lv4dogs
06-21-2005, 09:12 AM
As some of you know from following my posts I have a new addition, Tiki. A friend & I rescued him, his 3 brothers & mother a few weeks ago. He's estimated to be about 13 weeks now. I've had him since we caught him. I brought him to the vet right away. He was totally healthy except he had ear mites.
From day one Tiki was a total lover. Never left my side, always wanted to be petted and loved. He was like that for the whole first week. I could clip his nails, clean his ears, whatever & he'd just sit there & let me.
The second week he started to become more distant & braver. He would rarely want to be petted or picked up. He started to hate having the ear mite meds put in (thats understandable) I didn't think too much of it, I just thought that since he was a stray he was just going through a faze, coming out of his shell.
This past week, especially the last few days, he is really starting to get mean. He hides most of the time, hisses when I pick him up, hisses, scratches, bites the whole nine when I put in his ear mite meds. For the past 3 days he has never came up to me asking for pets.
Now since day one Meko (my other cat who is 1.5 years & I've had her since she was 3 weeks) and Tiki have had issues getting along.
Meko has ALWAYS gotten along with other cats, EVERY cat she has ever met she loves. Tiki came into the home & Meko started to hiss at him right away. Since I saw her hiss first I always thought she's the one that had an issue with Tiki.
Well last night I rescued 2 more kittens. Before I had the chance to get them into a seperate room for quarantine both Meko & Tiki came into contact with them. Meko LOVED them right off the bat, Tiki on the other hand wanted to strangle them.
This makes me think that Tiki's the one with the problem, not Meko. It just so happened that the first view I got of the quarrel was Meko having the issue, so I assumed it was her.
I'm still having issues with Meko coming into the house, eating, etc... because she is scared of Tiki. Tikis about a third of Meko's size & Meko runs from him.
Yesterday afternoon (before the kittens were here) my b/f Craig was walking down the hallway, Tiki was in one of the spare bedrooms & when Craig walked by Tiki lunged out at him, grabbing onto his pant leg, biting, scratching. I saw the whole thing & couldn't believe my eyes. Craig said the same thing happened about 2-3 days ago.
Neither Craig nor I have ever hurt, hit, yelled, shooed the cat away, nothing. The ONLY punishment we EVER gave Tiki was we sprayed him 2-3 times with water when he jumped up on the kitchen counter when we were preparing dinner.
First thing this morning I dropped off both kitties at the rescue organization. Since the kittens left (even though they were in a different room) Tiki has been acting crazed, searching ever nook & cranny, hissing & swating at the walls, carpet, doors, everything & nothing.
I've spoke to my friends who have Tikis littermates. 2 of his littermates are still complete love bugs. One is a crazed maniac, he's not mean though, just very hyper.
I called my vet this morning (was kind of thinking rabies or brain disporder, something). She was not worried about rabies. She says it may just be the cats personality or possibly something wrong with his brain or something. He goes back to the vet next week for his second series of shots & she's going to do a more thourough exam. She didn't have much advice for me until then though, and the worker who handles cat behavior is on vacation until Thurs.
I'm not sure what I should do. I was thinking of forcing him to lay on lap while I pet him, showing him that I am not dangerous, but forcing him to stay there may cause him more anxiety causing my plan to backfire. Not to mention I'm sure I'll end up with scratches/bites.
Or should I just let him be? But that can backfire too, allowing him to not get used to me or human touch, causing him to become more feral.
I've delt with MANY feral, mean cats, but they all started out that way and I tamed them. He started out nice as a button & is getting meaner as time goes on. So I am not sure if I should just do what I did to all the other cats or if I am dealing with a totally different behavior problem or even worse yet a medical problem. Although my vet doubts its medical, she did say that IF it was it would probably be a brain disorder or something.
Does anyone have any idea what may be causing this? Or what I can do to help?
From day one Tiki was a total lover. Never left my side, always wanted to be petted and loved. He was like that for the whole first week. I could clip his nails, clean his ears, whatever & he'd just sit there & let me.
The second week he started to become more distant & braver. He would rarely want to be petted or picked up. He started to hate having the ear mite meds put in (thats understandable) I didn't think too much of it, I just thought that since he was a stray he was just going through a faze, coming out of his shell.
This past week, especially the last few days, he is really starting to get mean. He hides most of the time, hisses when I pick him up, hisses, scratches, bites the whole nine when I put in his ear mite meds. For the past 3 days he has never came up to me asking for pets.
Now since day one Meko (my other cat who is 1.5 years & I've had her since she was 3 weeks) and Tiki have had issues getting along.
Meko has ALWAYS gotten along with other cats, EVERY cat she has ever met she loves. Tiki came into the home & Meko started to hiss at him right away. Since I saw her hiss first I always thought she's the one that had an issue with Tiki.
Well last night I rescued 2 more kittens. Before I had the chance to get them into a seperate room for quarantine both Meko & Tiki came into contact with them. Meko LOVED them right off the bat, Tiki on the other hand wanted to strangle them.
This makes me think that Tiki's the one with the problem, not Meko. It just so happened that the first view I got of the quarrel was Meko having the issue, so I assumed it was her.
I'm still having issues with Meko coming into the house, eating, etc... because she is scared of Tiki. Tikis about a third of Meko's size & Meko runs from him.
Yesterday afternoon (before the kittens were here) my b/f Craig was walking down the hallway, Tiki was in one of the spare bedrooms & when Craig walked by Tiki lunged out at him, grabbing onto his pant leg, biting, scratching. I saw the whole thing & couldn't believe my eyes. Craig said the same thing happened about 2-3 days ago.
Neither Craig nor I have ever hurt, hit, yelled, shooed the cat away, nothing. The ONLY punishment we EVER gave Tiki was we sprayed him 2-3 times with water when he jumped up on the kitchen counter when we were preparing dinner.
First thing this morning I dropped off both kitties at the rescue organization. Since the kittens left (even though they were in a different room) Tiki has been acting crazed, searching ever nook & cranny, hissing & swating at the walls, carpet, doors, everything & nothing.
I've spoke to my friends who have Tikis littermates. 2 of his littermates are still complete love bugs. One is a crazed maniac, he's not mean though, just very hyper.
I called my vet this morning (was kind of thinking rabies or brain disporder, something). She was not worried about rabies. She says it may just be the cats personality or possibly something wrong with his brain or something. He goes back to the vet next week for his second series of shots & she's going to do a more thourough exam. She didn't have much advice for me until then though, and the worker who handles cat behavior is on vacation until Thurs.
I'm not sure what I should do. I was thinking of forcing him to lay on lap while I pet him, showing him that I am not dangerous, but forcing him to stay there may cause him more anxiety causing my plan to backfire. Not to mention I'm sure I'll end up with scratches/bites.
Or should I just let him be? But that can backfire too, allowing him to not get used to me or human touch, causing him to become more feral.
I've delt with MANY feral, mean cats, but they all started out that way and I tamed them. He started out nice as a button & is getting meaner as time goes on. So I am not sure if I should just do what I did to all the other cats or if I am dealing with a totally different behavior problem or even worse yet a medical problem. Although my vet doubts its medical, she did say that IF it was it would probably be a brain disorder or something.
Does anyone have any idea what may be causing this? Or what I can do to help?