Cat Trouble

fjon

I'm hoping someone can give me some advice on this.

My mother's cat has recently started coming home with cuts and missing fur on her back. Sometimes she would be bleeding.
We think it is a new tomcat belonging to one of our neighbours (although we can't be sure).
The poor cat is now terrified of going outside as the tom will often prowl arounf our garden and chase her away if he sees her.
Unfortunately this also means that our cat has started pissing in the house. She is quite old - maybe 6-7 years and has never had this problem before.
Does anyone have any suggestions about what my mum can do about this?

luckat

Fjon, this is horrible. I had a 21-year-old cat that was frightened to death by this kind of thing; I blame her rapid decline and death on the beatings she got from a local bully.

First off, go to your vet with the cat and get her treated. Buy (expensive) a pheromone plug and Feliway from the vet, and plug it in near where she normally curls up. This is a scent (humans can't smell it) released by cats when they're happy and secure, to mark their own territory. If your cat smells it, she'll feel safe. The plug costs around €60, and the Feliway about €30, though you can get the bottles of Felway cheaper online.

Next, discover who the bully is. He'll probably be a new cat that's moved into the area. If he belongs to people, you have trouble - I had someone bring my cat home and accuse him of chasing her cat into the house and fighting with it, and I just had no idea what to do. I suggested to her that she should get a Super Soaker and spray him with water every time he came into her garden and on to her walls; I assume that this fixed it, because she didn't come back. I was really embarrassed.

If it's a feral cat, you can probably rent a trap from your vet. You put this trap into a black plastic bag and leave it in your garden with food in it, and with any luck the cat will go in and be trapped in the cage. (The reason for the black plastic bag is so that it doesn't look like a trap.)

After this you can decide what to do: try to get someone far away to tame and home the cat (possible, but takes a *lot* of dedication, and requires knowledge and love of animals), or have the cat put down.

This is the course I chose when a really wild cat was bullying my cat. I still feel bad about it. He was a beauty - a big tiger-striped tabby with two eyes of different colours. But he was as wild as a tiger, and was beating every cat in the neighbourhood.

Nala

Yeah, there's a couple of tomcats around my area that have given my little harem trouble. My cat usually sorts them out. She's 10 but she's still well able to stick up for herself! She's quite stocky and seems to be pretty strong.
Failing that, if there's a few of my cats there, they'll stand their ground and the tomcat will usually leave them alone.

fjon

luckat wrote:

Fjon, this is horrible. I had a 21-year-old cat that was frightened to death by this kind of thing; I blame her rapid decline and death on the beatings she got from a local bully.

First off, go to your vet with the cat and get her treated. Buy (expensive) a pheromone plug and Feliway from the vet, and plug it in near where she normally curls up. This is a scent (humans can't smell it) released by cats when they're happy and secure, to mark their own territory. If your cat smells it, she'll feel safe. The plug costs around €60, and the Feliway about €30, though you can get the bottles of Felway cheaper online.

Next, discover who the bully is. He'll probably be a new cat that's moved into the area. If he belongs to people, you have trouble - I had someone bring my cat home and accuse him of chasing her cat into the house and fighting with it, and I just had no idea what to do. I suggested to her that she should get a Super Soaker and spray him with water every time he came into her garden and on to her walls; I assume that this fixed it, because she didn't come back. I was really embarrassed.

If it's a feral cat, you can probably rent a trap from your vet. You put this trap into a black plastic bag and leave it in your garden with food in it, and with any luck the cat will go in and be trapped in the cage. (The reason for the black plastic bag is so that it doesn't look like a trap.)

After this you can decide what to do: try to get someone far away to tame and home the cat (possible, but takes a *lot* of dedication, and requires knowledge and love of animals), or have the cat put down.

This is the course I chose when a really wild cat was bullying my cat. I still feel bad about it. He was a beauty - a big tiger-striped tabby with two eyes of different colours. But he was as wild as a tiger, and was beating every cat in the neighbourhood.

Thank you - that is very helpful!
Unfortunately we are 95% certain that the trouble-maker is the neighbour's tom, and not a feral cat.
I guess we can always try to talk to the owner's, but as you mention it may not do much good. The super-soaker idea is a good one though - think I'll pop into Smyth's after work.
I'll also try to get my mum to buy some supplies. The cheapest Feliway I found online was for £20, so I might as well get it from the vet.

Nala

Maybe suggest to your neighbours to get their cat castrated. It sometimes helps to curb their aggression.

Doper Than U

Yup, was just about to say that. Your neighbours should neuter their cat if he is fighting. If your own cat is not neutered, get her done as well.

HelenD

Very important to have your own cat spayed if you have not already done so. If your neighbours are worried about the expense, the Blue Cross will carry out the operation for a nominal fee. (www.bluecross.ie) They run a mobile clinic around the country. |(Approx. €20 or whatever the person can afford) The fighting may stop if the female is spayed, but it will definitely stop if both animals are done. I have had, and sorted, the exact same problem myself. I even organised the neutering of the neighbours cat - a very straightforward operation for a Tom that causes no pain and no complications.

FranknFurter

Getting the male neutered in this case is as important as getting the female done.

Unfortunately though, no matter what you do, a outdoor cat is gonna find some other cats territory to cross and will get into fights regularly, its the nature of cats, they are very very territorial.

Unfortunately, these days imho, it is no llonger safe to let your cat roam, there are so many dangers, for instance FIV (cat strain of HIV), one of our girls had it, its a terrible terrible death.

Our remaining two, boy and girl, are 100% indoor kitties, it does them no harm, they are always happy as long as you play with them every day, plenty of activities (cat trees etc, and every cats favourite toy, a paper bag and a cardboard box lol .

B

Nasty_Girl

neev wrote:

Maybe suggest to your neighbours to get their cat castrated. It sometimes helps to curb their aggression.

Took my tom about 2 and a half years to calm down after we neutered him! Now he's afraid of everything except his sister who he attacks from time ti time. She on the other hand picks fights all the time, even donkeys.

Oh yeah, if ya run roaring \and shouting after the tom cat waving a stick a couple of times he'll get the hint. Don't strike coz it's cruel though

fjon

Our cat is spayed. I guess we are somehow going to have to ask our neighbour to get his cat neutered. Obviously this is not as easy as it seems (as luckat has said previously). I would only do this as a last resort, so am going to try to scare the cat out of the garden first - give it a spray of water every time I see it. Hopefully this will keep him away.
If not we're going to have to confront the nighbour, but I am dreading this. It's very difficult to tell someone they are raising their cat incorrectly!

Nala

I know. Some people take it way too personally.

luckat

My cat was neutered when he was beating up my neighbour's cat.

I think the actual Feliway website - feliway.com or some such - has the stuff for $17 a bottle if you buy three bottles at a time. It's something horrible from a vet here. Reminds me, must pay the vet...