Nonrecognition Aggression after a simple sound

cat1andcat2

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Hi,

Ive got 2 feline cats, 3 years, from the same nest. They were buddies for live.

I made them enemies in less then 5 seconds :(

While refilling their litter box I accidentally made a sound they freaked out of apparently. The sound was the rubber from the chair rubbing on the table wich gives a squicking sound.

Both cats were on the table and both looking at were the sound was coming from, both cats eyes dilated like crazy and hairs were up, at time I stopped what I was doing. Cat1 suddenly attacked the other one.

Huge cat fight followed. (This was literally only in 5 seconds!) ) I managed to separate the cats in 2 rooms.

Now the interwebs says that this usually happens when cats go to vets and they don't recognize each other after that. However 1 cat (or both dunno yet) doesn't recognize the other cat after a ******** sound.

So my fear is that this will happen more often now. :( And I don't hope so becourse 1 cat is stressed out still after 3 hours.

If I go to Cat 1 who is relaxed and go back to Cat 2 she hisses at me a few times with eyes dilated and meowing. This makes the other cat in the other room respond too and ends up in a growling and meowing contest who is the loudest..... :( Resulting in both cats stressed and agitated again.

Any tips of what to do? Or is it just waiting whole day hoping they change their behavior. Doubt food wil help since they will growl when they hear the other one.

Wont get any sleep tonight thats for sure :'(

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.
 

molly92

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It sounds like they perceived the sound as threatening, and at least one of them thought the sound was being made by the other cat. If you keep them together right now, they won't get a chance to calm down and will instead feed off each other's fear, so the best thing to do is separate them and reintroduce them as if they'd never met before so they can re-learn that they are not a threat to each other. It might take awhile, or it might not take very long at all until both cats are calm with each other again. It just depends on the cats and how just how scared they are. I'd also put some sort of furniture pads on the bottom of that chair just to make sure it doesn't happen again!

Here are some guides for how to introduce cats:
[article="32680"]How To Successfully Introduce Cats The Ultimate Guide  [/article][article="29726"]Introducing Cats To Cats  [/article]
 
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cat1andcat2

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Thanks for your reply Molly,

I will have to reintroduce them again indeed.

The scared cat still meows at me when I renter the room though and looks like she is in flight of fight mode. Luckily mode is disabled after 10 seconds after me blinking a few times at her. She must be still scared or something, dunno why she does it to me.

Started with the sock thing, scared cat took a big smell at it with mouth open so that's a good sign at least.
 
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cat1andcat2

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Status update:

The sock thing doesn't give any negative reaction on both cats.

Feeded treats through the crack a few times of the door to both cats seems to be working fine until scared cat starts hissing. That usually ends the session. Each session is about 2 minutes orso.

Scared cat still gives me a scared meow with big eyes when I enter the door. I believe if that is over then the cat might be ready to be reunited.

Was a rough night since the scared cat also wanted to sleep with me. So the constant meowing was annoying.

Also annoying is that I have to go to work today so no therapy time for the cats :(

If anyone have some more tips in my situation then thats extremely appreciated.
 
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cat1andcat2

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New update:

Would rather edit my post then make a new one but meh forum doesn't have an edit option it seems? So this will be my private diary? I hope some ppl can use the approach I took to reunite them again.

Anyway, good news, my employer was so kind to not let me work today :)

The therapy continues. Last feeding though door crack was very positive! No hissing after 3 minutes, so I closed door preemptive just in case. Got to make the most of this positive situation huh :)

After a half hour I decided to put the relaxed cat op the balcony and opening the door to the stressed cat. She sniffed around and being careful. They saw each other through the balcony door and balcony cat was meowing because she wants to get back inside I ques. Or she was saying "hey sis we all good now?" I dunno. Stressed cat didn't respond that much, looked normal. Omg progress!

Now I let them cool out again.

Oh and I forgot to mention that I tried a few times to let them both play with each other by putting a piece of paper string under the door. Seems to work wonderful too since stressed cat was purring while playing.

Next step is probably another feeding session but then with less treats and see what happens. Dunno yet.
 

mani

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It's fine to start a new post @Cat1andCat2.. It's easier to read when they're not too long.  You only get a 2 hour editing 'window' anyway.

It's really rewarding when there's progress, isn't it!
 
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cat1andcat2

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Progress seems to have nullified :(

Was feeding treats at the door, both looked chilled, so opened door, both greeted each other.

Played with them both, all fine.

So I sat down and when they were alone they wanted to start fighting again. Few hisses and meows no punches since I could get them quickly separated again.

3 steps back now. I hate this, thought everything was fine :(

Lesson learned, stay with them longer. 
 
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cat1andcat2

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Few hours it went well. But now the chilled cat wants payback.

She just chased the stressed cat. No hissing or hairs up but focused on stressed cat.

Will be sleeping separate again :(
 
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cat1andcat2

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Looks like all is ok now.

We slept together, no fights, no hissing. Only sometimes irritations when 1 cat want to smell the other.

I hope the first play fight will end well. Thats the real test.

Thanks for the support and stuff :)
 

mani

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Play fights usually end OK because they're play fights.  It's the real ones you need to watch out for!


Good luck!
 
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cat1andcat2

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Dear diary


2 days went by with no problems.

Mom came to visit and hell started again.

When my mother came to visit they both went hiding under the couch, that's a normal thing for my cats, they always do that since I got scardy cats.

I went to sit with my mom on the balcony, 10 minutes later I reentered the room, relaxed cat was on the floor with its back towards the couch so no eye contact. The problem cat rushed from under the couch towards relaxed cat with eyes dilated and was in kill mode again, fight broke out. No blood only stress pee.

Left them separate for the night, did a few feeding candy sessions. All looked well since they were 2 centimeters feeding from each other for a minute with kinda normal eyes.

However when I tried to fully open the door the problem cat raised his fur up and hell broke loose again.

Pee on the floor, scratched noses sigh.

I think this time the problem started because of the stress level of scardy cat since my mother was here. And that there was still some tensions between them? Dunno

Anyway going to do the process all over and now I want to play some extra with relaxed cat, maybe she wasn't confident enough, dunno she only tried to flee when attacked.
 
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mani

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Slowly, slowly.  Honestly, it can take a long time and it's really tempting to put them together, but it sounds like it needs more time.
 
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