Re-directed aggression

[mdawn1]

Hi everyone! I posted on this forum awhile back about my 9 year old cat, Max, who has an auto-immune disease.I come today with a different issue. Max has always been...feisty, we'll say. Ever since he was a kitten he would easily get overly stimulated and "attack" people. It was pretty normal kitten/young cat behavior; the degree of intensity was somewhat of an issue though.As he got older, he, for the most part, mellowed out...until recently.Max has always preferred my boyfriend over me, which is ok. He doesn't like to lay with me much, or sit in my lap, etc. Keeping that in mind, it puzzles me that Max will almost always direct aggression towards him and very rarely me at all.Here is a typical scenario:Max will be playing with one of our other cats. During this, he'll go from just playing to getting angry with it. When he gets to this point, he will turn away from the cat he's "playing" with and will come over to sit directly in front of my boyfriend and will stare him down. It could be just a matter of seconds to even minutes of just staring at my boyfriend, then Max will full out attack him. Max isn't trying to inhibit his bites or anything; he's TRYING to cause pain and do damage. My boyfriend will try to just leave the area and Max will follow, literally, chasing him. The only way my boyfriend has been able to escape from it is to have a barrier between them, like a door. After awhile, Max will normally calm down and the boyfriend can come back.That is a typical scenario and the following describes 2 occasions that were different.Max was playing with a cat while the boyfriend was sleeping on the couch. Max became angry with the play, ran over to my boyfriend and attacked him...while the boyfriend was still asleep.Another instance started out typical. When Max went to re-direct to the boyfriend, I physically interrupted by picking Max up with the intention of just removing him from the room. Max attacked me to the point that I had to scruff him to detach myself from him. He was able to cause some damage before I was able to get away from him.We keep our cats nails clipped, especially Max, because of this issue in an attempt to at least, minimize the damage to us. I have discussed the increased aggression with our veterinarian as Max has blood work done monthly. The vet, I think, thought it was sort of amusing that I'm complaining that my cat is overly aggressive but he said that the steroids he is on could be causing it to some extent. The problem with this is that IF IT IS the medication, there is really nothing we can do about that as Max will be on steroids for the rest of his life in an attempt to control his auto-immune disease.I have in the past been able to distract Max with food to calm him down...but that doesn't seem like a very good idea either.What do you guys think?

 

[yayi]

Actually, it is not acceptable kitten behavior to "attack" people when it is overstimulated. 

But since this is not the issue anymore with Max. The only thing I can think of is limiting his play time with other cats or any other occasions you know that will trigger the attacks. Don't wait till he starts getting angry. 

You can also ask your veterinarian if the use of calming remedies will be safe and not affect his medication. 

Hope other members have more suggestions to help you. Bless you and your boyfriend for being such wonderful parents of Max. 

 

[mdawn1]

I was thinking of trying Feliway diffuser. Not really for this problem with Max but because of my other cats, Lexi, has storm anxiety that is just getting worse. Maybe it could help Max as well? I don't know.

Max isn't in any danger of being rehomed or anything like that, of course, but we would LIKE to get this figured out.

He escalates so quickly sometimes that its not really feasible to limit his play with the other cats...unless we just don't let him play with them. I'm not really comfortable with doing that because he DOES occasionally just play and not re-direct. I want him to play, run and have fun. It's a good way to tell how he's feeling physically. I just don't want to him to get so mean with it. Interesting tidbit, but Max is also not allowed to have catnip because it doesn't make him more "playful"; its makes him more aggressive.

Is taking his mind off of being angry by offering a treat something that is a bad idea? I don't want to reinforce him but I'd like to interrupt the cycle of escalating so to speak.

In a weird way, its like different types of aggression rolled into one...Play aggression, direct aggression and then prey drive.
 

 

[violet]

I've given this a lot of thought, so based on my own experiences with steroid medications, I'd like to share a few thoughts and offer maybe one recommendation.

First and foremost, steroids can have a very serious effect on behavior. No question about it.

On one end one might see depression, lethargy, a cat barely functioning, having very serious problems with lack of appetite, etc, and on the other end one might see the kind of problem you describe. This article lists all the possible side effects of steroid medications

http://crvetcenter.com/oldsite/corticoids.htm

Also, in my experience, redirected aggression is one of the most difficult problems to deal with because so much anger, so much mindless fury is involved in the behavior that the usual remedies that work wonders for normal aggressive behavior cannot be used. The only thing that helps is immediately separating the attacking cat and his victim (cat or human) to prevent any further visual contact because the behavior is triggered and aggravated by visual contact. The separation might have to last for a few hours or much longer. No visual contact is the key because that's the only thing that allows the cat to calm down and become reasonable again.

Normal aggressive behavior, when a cat can be reasoned with, can be dealt with by redirecting behavior, meaning, unwanted behavior being interrupted by a play session.

Done consistently, the play sessions have such a positive effect on the cat's behavior that aggressive behavior becomes less and less frequent and eventually stops completely.

(Play sessions conducted at any other time have no effect on this problem whatsoever.)

Perhaps there might be times when play sessions could work to interrupt your kitty's aggressive behavior. You'll need to find that out.

As for finding a remedy for the very serious aggression problem, hopefully a holistic vet could offer some help by trying certain natural remedies that will not interfere with what the medication has to accomplish. I would urge you to look into this.

To find a holistic vet in your area

http://www.holisticvetlist.com/

 

[mdawn1]

Thanks for the information.

What we have been doing so far is to just get away from him for a bit. Thankfully, it normally doesn't take all that long until Max will move on to something else.

I've been trying hard to think about past aggressive episodes and what Max was doing beforehand. I believe that in MOST incidences, he was playing with another cat, grooming or being groomed by one of our other cats. When it happened yesterday, Max was fine until Lexi kicked him pretty good in the head, then he became angry and went after my boyfriend. As soon as Max made that leap for my boyfriends arm, as boyfriend was waiting for it to happen, he immediately got up and just walked out. It's a little unsettling though that Max has attacked while my boyfriend was asleep.

Like I said in my original post, Max has always been feisty but he did mellow out, only have bursts of temper every now and then. With the steroids, he has gotten a lot worse though behaviorally. He will also have temper tantrums over food and will become destructive when not fed when HE wants to be fed. He'll do things such as purposely knocking objects off counters, tormenting and chasing another cat; even trying to terrorize our Mastiff. When ignored, he'll eventually just settle down to yowling non-stop until it is actually food time.

Sadly though, the steroids have to stay and will for the rest of his life. Max's auto-immune disease is life threatening without them.

I like your description of the "mindless fury" as that seems to be exactly what it is. Max can be absolutely downright relentless when he is determined to attack my boyfriend. I've tried distracting him with a toy, etc...he won't even look at me as I don't exist right then. The ONLY thing that has worked in the past is distracting with a favorite treat as Max loves food more than he "loves" attacking my boyfriend. That is why I keep bringing up the food distraction because its the only thing that has even remotely worked out of the stuff that I've tried.

Even though we LOVE Max more than anything...he can be a very difficult cat to live with. lol