Cat aggression after coming home from vet/Okay to hiss back at cats?

[emilyann]

My cat Buddy had 7 teeth and 2 roots extracted on Friday at the vets office, poor thing. He's doing very well now, but starting on Sunday my other cat Mila started hissing and growling at him. She is the sweetest little lovebug that wouldn't hurt a fly so I was really thrown.  I did some researching online and found that this is sort of common with cats that come home from the vet as it can affect their scent, meaning she's not recognizing him. The odd part is it's not all the time. There are times when they are sitting within a foot of each other, sleeping near each other and they've been fine. It's just every now and then throughout the day she will start hissing, growling and go hide somewhere where she can still watch him like a hawk. The sources I found said that this should only last 2 to 3 days and here we are at the end of day 5. Yesterday morning I saw he had a cut under his eye and some fur right above his eye was missing and the are looked pink and swollen. They must have fought at some point (they're both declawed), but he can't defend himself without causing himself pain. He keeps going up to her wanting to play or just sit near her and he doesn't understand what's going on. He's not acting aggressive back to her or anything like that. 

Today I bought a pet shower hose to hook up in the bathroom, cat shampoo and a calming spray. If I go through the process with one cat I might as well do the other so I'm going to bathe them both separately  tomorrow. I just need to pick up a better wrench so I can hook up the hose to my faucet. I'm hoping that if this issue is related to his scent then this will wipe the slate clean. Has anyone else experienced this? How did you deal with it?

I'm not home all the time and may not hear them fight in the middle of the night so I want to try and discourage her in the meantime as much as possible. I know water spray bottles don't teach anything and it's not like she understands me when I say "NO," so when she started this up again tonight my first instinct was to hiss right back at her. The first time she was thrown off guard, but then started growling (at him, not me. I could touch her at any point during this and she would not attack or hiss at me) and when she hissed again I did it again and she quickly looked away and went into the "meatloaf" position on the floor. She then left the room and Buddy followed her wanting to play and sure enough she did it again, then I did it again and this time she turned her head away from me and backed away. I was hoping it would convey my discontent at her actions somehow. Was this the right thing to do or are you not supposed to hiss back at your cats? I didn't know what else to do to tell her to knock it off.

 

[margd]

It is fine to hiss back at your cats.  That's what is usually recommended in fact.  You might also try giving her a time out by putting her in a different room after each incident. 

Giving them each a bath is a great idea.  I actually have read of other cases where it took longer than a couple of days for the issue to abate.

 

[emilyann]

Well we got both of them bathed tonight and I have the war wounds to prove it. We did it about 6 hours ago. Everything seemed fine. They were near each other grooming themselves for quite a bit of time. Absolutely no issues....utnil about 10 minutes ago when I hear Mila hissing as Buddy walked past her

. Why would she still be hissing and why is it so intermittently? I was trying to think back to the first day she did it, which I think was actually 2 days after Buddy's oral surgery. I didn't think this was relevant at first, but maybe it is? My apartment is backed up to a state park and we see a lot of wild life as well as outdoor cats. On Sunday night around 10pm we had our sliding door open so the kitties could sit by the screen and look outside like they do every night. All of a sudden I heard the most awful sounds I have ever heard in my life. Somewhere in the woods there was a cat fight. I don't know if it was two cats or a cat and something else, but one was definitely a cat.  They were screeching at each other for about 15 long seconds then all I could hear was the cat crying and meowing...I hope I never have to hear a sound like that again because it was the most heartbreaking thing I have ever heard. I'm not gonna lie, I was in tears  . After about a minute it stopped.

There's no way to navigate those woods at night because the brush is so thick and there's a steep hill getting down to where it flattens out. When MIla heard the noises she ran away from the door, stopped and looked back, then ran the bed. Buddy followed after her a few seconds later, but she started hissing at him. I assumed it was because she was so upset about what she just heard. All the next day they were fine, until late that night I heard her do it again. She did it on and off for a few days and after looking online I attributed all of it to Buddy smelling different after coming home from the vet....but maybe that's not the issue at all? Even so,if she was scared of him for some reason then she would always stay away from him or act sketched out near him. The majority of the time they have been fine around each other. I don't know what to do at this point. 

And just to finish up the story about the fight i heard, I turned off all of  the lights, fans and anything making noise and sat by the window hoping to hear something. I was thinking that if it was making its way back to the apartment buildings then I would hear it coming and could go help it if needed. About 20 minutes later I saw what I think was my neighbors grey and white outdoor cat run out of the woods. Their entrance door is on the side of the building so I went out my front door and walked over that way to see if I could find the cat and help it if the owners weren't home or didn't hear him. I looked by their door, underneath cars in the parking lot...he wasn't anywhere to be found. I'm just hoping that he's alright. I haven't seen their cat or any of the other neighborhood cats since then, but I usually only see them once every 2 weeks-ish so I'm hoping I will see them scurry by any day now...