Mama Cat Hates Her Son!

[Kristin12]

I have a 3 year old mama cat and we have her only surviving kitten (he is 2 now) and she is extremely aggressive toward him. We have had a ton of changes to our living arrangements and they went from indoor only cats to indoor/outdoor cats when we lived with my mother in law. They stayed with her while we established our new home and she started hissing at him but she never did anything beyond hissing. My daughter wanted to get the cats to come live with us again and now they are staying indoors full time. She still hisses at him and spends a lot of time up high. The funny thing is that he doesn’t care at all that she hisses. He is at least 10 pounds bigger than her and is the most laid back animal I’ve ever seen. I know she is stressed out by him and I want to help her feel more comfortable with him. Please help!

 

[jen]

Are they both fixed? I hope!

 

[Kristin12]

She is. He has an appointment next week. When we finally got him in our home again he had an ear infection and has to get that cleared up before the vet will do the surgery.

 

[jen]

Makes sense. Things will hopefully straighten out between them when he is neutered. At 2 he is probably driving her crazy with his hormones and the stink of his urine. I would not be letting him outside until he is neutered though as he can not only mate, but fight with other cats and pick up serious diseases (Feline Aids and Leukemia). Also he will still have his hormones a few weeks after he is neutered so be patient. You can also get Feliway or calming collars for them. She also could hate him because he already contracted one of these or other diseases I hate to say so keep that in mind ALSO and I would have him tested when you take him to be neutered.

 

[Kristin12]

Thanks. I am really hoping it will be better for her when he’s neutered. He had lab work done at the vet last week while he was there for the ear infections ( which definitely smelled BUT she’s been annoyed with him for a lot longer than he’s had this) and nothing else came up. He did nurse for an unusually long time. The vet said it wouldn’t hurt either one of them and she would eventually make him stop. She had 4 kittens when she had him and our dachshund killed 3 of them. It was so terrible- but we figured that’s why she let him nurse for so long. So she went from extra loving to hissing at him.

 

[rubysmama]

Hello and welcome to The Cat Site. Hopefully once he is neutered, things will calm down between mama and son.

Are they still indoor/outdoor or indoor only. One thing you could try, if they're indoor only, is re-introducing them once he comes back from the vet.
How To Fix An Unsuccessful Cat Introduction

 

[Kristin12]

They are indoor only now.

 

[rubysmama]

Hopefully neutering him will help. Here's a couple more TCS articles which may have some helpful info:
The Multi-cat Household
How To Safely Break Up A Cat Fight