I have 4 cats in my house that are indoor only cats. I have a 16+ year old feline AIDS kitty, Moon-Pie who I rescued over 8 years ago, he's nuetered. I have a 7 year old female cat who is spayed, Luna. I have a 2 & 3/4 year old female cat who is intact, Scrappy-Doo and I we now have her 3 month old son, Cubby who is scheduled for a nueter. The 2& 3/4 year old female is a registered purebred show cat who will be spayed down the road, but not now.
My problem lies in the two females. Both of them get along extremely well with the old man, who just adores everyone anyway. The black female, Luna is a cat that we all joke in the family is our "Invisi-cat" she is never around, was a semi-feral rescue and isn't a loving animal really, unless you are alseep, then she wants to suck on your ear lobes... She is meek and mild.
Scrappy is, well she's Scrappy and that's how she got her name. Because the first night we had her she was a tiny little thing and she waltzed right up to my 20 pound Moon-Pie and chewed him a new butt for exsisting, NO FEAR. Scrappy is an amazing cat. I swear she thinks she's a dog. She comes when called no matter where she is. She does cat agaility, etc. She is extremely affectionate and is always out and about in plain sight.
Scrappy and Luna have never been buddies but there was never anything outside of the occasional tiff between the two. Until about 8 months ago. Suddenly Scrappy HATES Luna and will go out of her way to go upstairs and attack Luna sleeping under my bed and start a huge fight. It got to the point where Luna started losing weight because she didn't want to go downstairs to eat for fear of being bullied by Scrappy. Luna now has her own food bowl, water bowl, and litter box upstairs so she doesn't have to come down. She still does every few days, but you can tell that she's trying to stay out of range. Luna has started to exhibit anxiety symptoms. Her wool sucking is worse now than it was. She will suck on blankets and you and leave huge puddles of drool.
She is grooming herself all the time, to the point where she has hair loss on her back half.
I'm at a loss as to what I should do. They are both due at the vet within the next month and have appointments but I just have no experience with one cat bullying another to this point. Most cats may fight here and there but eventually they get over it and deal with the presence of the other. I have been a foster home for shelters, I have bottle raised kittens, etc. I have never seen one cat HATE another like this. The fights, when they happen, are very short, like 30 seconds or less. It's almost like Scrappy just feels the need to put her back in line or to reiterate that she cannot stand her very exsistance.
I have no clue what my vet will suggest. I hope it doesn't involve someone having to be put on kitty prozac. I feel bad for Luna. I have considered re-homing Scrappy since Luna has been here the longest and it would be easier to re-home Scrappy than Luna since she's purebred, yonger, etc.
Does anyone feel this may be a purely hormonal problem? I am not opposed to spaying Scrappy now if it will fix this.
Has anyone dealt with this before? Any advice?
My problem lies in the two females. Both of them get along extremely well with the old man, who just adores everyone anyway. The black female, Luna is a cat that we all joke in the family is our "Invisi-cat" she is never around, was a semi-feral rescue and isn't a loving animal really, unless you are alseep, then she wants to suck on your ear lobes... She is meek and mild.
Scrappy is, well she's Scrappy and that's how she got her name. Because the first night we had her she was a tiny little thing and she waltzed right up to my 20 pound Moon-Pie and chewed him a new butt for exsisting, NO FEAR. Scrappy is an amazing cat. I swear she thinks she's a dog. She comes when called no matter where she is. She does cat agaility, etc. She is extremely affectionate and is always out and about in plain sight.
Scrappy and Luna have never been buddies but there was never anything outside of the occasional tiff between the two. Until about 8 months ago. Suddenly Scrappy HATES Luna and will go out of her way to go upstairs and attack Luna sleeping under my bed and start a huge fight. It got to the point where Luna started losing weight because she didn't want to go downstairs to eat for fear of being bullied by Scrappy. Luna now has her own food bowl, water bowl, and litter box upstairs so she doesn't have to come down. She still does every few days, but you can tell that she's trying to stay out of range. Luna has started to exhibit anxiety symptoms. Her wool sucking is worse now than it was. She will suck on blankets and you and leave huge puddles of drool.
She is grooming herself all the time, to the point where she has hair loss on her back half.
I'm at a loss as to what I should do. They are both due at the vet within the next month and have appointments but I just have no experience with one cat bullying another to this point. Most cats may fight here and there but eventually they get over it and deal with the presence of the other. I have been a foster home for shelters, I have bottle raised kittens, etc. I have never seen one cat HATE another like this. The fights, when they happen, are very short, like 30 seconds or less. It's almost like Scrappy just feels the need to put her back in line or to reiterate that she cannot stand her very exsistance.
I have no clue what my vet will suggest. I hope it doesn't involve someone having to be put on kitty prozac. I feel bad for Luna. I have considered re-homing Scrappy since Luna has been here the longest and it would be easier to re-home Scrappy than Luna since she's purebred, yonger, etc.
Does anyone feel this may be a purely hormonal problem? I am not opposed to spaying Scrappy now if it will fix this.
Has anyone dealt with this before? Any advice?