I need some help from Cat people

[Mad4Mickey]

I work at a vet clinic and have been working with animals for over 20 years. That being said I have always been a dog person , I did let my DD have a cat when she was little and it lived 16 years no problems . My DS has cat that is 14 and is in the begining stages of kitty dementia , we have had her since she was a kitten . She has really changed alot over the last year or so . She never bothers our dog who is a 120 lb Rottie , he loves her but she just acts like he is not there LOL.
I took a cat in from our clinic that has no claws ( poor thing !) she is 1 yr old and is my cat . MY 1st CAT ! she is more like a dog .

Now that you have the history of the pets in the house I ned to find out if this is normal . The old lady cat Janet Jackson is really mean to B'Elanna Torres ( yeah I know 2 names per cat is wierd and the funny thing is they only come to thier full names )
The dog is now starting to do what the old lady cat is doing . He chases her and barks at her and growls . You dont want to know what that gets him but he knows better. He had never done this before to any cat and he goes to work and runs loose in the clinic all day. He is VERY mild and really good with other cats and dogs while he works .
When will this or will it ever get better??? It has been about 4 months .
The old lady beat B'Elanna Torres up at 4 a.m. about 3 days ago and she is missing hair where Janet TORE it out . Janet Jackson has claws and long old yellow teeth : (

HELP I just keep thinking about the calls we get from people who want to dump thier animals because they cant get along ...

TIA
M4M

 

[CobraBubbles]

It really depends on that cat, but there is hope. When I got my kitty, Lily, I brought her to my mom's house and she freaked out about the other cats and I thought she wouldn't get along (the people almost didn't adopt her to me cuz I had a couple of cats and said she couldn't get along with other cats). Anyway I took her home and she freaked out for a while (super affectionate to me, but hated the other cats). Eventually they all got along fine though. My cat Tink really hated her and hissed and smacked her and went around the house hissing, but now they are good friends.

 

[Mad4Mickey]

Cobra how long did that take ??? I am really feeling like a bad cat mom . Shei is being tortured in her own home

 

[dancingdisneygirl]

Hello. I work for a cat only veterinarian and maybe can help. Did you slowly introduce the two cats? Resident cats often are very p.o.'d at a new cat in the household and should be introduced very carefully. Separate litter boxes, separate feeding stations, etc. for quite awhile. In fact, should have 1 litter box per cat. It sounds like you need to start over with introductions or at the very least, keep them separate while you are away till you can supervise. We have found wiping them down the the same towel makes them all smell the same and this goes a long way to easing tension. Start with new cat and wipe down the resident cat. Do this two times a day for a few days. Keep feeding dishes away from each other for awhile. If none of this works effectively, you may need to start over from the beginning and separate the new cat in a room and s l o w l y introduce them again for supervised visits (20 minutes or so to start and then back into the room), slowly increasing time out of the room. After a day or so, have let the new cat have access to the house for 20 minutes and your resident cat is in a bedroom, etc. Keep up the towel process too 2x's a day. When they smell the same, it alleviates the stress that this new cat smells diffferent and doesn't belong here. After a week or so, things should be improved. You can also plug in a 'Feliway' phermone product that is effective to calm everyone down in the household. Any other questions, will try to help!

 

[CobraBubbles]

Cobra how long did that take ??? I am really feeling like a bad cat mom . Shei is being tortured in her own home

It took quite a long time ... a couple months before they would tolerate each other and even then they didn't really like each other. Like the previous poster said, try separating them. Especially when you aren't home to monitor. Put the kitty in a spare bedroom or something with some water and a littler box and maybe some food and introduce them a little at a time.

That wipe idea was a good one, never thought of that before.