do come in to the room it could add to the stress.

Some cats can be aggressive and a cause not be known but this is highly unusual.  It sounds as if there may be stresses in this cat's life that could be contributing to the behaviour and still worth exploring.  The articles Colubine has shared above will hopefully offer some advice for you to try.  No one can belittle the difficulties in living with a cat that bites and attacks hard and breaks skin while trying to alter behaviours:  I truly hope you read something here which you think is worth trying.   

ataloss said:

I don't know what to do. A cat expert told me that the most humane thing to do would be to put my cat down. I have had her for 6 years and I don't want to do that. She has always been kind of aggressive. Always bit and scratched with intention to harm. It is weird because she can be very sweet. She sleeps on my chest sometimes and headbutt my face while putting ferrociously. She hurts me about twice a month now. I think I know some of the triggers now. I have to keep her in my room most of the time because I live with a room mate who has 2 cats and who my cat attacks if she sees them. I let her out when I can supervise. If she sits meowing at the door for too long and I don't let her out, she runs up to me and bites the **** out of me. It hurts and I bleed. She won stop biting my unless I use force against her and j hate doing it and I feel really bad but when you are in that moment it us really hard not to because you are in shear panic aND are just trying to get her off whiles she is brutally gnawing and clawing and making these horrible noises. I have tried a spray bottle and loud noises but they don't seem to work. Why is she biting the hand that feeds? I love and care for her but she gets so angry...like a spoiled little child. If she doesn't get what she wants she throws a temper tantrum...but her temper tantrums are aggressive and dangerous. She Has Even Bitten My neck once while in the middle of yoga (it wasnt as bad as usual, but still its pretty bad when she reaches that level). Does anyone know what behavioral interventions I can use to get her to stop being so angry and agressive?

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You may not like this but to me, the obvious elephant in the room are the other cats, and i think you need to have your cat in a single cat environment and until you do that (one of you would have to leave obviously) you can't control for other causes and probably can't solve them either.

Also cat bites can lead to serious infections, more so than dog bites, so i would clean the bites well with a strong topical antiseptic, plus hot water and soap, and if the swelling by the bite starts to migrate away from the wound, or  you get spidery dark lines that are spreading away from the wound, you must seek immediate medical care (like an emergency room).  If this happens and they start you on oral antibiotics within 24 hours +/- you can avoid having to be on IV antibiotics in the hospital  for 10 days.  A 24 hour delay in treatment can lead to 10 days in the hospital, or an IV drip at home.

THanks columnune! I have had mh cat since she was 6 weeks. I havw moved around a lot from apartment to apartment over the last 6 years that j havw had her. I hate to admit that I do not have special things like a cat tree as my apartment is very small. I play with my cat once in a while with string or toys on strings, but not daily.

My cats triggers seem to include me preventing my cat from doing something she wants, such as keeping her in my room despite her meowing at the door or, if she runs out of my room and I pick her up and put her back in my room, she will attack if I don't get out of there fast enough.

Hi mservant. This may not mean much, but I saw an animal (and human)intuitive. She was able to help in some ways, such as identifying my cat's chicken allergy and informing me that she was dehydrated. She explained that she had difficulty working on my cat because she was too scared and stressed when I brought her in. She explained that putting my cat down might be the most humane thing to do because ease felt that giving he rack to a shelter would be far more traumatizing. She felt that she was a sick and unhappy cat. She told me that my cat might improve with more intensive interventions, but felt that I did not have the means or income to attempt them.

Okay, thank you Stephenq, I was thinking that this may be the case. I will have to pay close attention to This last bite that I received the day before yesterday. The area around the bite is red, swollen and painful.

I had a friend once who saw a similar 'intuitive' about her horse (who had major aggression issues stemming from neglect and mistreatment). She was told the horse was dangerous and should be put to sleep. She wasn't prepared to accept that. With time, patience, advice and careful handling the horse came a hell of a long way and was able to lead a happy life. Don't put too much stock in those who tell you to have a healthy animal pts.

It sounds like your cat's problems are simply stemming from frustration and a lack of appropriate outlets for her energy. This pairing will always create a stressed and aggressive cat, and one who most likely suffers from some degree of terratorial anxiety.

You cannot carry on confining her to a single room. It's a prison to her. Twice daily interactive playtime will help, as will the stress reducing measures mentioned in the articles I linked to above, but she has to have more space.

This means that you either have to really get your roommate onside in working with your girl's issues and integrating the three cats, OR you have to move somewhere you can have her as an only cat, OR you have to consider the possibility of rehoming her. I believe that cats with her issues will often be fostered to give them the individual attention needed to overcome their issues.

It's certainly not fair (imo) to have her pts because she's going crazy from being confined to a single room with little stimulation.

It is still possible that she has an underlying chemical imbalance that needs medication to correct, but even medication won't make a huge difference unless her environment changes too.

Thank you for the additional information.   I share Columbine's thoughts here.  It would be a terrible thing to deprive your cat of life because she is stressed in her environment.  

If there are any ways at all you can improve and widen and enrich her environment where you are, and also think about your circumstances and whether a move is at all possible, these could help your cat emormously.  Yes it could take a lot of time, but even simple measures like looking at your room space and see any way you can give her space to climb and go up as well as around on the floor and your furnishing can make all the difference.   Things do not need to be large and they do not need to cost a lot of money.  If you look around here on TCS there are many innovative threads where people show cat towers they have made out of cardboard boxes or old recycled furniture such as drawers.  Book shelves with space for your cat to climb up and sit looking down on the room and at the door and window.  

Toys and games are very important, as is trying to spend as much time as you can interacting with your cat.   Again the toys do not need to be big and expensive, cats really don't care about that, they care about the interest of the hunt and chase, and getting a prize that they can paw play and chew on at the end just as they would in a real hunt.  Rolled up paper, paper airoplanes, cardboard toilet roll centres with holes cut in them,  bits of string (as long as not left out unattended as this can be eaten and tangle up the intestines):  all simple, cheep, small and fun for a cat to play on their  own or best - with you.  If you feed dry food try putting it in different places around the room too, so she has to look for it - climb up and around rather than just crunch out of a bowl, or use an activity feeder to add interest.   You need to keep crumbs and left over biscuits cleared away unless you want insects to tuck in but as long as you are careful this adds a lot of interest to a cat's day.  

Cats are just like people in that they need social interaction and something to keep their mind busy - otherwise it is a little bit like being kept in a solitary confinement room with no stimulation.   When there is any stimulation it is too much, which is why you get the aggression you are experiencing. 

Think about what you can do to change your life and the life of your cat, and then if it is not possible for you to offer her a home where she can feel safe and happy I am sure advice can also be given on how to look at how to go about rehoming her.

Please keep a close eye on that bite, and any sign of the redness and swelling spreading then seek medicat attention like StefanZ has said - these infections can be very dangerous and spread rapidly.

In the last few days I have been spending more time with my cat, playing with her twice daily and allowing her to spend a few hours in the morning a few at night out in the rest of the apartment. I put the other 2 cats in the bathroom for a couple hours. Despite all of this, the biting has gotten worse. Now she is attacking daily. This Last Time I Had called her to come lay down with me on the bed, which she did and began purring and headbutting my hand for me to pet her. I stopped petting her for a moment, she was still purring, then she grabbed by arm and bit hard several times, breaking the skin and making me bleed again. Why is she getting worse? I am afraid of her now.

I think I may actually have to rehome her, though it will be really hard and I will miss her so much. The only way id do that though is if I could be sure she would go to an owner who would give her a better life than I could. I don't have much money or time now, these days, but I have always done the most I could for her.

I will have to make a new post about rehoming her, as my cat has a whole set of challenges. She has special dietary needs and clearly has behavioral issues. She would be well suited to.a farm or something, if I could ever find that for her, but still rehoming is a last resort. I love her and don't want to give her.up, and I am responsible for her as her owner.

Its possible she's getting overstimulated by physical contact. The semi feral I care for is very much like that - she'll be cuddling and purring, and seemingly suddenly turn. If close attention is payed to her body language, however, it's not so sudden at all. Her tail will start to twitch before she lashes out - she doesn't know how to process very much physical contact, even though part of her desperately want to be friends.

I can understand your feeling overwhelmed by her - she's certainly a very challenging case. I think I'd stop trying for petting, and focus on play instead. You should feel a little safer that way.

Have you been to vets about her? I think she'd definitely benefit from something to chill her out a little - either Composure Max Liquid (which is non prescription, and can be got from some pet stores or amazon.com) or actual medication. If I'm wrong about her giving waring signs, then medication might well be needed. Turning with no warning is often a sign of a chemical imbalance. The good news is that appropriate treatment can make an amazing difference in these cases. If it were me, I'd want to at least explore that avenue before giving up. 

I do appreciate how hard this is. I know what it's like to be scared of your own cat. It's wonderful that, despite everything, you're committed to ensuring she has a good life - even if that life isn't with you. Hang in there. I hope you're able to find a way through this.

What Columbine has said makes  a lot of sense to me, and I wonder if your cat is struggling with the play and attention too because she has not had previous oportunity to learn about the boundaries and what other ways there are to communicate with humans.  It takes a lot of time and patience.  

She may also be more sensitive to touch on different areas of her body so worth thinking about.  You can sometimes test this a little by gently touching and stroking using a wand toy or similar.

It all sounds very hard for you and is a difficult situation when you have to share accommodation with others. 

Thanks columbine.

I think she might have a chemical imbalance. Sometimes she shows signs of being agitated before attacking me, such as when I put her back in my room after I have allowed her to access the rest of the apartment. She frequently attacks without warning thoug. I have noticed that this is often when she seems overly affectionate, wants attention, and whether I give her attention or not, so I don't think it's a problem with skin sensitivity. I put her on Prozac for a but but she did attacked me again after that so I took her off.

MServant, I used to think she might have been taken away from her mother too soon because she kneads and does have boundary issues, but she was 6 weeks at the time which seems to be the accepted age of removal drom the mother. I got her from a humane society.

My ex and I used to play with her all the time, multiple times a day, and she was never alone because at least one of us would be there at any given time.

6 weeks is very early to leave the cat mother @ataloss  ,  most say the earliest should be 8 weeks but it is often said that 10 to 12 weeks is better for the kittens.  At 6 weeks the kittens have only recently started eating solid foods and most will still be taking a significant amount of milk from the mother as well.  They are learning many important lessons from the mother and also siblings around them at that age, so if they do not have that experience they loose out on most of their social skills learning, and that includes biting and other aspects of attack / aggression with others.   

From what you are posting am I right in thinking her behaviour has been similar and shown the same aggressive responses in your previous living arrangements as well?  Also I am wondering if there is any place your cat has where she can feel it is her space, that has moved from place to place with you?  She may have a chemical imbalance as you say, but it also sounds like she has been living in highly stressed conditions for most of her time with you  due to the nature of your accommodation and just trying to think if there is any way to help her (and therefor you).