Senior cat died about 2 week ago, now everyone is crazy

[gohlemacher]

  Have been trying to figure this out.  About 2 weeks ago my oldest cat died of oral cancer.  Since this time my other 4 cats are nuts.

They hiss,  growl and  fight all the time.  They did fight occasionally but now its constant..  On top of all this they .have started to pick on this one cat named Zoey.  They also have had peeing problems before....this has intensified....

  The two that get along are going to kitty room by themselves...those two get along.... Zoey will go to a room by herself.... I am going to clean all walls and rugs. I started rescue remedy this morning.  They have all been checked for urine problems. I have tried to re home 2 cats, as you know, no one wants cats.   Any ideas? Will this settle down once they figure out whos the dominant one??

Any ideas would be appreciated!!

 

[catspaw66]

They are trying to sort out who is the alpha cat. I assume they are all fixed. Are you using an enzyme cleaner, like Nature's Miracle on the spots where they are peeing?

I would think that once they sort out the dominance order, they should calm down. The Rescue Remedy will help, but takes a few days at least to reach maximum effectiveness.

 

[gohlemacher]

They are all fixed.. I have cleaned their messes up with everything I can find...and  always use enzyme cleaners.I have had cats since I was a kid and have never experienced anything like this...So I was going to separate all of them...then slowly introduce them again..?? I have couple of them on elavil and zoey on prozac...Vet thinks the urine spraying and peeing is now a habit...so maybe will never stop them.. Just got whole house carpeting and it is ruined. I really do not know what to do...

 

[katluver4life]

How many litter boxes do you have? Along with the rescue remedy, I'd install some feliway diffusers. Trying reintroductions may help too yes. Couldn't hurt.

 

[gohlemacher]

I have 6 boxes., clean them once a day... Tried Feliway but did not seem to work...

Has anyone had any luck with Spirit Essence.??

 

[moqui]

I just have had a very similar issue. My 15 year old Burmese female, Moqui passed away very suddenly and the other two a 13 year old female and 10 year old female have seemed so lost. We're once they all 3 were in a kittie cluster, now my older one just hisses and growls at the 10 year old.
I finally had to take her to vet have her completely checked out, blood and urine. They gave her kittie Prozac, so to speak. Amitriptyline 10 mg a 1/4 tab per day. Believe me we did not want to give her drugs, butt for a little while vet said sometimes you have to before the rest of the cats regroup themselves.

 

[katluver4life]

 
I have 6 boxes., clean them once a day... Tried Feliway but did not seem to work...

Has anyone had any luck with Spirit Essence.??

Feliway diffusers take at LEAST 1 week to start working and can take up to a few weeks to fully permeate into the environment. they also only cover a certain amt of footage and it is recommended to have 1 in each room. I have only ever used rescue remedy, no other spirit essences. These also take a bit of time to take effect.

Consistency and routines are extremely important to cats, especially multi cat houses. When this routine is changed, in your case the passing of the eldest, this will throw a huge sense of almost confusion into the group. It is like...uhhh ok...now who is taking over? They get grumpy and jumpy. Eventually they will work it out. It is important to keep up with their normal routines at this time until they do.

Do you know who of them is not using their litter box? You could try retraining him/her/them by confining them to a small room with everything they need and the box, until you see them using it consistently again. Cat attract litter sprinkled on top sometimes helps.  If ALL soiled areas are not thoroughly cleaned, they will soil in those spots again.