[BClevenger]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for advice on, or just somewhere to discuss, a big issue we've been having with our cats. We have a 3 year old Chartraux. He was a fun playful guy with lots of energy.

About 5 weeks ago we adopted a 7 week old kitten (at the time). He was a stray cat who had been picked up by a woman - who's husband then abused the cat and broke his arm - so the woman dropped him off at a shelter. (All this happened when he was about 2 weeks old.)

He went to a foster home to heal up, we saw his story on an animal rescue site and - as we were thinking about getting a buddy for our cat - decided we wanted to help this little guy our heart went out to.

We took our time with the introduction. We did it over a 2 week period. Swapping scents, feeding on opposite sides of the doors, etc. When we finally made the face to face introduction things went fairly normal I thought. They rough house'd and fought a little, but there was no hissing and scratching or anything.

Fast forward two weeks: The little cat is FINE. He's the most resilient little guy I've ever seen. Not afraid of anything or anyone and seemingly stress free.

Or big cat though continues to deteriorate. His attitude has noticeably changed - he's much less outgoing - and doesn't play as actively with us. (We try to both play with him 30 minutes each a day, he won't go that long with us anymore.)

What's worse, he's developed some sort of fungal infection. We took him to the vet for it today, the vet said it was more common in kittens, but adult cats under a lot of stress can get it too. (Sorry I don't know the name. I live in South Korea and the specific name got lost in translation for me.)

The vet wasn't too concerned about the fungus though, just gave us some medicine and said it'd take about 2 weeks to clear up. (The little guy got a booster shot and a clean bill of health.)

However, I'm really distraught that we've caused our pet enough stress to create physical ailments. We were really hopeful that we'd improve his life by giving him someone to hang out with while we were away from home and a cat to keep up with him (because sometimes he wanted to play more than we could.)

I've scoured the internet for information. We've given them both a room that's their own, and we won't let the small cat on the highest perch in our apartment - which is our big cat's favorite spot. We try to make sure there plenty of exits to our rooms, each cat has his own litter box and food bowl, etc. But it doesn't seem to be doing the trick.

One thing we worry about is that when they fight (which is often, but never serious) the little cat always initiates it, and always 'wins'. The big guy just doesn't want to fight him, and even when he pins him down, lets him go. It's sweet and I appreciate that he's such a kind cat, but the little cat is not so generous and gets right back up and goes after him. It's painful to watch a 12 pout cat lose a fight to a 2 pound kitten.

Anyway, any advice or anyone who's gone through a similar situation would be greatly appreciated. We're going to focus a lot more on giving the big cat EXTRA EXTRA attention, but the more tips the better!

Thanks in advance from us and our two cats Agrippa and Spartacus!


tl:dr brought in a new kitten, after 5 weeks, large cat has manifested physical ailment brought on by stress. Help!

 

[mute]

Have you tried anything like Feliway or rescue remedy to calm down the resident cat? The pheromones in feliway are supposed to help in stressful situations. I use the diffuser a lot for different things like moving and it always seems to help calm them down.

I hope you figure it out, that has to be stressful for you!

 

[BClevenger]

I've heard of the Feliway, and I'd love to give it a try. Unfortunately we live in South Korea, and I haven't been able to locate it anywhere in country.

 

[Arianwen]

I think you can get it on the internet. I've used it for the first time recently - it didn't work on one cat that I hoped it would effect but my oldest cat is like an aging hippy, she's so chilled!

 

[3furbabies]

Have you looked into stress collars? They are similar to the feliway but it's a collar they wear for a month. I got my three cats one called serenity and it works amazingly! We recent moved into a house from an apartment and two out of the three cats hate change and new situations. I thought it wouldn't help but the collars are great. After an hour they wanted out of the safe room to explore and have been great since. We are keeping the collar on for the month that is recommended.

 

[Kitty-The-Cat]

When I read stuff like this, it reminds me why I am NEVER going to get a second cat.

Once a cat gets used to being the Spoiled Only Child, taking away that privilege is bound to cause a lot of problems.

 

[BClevenger]

Yeah, I have to be honest, I feel a little guilty. Our reason for getting the 2nd cat was two fold. 1) Our heart really went out to the little guy after he'd been through so much and we wanted to give him a great home. 2) We really thought our older cat would enjoy it. He would chase himself around the apartment for hours. We thought, it'd be nice for him to have someone you chase.

I'm going to look into finding some sort of collar or feliway or any scent therapy. Seems like it's definitely worth a try!