Hello!
Hi everyone. My name is Sarah and I have two cats, one is a male named Putty who is 6, and a female named Sox, who is 2. I have signed up here because I am currently experiencing a devastating behavioral problem with Putty. He is an indoor-only cat who is being absolutely tormented by a cat outside who comes into our yard, yowls, and - I imagine - sprays.
To give a brief history, Putty has been affected by these kinds of situations in the past, and has reacted by spraying indoors, becoming extremely agitated / aggressive toward Sox when seeing the outside cat, and skulking around constantly looking out windows & doors. It got to the point where we put him on a low dose of Prozac, which he has been on continuously for a few years now.
However, this current situation has Putty worse than I've ever seen him before. He is suffering to the utmost degree from stress and fear of this cat. His reactions are worse than before. He now hides 24/7 in closets, and when we try to approach him, he hisses. He is still spraying, but has moved onto also defecating. His coat is dull and has noticeable dandruff all over. He has obsessively groomed a bald spot on his back, near the base of his tail. He only leaves the closet to eat, then when finished, immediately looks around and twitches as if he's seen a ghost, then bolts back into the closet. I can honestly say I have never seen a cat in the throes of such anguish and fear. It is extremely sad and disheartening to me, and I am very worried.
We contacted our vet, of course, and he switched Putty from Prozac to Paxil, and has increased the dosage. We just began that this morning. We are also planning on trapping this cat and taking him to the SPCA, since he has no identification and I don't believe he belongs to any of our neighbors. But I am still extremely worried that even if this antagonistic cat is gone, and Putty is on meds, he will not return to normal. By the way he's acting, it's as if he's having a complete mental breakdown. I would welcome any advice / comments on this situation.
And yes, we have already tried conventional methods of keeping the cat out of the yard, such as coyote urine, automated sprinklers, etc. Nothing helps. We also keep the blinds closed as much as possible in the house, but the cats are still able to pull apart the blinds / curtains and look outside. There's nothing more we can do in that arena, short of blacking out the windows completely with wooden boards.
To give a brief history, Putty has been affected by these kinds of situations in the past, and has reacted by spraying indoors, becoming extremely agitated / aggressive toward Sox when seeing the outside cat, and skulking around constantly looking out windows & doors. It got to the point where we put him on a low dose of Prozac, which he has been on continuously for a few years now.
However, this current situation has Putty worse than I've ever seen him before. He is suffering to the utmost degree from stress and fear of this cat. His reactions are worse than before. He now hides 24/7 in closets, and when we try to approach him, he hisses. He is still spraying, but has moved onto also defecating. His coat is dull and has noticeable dandruff all over. He has obsessively groomed a bald spot on his back, near the base of his tail. He only leaves the closet to eat, then when finished, immediately looks around and twitches as if he's seen a ghost, then bolts back into the closet. I can honestly say I have never seen a cat in the throes of such anguish and fear. It is extremely sad and disheartening to me, and I am very worried.
We contacted our vet, of course, and he switched Putty from Prozac to Paxil, and has increased the dosage. We just began that this morning. We are also planning on trapping this cat and taking him to the SPCA, since he has no identification and I don't believe he belongs to any of our neighbors. But I am still extremely worried that even if this antagonistic cat is gone, and Putty is on meds, he will not return to normal. By the way he's acting, it's as if he's having a complete mental breakdown. I would welcome any advice / comments on this situation.
And yes, we have already tried conventional methods of keeping the cat out of the yard, such as coyote urine, automated sprinklers, etc. Nothing helps. We also keep the blinds closed as much as possible in the house, but the cats are still able to pull apart the blinds / curtains and look outside. There's nothing more we can do in that arena, short of blacking out the windows completely with wooden boards.
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