6 month old kitten viciously attacked family member

[skysky]

A little background on my little boy. I took on my kitten Skylar before he should have been separated from his mama he was about 2-3 weeks old from the vet told me. Reason being she had set up her little nesting area on the side of my house and was chased off by my dogs. I left the kittens alone for 5hrs hoping she would come back and she never did. I would have waited longer but a rep from heaven can wait said 5hrs is long enough since at the time it was summer. which I live in Las Vegas so it was about 115 deg weather at the time all this was happening.  So I bottle fed him and took him the vet about a week later. Had lots of help from other cat rescuers. 

I kept him very socialized with people and with other animals. I have 7 (rescued dogs) and with a few days of introduction they took him in like he was one of them. Hes really loving. Though I'm working on boundaries with playing too rough with me. Its coming along slowly. He wants to love when its convenient for him. As most cats are from what I have read. I've never had a cat before he is my first and I love him so much so this incident really has me worried. 

My Aunt came to visit and he greeted her with a nudge rub against her leg and let her pick him up and he loved the attention. After she got settled down and cleaned up she went to use the restroom and as soon as she came out I hear a really vicious hiss continuously going. I go to see whats going on and hes latched onto her legs with both paws and biting insanely into her legs. He finally let go of her and took off into my room but the bleeding would not stop for the longest time. I'm assuming something scared him or maybe it was a territorial thing? Like "get out of mommies bathroom" kind of thing. Or it might be time for his snip snip. My vet told me at 6 months to bring him in....but I've read it can be done sooner. So tomorrow I will take him back in. Hopefully there's something I can do to help him. I don't want to get rid of him just thinking of this is bringing me to tears, but at the same time I do not want to put my dogs (all small breeds) at risk of being attacked like this. Especially if its something that will continue to happen.

So I guess what I'm trying to get from here is some insight from anyone who has had this happen or think they could explain all of this better to me :/

Thank you so much in advanced. 

Here's a picture of him

sky.jpg

• skysky
• Oct 10, 2013

 

[tulosai]

He is adorable.

I hope someone more experienced than I am with cat aggression (toward humans anyway) can chime in.

My first question is have you spoken to your aunt about what happened? Was there anything she did that might have set him off? Since he clearly hurt her BADLY, you have to be careful about how you approach it- do not sound like you are accusing her.  I'd say something like "Hi Auntie.  I am still SO sorry about what Skylar did to you.  It was so scary.  What exactly happened? I've never seen him act like that before."

Has he had exposure to other humans but you and your aunt and the vet? How does he act around them?  How does he act around you? Ever  aggressive or really no?

While I know I'm not the most help, I am really sorry this is happening to you.  I know how frustrating, scary, and sad it must be..

 

[skysky]

Yeah both her and my grandma were there and trying to find the right words without sounding accusing was really hard lol. My family is around a lot. Almost a full house everyday. My nieces are here all the time they play with him and he's always really good. Our vet visits come to think of it he was kind of resistant towards my vet, but I took it as him bring frustrated from the car ride and being in his carrier. I guess I'll find out tomorrow if that is still the same. Family keep recommending me to declaw him but I refuse to do that to him. Am I right with that decision? I just can't justify taking away his main resource to defend himself if he ever were to run away. Plus I read that it's like removing the first part of it knuckle. As for what happened they honestly had no idea. I think it was just too much going on she's visiting me so we were moving suitcases in and my dogs were all crowded up excited to see a new face around. So maybe too much excitement .

With me if l he is like my baby I call him my son follows me everywhere has never shown aggression to me or anyone that has come around. Not even to my dogs that annoy him sometimes but then he would just jump onto my bed next to the window to get away from them. So this situation rely caught me off guard


So sorry for the long response

 

[skysky]

Sorry for all the typosl sending these from my phone

 

[tulosai]

Long response is always good. People are most likely to be able to help or give better advice if you tell more than less.

Declawing is a big no no in my opinion.  People who declaw for aggression reasons often forget that cats have these other sharp things called teeth, and cats are not stupid.  If they are threatened and have no claws, they will use their teeth, and those injuries are worse than clawing. I do not think it would help and think it might hurt.

It could have been too much excitement for sure.  The odd thing to me is that he was fine with your aunt before the attack, letting her love on him and happy to see her.  I wonder if there was a loud noise or something that set him off? It is so hard with cats because there is a reason 99% of the time but they can't tell us.

For now, if it was an isolated incident, I'd probably sit tight and hope it doesn't happen again.  If it does, you'll need to think a lot harder about it I suppose :/ There are low dose medications that can be tried if push comes to shove, and also if it happens again you might be better able to pinpoint the reason. Good you will be seeing a vet, too, to rule out anything medical.

Still hoping someone else can chime in for you

 

[skysky]

Yeah the fact that he was loving the attention from her before she went and came out of the bathroom. What worries me is that the incident lasted a really long time and the bite marks are deep and they bruised up the one on her foot took awhile to stop bleeding. For sure getting him neutered tomorrow hopefully it'll relax him a bit more eventually.

Thank you so much for responding. First time I've gone to the internet for support.

 

[katluver4life]

Hello and welcome to TCS. So sorry you had this happen.

Please watch the spots on your Aunts leg where he bit her, cat bites can get nasty. Clean it VERY well.

I'm glad you are aware that declawing is not the answer, not just for defensive reasons, but there is much more involved in the actual procedure then just removing the claws. It is an amputation of the tops of all the toes which can cause other issues, such as permanent pain, litter box problems, arthritis, biting, and deformities in the foot.

I do think he needs to be neutered, so glad that is already on your list to do. I also think SOMETHING startled him and he redirected that aggression on your Aunt.

Also kittens do tend to go for legs and feet for play when they view humans as toys. You say you are working with him setting boundaries due to his playing to rough with you. It is important to redirect him anytime he tries to play with feet or hands. By that I mean with an appropriate toy. Wand toys work well for this. Hands should not be used in playing with him.

 

[catspaw66]

Welcome to TCS. As tulosai said, declawing is a big no-no around here. This is a pro-spay and -neuter and anti-declaw site.

That said, I have a few questions for you.  Did your aunt use any topical pain rub that might contain menthol? Or put on any perfume or the like? Any thing that could change her basic unique odor?

Could it be that she might have accidentally stepped on a tail or paw? Or maybe used her feet to play with him while sitting on the toilet? (I do this with my ladies, but they are all fully grown and understand the rules)

There has to be some incident, however small that triggered the aggression.

I hope you can answer all these questions, it will help narrow down the trigger.

 

[skysky]

After he met her I don't think she put perfume on and he was fine with her when they first met few minutes prior to this incident. 

I honestly think someone stepped on his tail and didn't realize it because his hiss and this yell he made sounds like a cat that was in pain. They said it was as soon as she stepped out of the bathroom. So the only logical thing that I thought of was someone stepped on his tail. I didn't wanna push it because I felt I was already being too accusing. While I'm using the bathroom I play with his feet and he never uses his claws. Thats the one thing he does not do. Was able to get him to realize that if he makes contact with my hands, feet or any part of my body ( he likes to jump on my computer chair or sit on my keyboard to nuzzle with my hands or head. When he was a bit younger he would use his claws but I did what katluver suggested and redirected his attention to his toys or I would say firmly "No" and get up and walk away from him. This method worked so now he just uses his cute paws to tap me on the head.

 

[skysky]

I'm able to touch his tail and all parts of his body without any reaction. So at the moment there doesn't seem to be any physical damage. To be on the safe side I rather just take him to the vet tomorrow to see if there's anything going on inside of him to make him react that way if no one really did step on his tail If everything checks out he'll be getting neutered anyway for sure tomorrow. 

Amazing resourceful help there is here. I wish I found it while I was bottle feeding him KMR.  Thank you all for being so helpful! 

 

[lilin]

You could approach asking your aunt like this: "Cats can react to really strange things. There's all sorts of stuff that doesn't seem like a big deal to us, but can make cats feels really insecure. Since it doesn't seem like his outburst was caused by anything obvious, could you just tell me exactly what happened and I can try to figure out if there's something not obvious that seems to set him off?"

It's not accusing her, but rather acknowledging that cat psychology is different from human psychology and just because we didn't do anything wrong by HUMAN standards doesn't mean the cat agrees by their own standards. That's not someone doing something "wrong," but just part of learning how to live with cats.

I completely agree with you about refusing to declaw. It can cause them health problems and pain for the rest of their lives. And it can also make a cat more likely to bite, since they lack the use of their claws for defense. As others have mentioned, cat bites are very nasty and become infected as often as not. But scratches are far less serious, and usually heal just fine.

 

[catspaw66]

The Bartonella bacteria is carried in the cat's saliva. Bites are usually deeper than scratches, thus driving the bacteria deeper into the skin. But, scratches are more likely to occur to children. That is a good reason to trim the tips of the cat's claws. www.thecatsite.com/a/how-to-best-take-care-of-cat-claws

The bacteria is transmitted between cats by fleas. (like Yersinia Pestis {Bubonic plague} is) The cats can show no symptoms and the bacteria can live in the saliva for months. Cats under a year old are more likely to have the bacteria and pass it on to humans.

All information is from kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/cat_scratch.html

 

[skysky]

UPDATE: I took him to the vet this morning had him checked out the vet thinks with him being almost 6 months he could've taken my aunt as a threat and with the testosterone makes for one aggressive cat. She had thought about the incident last night and he had started to bite her feet as she came out and she tried moving him away with her foot and that's what sent him into serious I will end you attack mode. I had him neutered and when I brought him home gave him lots of love and so did my aunt. She knew it wasn't entirely his fault. Thank you guys for all the advice! Her bites are not turning color but we are still watching it closely.

 

[bastfriend]

Please have your aunt get a course of antibiotics immediately from her doctor just to be safe.   I literally heard of two cases in the last month where cat bites turned serious pretty quickly.     About what happened, I've known some seriously rowdy cats over the years and one of them I remember loved to run up and bite and wrap his paws around the arm or leg.   Until we trained him not to, the best action was not to resist, scruff him and slowly prize apart his jaws and claws.   But if a person were to have run or rapidly pulled away my guess is he would have clamped down and done some damage!    Perhaps your aunt did step on his tail or maybe what started as play turned into a prey drive as she tried to move away.   Still please don't make any big conclusions or decisions from one incident - he's a cute little guy and still learning.

 

[catspaw66]

Thank you for posting that, Bastfriend.  We all got so involved trying to figure out the trigger, we forgot to consider the long-term effects of cat bite.

 

[tulosai]

 
Thank you for posting that, Bastfriend.  We all got so involved trying to figure out the trigger, we forgot to consider the long-term effects of cat bite.

Just thirding this.  My boss got bit by her cat (not even that badly) and thought nothing of it until she had a fever and was slightly delirious.  The doctor told her she was crazy for not coming in immediately after the bite. I'm definitely one of the peple who was 'cat focused' earlier i this thread but better safe than sorry with any bite.

 

[skysky]

Second Update:

She went to get antibiotics and since his mother was a stray they are having her go through a series of rabies shots. This entire thing has gone way out of proportion. I fully understand that a cat bite can really end up badly, but what they are doing now is blowing my mind.

After this incident I had him neutered and the following day I had to leave to Hawaii for 6 days for my grandmothers funeral. So I left him with my other grandparents who I live with and have been around Skylar this whole time. I called a few days later to check up on him and they told me they had him quarantined. Their Dr suggested to contact our vet to see what they should do and now hes in quarantine for 8 days. So in two days he should be ready to come back home. I called the vet yesterday to see how things were going with him and they said he was doing great. I just cant picture him being okay in a kennel for 8 days.....I'm pretty much freaking out at this point. Everyone is telling me to get rid of him because of this ONE incident. That he has a really bad temper. Which they gave him no chance to prove anything. Am I wrong for not wanting to give up on him? I know cats are so much harder to understand than dogs. Which is what makes this so confusing for me. I feel like this was an isolated incident and is normally a great cat who has gotten along with every person aside this one time that I swear was really not his fault. Though now my aunt is saying that he attacked her without any reason. I know what a painful cry sounds like and that was the sound he was making. 

I'm in real need of help to decide what to do. I can't give up on him...but if there really is no hope and that I'll have to live in fear of him doing this again and if he really is bad tempered idk. In my heart I really do not feel he is a bad kitten and like I have said before he is like my child. I can't picture my life without him in it.

 

[skysky]

Also, that day she had told me that when she came out of the bathroom he was playing with her house slippers that were on her feet and she moved him aside with her foot and like with anything a cat is playing with they grab onto the object they're playing with. So, I really think  he grabbed onto her more and she pushed him aside with her foot in a more aggressive way and he didn't like that very much...but really anything could have happened. Idk. If worst comes to worst I would rather just turn into a crazy cat lady and live alone because I can't picture myself giving up Skylar. But really any guidance will help me so much guys. Thank you in advanced. 

 

[lilin]

 
Second Update:

She went to get antibiotics and since his mother was a stray they are having her go through a series of rabies shots. This entire thing has gone way out of proportion. I fully understand that a cat bite can really end up badly, but what they are doing now is blowing my mind.

After this incident I had him neutered and the following day I had to leave to Hawaii for 6 days for my grandmothers funeral. So I left him with my other grandparents who I live with and have been around Skylar this whole time. I called a few days later to check up on him and they told me they had him quarantined. Their Dr suggested to contact our vet to see what they should do and now hes in quarantine for 8 days. So in two days he should be ready to come back home. I called the vet yesterday to see how things were going with him and they said he was doing great. I just cant picture him being okay in a kennel for 8 days.....I'm pretty much freaking out at this point. Everyone is telling me to get rid of him because of this ONE incident. That he has a really bad temper. Which they gave him no chance to prove anything. Am I wrong for not wanting to give up on him? I know cats are so much harder to understand than dogs. Which is what makes this so confusing for me. I feel like this was an isolated incident and is normally a great cat who has gotten along with every person aside this one time that I swear was really not his fault. Though now my aunt is saying that he attacked her without any reason. I know what a painful cry sounds like and that was the sound he was making. 

I'm in real need of help to decide what to do. I can't give up on him...but if there really is no hope and that I'll have to live in fear of him doing this again and if he really is bad tempered idk. In my heart I really do not feel he is a bad kitten and like I have said before he is like my child. I can't picture my life without him in it.

You know, there are just some people who don't get animals, and think of them more as some kind of inferior, crazy thing that has to be contained, than a living being with feelings.

Yeah, they are completely over-reacting. Rabies is rare here, and if he had rabies, it'd be showing by now. I think they just wanted an excuse to get him out of the house when you weren't looking.

What's really sad about it is that their attitude is only going make things worse. Cats are actually very sensitive, both to their own feelings and those of others, and he will pick up on the fact that these people have negative feelings towards him. And this might cause him to get stressed and act out.

Is there any way you can just keep him away from them? It seems like you've already tried to get them to change their attitude and that doesn't work.

I wouldn't give up on him. Don't be afraid of him. He was reacting to something; as you said, you know a painful cry when you hear one.

You can't make other people have empathy towards animals, unfortunately. But you can protect him from it.

 

[terianne]

Yeah both her and my grandma were there and trying to find the right words without sounding accusing was really hard lol. My family is around a lot. Almost a full house everyday. My nieces are here all the time they play with him and he's always really good. Our vet visits come to think of it he was kind of resistant towards my vet, but I took it as him bring frustrated from the car ride and being in his carrier. I guess I'll find out tomorrow if that is still the same. Family keep recommending me to declaw him but I refuse to do that to him. Am I right with that decision? I just can't justify taking away his main resource to defend himself if he ever were to run away. Plus I read that it's like removing the first part of it knuckle. As for what happened they honestly had no idea. I think it was just too much going on she's visiting me so we were moving suitcases in and my dogs were all crowded up excited to see a new face around. So maybe too much excitement .

With me if l he is like my baby I call him my son follows me everywhere has never shown aggression to me or anyone that has come around. Not even to my dogs that annoy him sometimes but then he would just jump onto my bed next to the window to get away from them. So this situation rely caught me off guard


So sorry for the long response

Oh no! Please, never ever, ever declaw a kitty! It's their only defense and life threatening if they ever get outside somehow...they are nothing more than prey for every other animal and will be killed. Plus if you ever find yourself in a situation where you can't keep the kitty any longer...it's harder to find someone who will promise to keep them indoors.

You're kitty is displaying natural kitten behavior, they rush, jump, climb and will claw anything. Don't give the kitty any catnip and yes, maybe the aunt did something to trigger a response out of the kitten. I'm sure you kitty will be fine. A lot of times it's people who are the problem and not the kitty. Hope this helps.