Hello all,
My husband and I are quite concerned about one of our cats, Eddie. He is an almost 7-year-old Russian Blue/Maine Coon mix (although his appearance could easily pass for full Russian Blue). We've had him since he was about 8 weeks old and he's always been the sweetest cat and has always loved everybody, including our large dogs (two golden retrievers and a black Lab) and other cats. Gradually, over the past couple of months or so, we've noticed significant changes in his personality that have been getting worse over the last few weeks. He has become aggressive and intolerant towards our other cats. Whenever one comes near him, he will growl and hiss at them and will sometimes even swat at them for absolutely no apparently reason. Sometimes, one of the other cats will just be minding his own business and he will run up to them growling and will swat at hiss at him. He has NEVER done this before ever. He has always gotten along great with our other cats. Lately, he is even hissing and growing at the dogs, who he used to always LOVE. He would always sleep with them and would nuzzle up against them. Now, he just hisses at them like he does the cats. Other than all of this, Eddie is acting completely normally. He is eating, drinking using the box, and looks perfectly healthy. All of our cats are indoor only cats and never go outside.
I will admit, our lives have been a bit chaotic recently and we wonder if that could be contributing to his change in behavior. Back in June, we lost our oldest cat, who was 12, to renal disease. He passed away at home and it was very rough on us. Eddie was fairly close with him. They used to sleep together a lot and were frequently hanging out together. In August, we ended up adopting two male kittens (we were only going to get one, but got talked into two). This put us at 5 cats. At first, Eddie seemed okay with the babies, but now he just growls and hisses at them. Also, we temporarily have one of my husband's co-worker's cats, who is about 15 years old, while he is away on an extended business trip and he had no one else to watch him, so we agreed to let him stay with us until he returns. Eddie doesn't like him either. Another possible trigger is that for the past couple of months, we have been having our home remodeled, so we have had several contractors in and out of our house remodeling our kitchen and installing new flooring throughout the rest of the house. This remodel was only supposed to take 2-3 weeks and instead ended up taking about 2 months due to several delays. We were not happy at all, but it is now finally complete. When the contractors were here, we had to keep the cats in one of our spare bedrooms so that they wouldn't be in the way and so they wouldn't accidentally get outside. We're not sure if this could have something to do with Eddie's irritability as well.
The remodel has been complete for about 2-3 weeks now and our lives are basically back to normal finally, but Eddie is still very irritable and aggressive towards our other pets. We thought he would settle back down now that everything has quieted down, but he hasn't. We are extremely frustrated and don't know what to do. This is not the Eddie we have known and loved for nearly 7 years. We have no idea where these behavioral changes have come from. This just isn't like him. Like I said, he used to love EVERYONE, even the dogs. My husband really thinks that it is because he misses our cat, Bailey, who passed away 5 months ago, but I just don't know. I'm sure he misses him, but I don't know if that would cause his drastic change in behavior. He is not aggressive towards us, but he doesn't come up to us for attention like he always used to and is basically isolating himself.
Does anyone have any advice or tips regarding this? We just don't know what to do!
My husband and I are quite concerned about one of our cats, Eddie. He is an almost 7-year-old Russian Blue/Maine Coon mix (although his appearance could easily pass for full Russian Blue). We've had him since he was about 8 weeks old and he's always been the sweetest cat and has always loved everybody, including our large dogs (two golden retrievers and a black Lab) and other cats. Gradually, over the past couple of months or so, we've noticed significant changes in his personality that have been getting worse over the last few weeks. He has become aggressive and intolerant towards our other cats. Whenever one comes near him, he will growl and hiss at them and will sometimes even swat at them for absolutely no apparently reason. Sometimes, one of the other cats will just be minding his own business and he will run up to them growling and will swat at hiss at him. He has NEVER done this before ever. He has always gotten along great with our other cats. Lately, he is even hissing and growing at the dogs, who he used to always LOVE. He would always sleep with them and would nuzzle up against them. Now, he just hisses at them like he does the cats. Other than all of this, Eddie is acting completely normally. He is eating, drinking using the box, and looks perfectly healthy. All of our cats are indoor only cats and never go outside.
I will admit, our lives have been a bit chaotic recently and we wonder if that could be contributing to his change in behavior. Back in June, we lost our oldest cat, who was 12, to renal disease. He passed away at home and it was very rough on us. Eddie was fairly close with him. They used to sleep together a lot and were frequently hanging out together. In August, we ended up adopting two male kittens (we were only going to get one, but got talked into two). This put us at 5 cats. At first, Eddie seemed okay with the babies, but now he just growls and hisses at them. Also, we temporarily have one of my husband's co-worker's cats, who is about 15 years old, while he is away on an extended business trip and he had no one else to watch him, so we agreed to let him stay with us until he returns. Eddie doesn't like him either. Another possible trigger is that for the past couple of months, we have been having our home remodeled, so we have had several contractors in and out of our house remodeling our kitchen and installing new flooring throughout the rest of the house. This remodel was only supposed to take 2-3 weeks and instead ended up taking about 2 months due to several delays. We were not happy at all, but it is now finally complete. When the contractors were here, we had to keep the cats in one of our spare bedrooms so that they wouldn't be in the way and so they wouldn't accidentally get outside. We're not sure if this could have something to do with Eddie's irritability as well.
The remodel has been complete for about 2-3 weeks now and our lives are basically back to normal finally, but Eddie is still very irritable and aggressive towards our other pets. We thought he would settle back down now that everything has quieted down, but he hasn't. We are extremely frustrated and don't know what to do. This is not the Eddie we have known and loved for nearly 7 years. We have no idea where these behavioral changes have come from. This just isn't like him. Like I said, he used to love EVERYONE, even the dogs. My husband really thinks that it is because he misses our cat, Bailey, who passed away 5 months ago, but I just don't know. I'm sure he misses him, but I don't know if that would cause his drastic change in behavior. He is not aggressive towards us, but he doesn't come up to us for attention like he always used to and is basically isolating himself.
Does anyone have any advice or tips regarding this? We just don't know what to do!
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