PLEASE HELP US...One cat back from vet...

Hello,

I just found this site, so I hope that someone can help...

I have two 4 year old cats. Both male,neutered, from the same litter. They have always been close and loving towards eachother. One cat was sick on Saturday and went to the vet. He stayed two days, and came back last night. He had a urinary infection and was put on an IV and a catheter. When I brought him back last night I let him out of his carrier, and the other cat attacked him. I have NEVER seen or heard anything like it before. They have fought before in a playful way. This time I thought that the healthy cat was going to kill the sick cat.

I am assuming that the problem is stemming from the sick cat having the smells from the vet.

Has this happened to anyone before? How do I get them to love eachother again? How do I get the vet smell off of the one cat? I am going to try to bath each one to get them to smell the same. Do you think this will work? Any information anyone has would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You,
Kiki

The exact same thing happened to me. My cat Simon spent 4 days at the vet with a UTI. When I brought him home, my other cat Max wouldn't go near him. (Unfortunately, your other kitty had a violent reaction.) The advice I got from this site did work.

Put a little bit of Vanilla extract under the chin, between the shoulder blades and on the base of the tail (on the cat's back, not his tush) of each cat. That way they both smell the same. It took a few days, but they are best friends again.

Since your healthy kitty got violent, I would watch very carefully when you put them together. Definitely keep them separated when you are not there so that no one gets hurt.

Good luck! The vanilla worked for my boys, I hope it works for you!

Thank You Cheryl!

I will give the vanilla a try later on today when my husband and I are both home to watch them.

Kiki

The vanilla extract is a great idea. I would also recommend separating them for a day or so, then trying to reintroduce them. There are a lot of good ideas to help cats becom accustomed (or re-accustomed) to one another in this thread:
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...threadid=22138

This is a common reaction. Pipsqueek attacked Frantic when I brought him home. The sick cat also smells of medication and stress. Separate them and use the vanilla trick. Another trick is to take a towel and rub the sick cat down, all over. Then use the same towel to rub the other cat down. This helps to transfer smells.

It may take a day or 2 for peace to reign in your house once again. Just be patient. Another thing that worked was switching the cats every few hours. That gets them used to the new smell too. Just be patient.

Yep as others have said, this is common and caused by the stress triggered by the visit as well as all the smells that land on the cat's fur while she or he is at the vet. One way to stop it quickly is to bathe both cat's in pet friendly shampoo (not human products) if you don't have pet shampoo use a few drops of Dawn diswashing lotion and just bathe them both- then they will smell the same!

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who gave me advice. I did everything slowly, and last night I put them together. They are still not back to normal, but things are fairly peaceful here. Thank you, thank you , thank you!!!

Kiki