Is there any hope for our psycho cat?

[Ivan Seeking]

At this point it seems to be indisputable: Jack's behavior has changed significantly. I think it is even fair to say that he was affected by the collar almost immediately - within minutes. This has been amazingly effective.

I was just up at the house and found he and Zoobie hanging out peacefully in the livingroom. For me, that is definitive.

"Big Bad Jack" is now known as "Kinder Gentler Jack".

 

[Evo]

At this point it seems to be indisputable: Jack's behavior has changed significantly. I think it is even fair to say that he was affected by the collar almost immediately - within minutes. This has been amazingly effective.

I was just up at the house and found he and Zoobie hanging out peacefully in the livingroom. For me, that is definitive.

"Big Bad Jack" is now known as "Kinder Gentler Jack".

That is amazing. So glad that it's working and that he is now Happy Jack.

 

[turbo]

 

[Ivan Seeking]

We now have calming collars on all four cats.

We've had so much success with Jack and Zoobie that I decided to work on Bun and Tyke, who were just lying together and actually touching each other, on the chair beside me! Bun has never layed within five feet of ANY cat before - up until about five minutes ago. And poor Little Tyke was so terrorized by Jack that she didn't know how to play nice to other cats. So while they got past hissing and pissing within a year or so, they were still tentative about interactions, at best.

In short, in less than a month, we've gone from a virtually umanageable situation that we've struggled with for three years, to a home with 4 happy cats. Now that's what I call a fantastic product.

One warning is that some brands do not use breakaway collars, which can be quite dangerous. I'm still not sure that this brand does either but I have seen that the collar reportedly breaks easily.

 

[DaveC426913]

So, once they've learned to get along, can you take the collars off?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

So, once they've learned to get along, can you take the collars off?

That is my hope; establish new behavior patterns and then start losing the collars. But by buying online with discounts, we can do this indefinitely for about $20 a month. For the peace of mind alone, it would easily be worth it.

 

[rhody]

So, once they've learned to get along, can you take the collars off?

Yeah, Ivan,

Maybe their kitty brains have adapted thanks to plasticity, and the collars only serve to reinforce or strengthen the new connections, pretty amazing. I am happy for you, four less stressful situations to worry about and deal with.

Rhody...

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Not a good sign! I caught Jack secreting away crystals and incense, and listening to Pink Floyd.

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/3504/happyjackb.jpg

 

[rhody]

Not a good sign! I caught Jack secreting away crystals and incense, and listening to Pink Floyd.

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/3504/happyjackb.jpg

Pink Floyd... that kills me...

Rhody...

 

[Ivan Seeking]

We had a rather humorous episode with my shadow, Little Tyke. Little Tyke has been at my side almost every day since she was 3 weeks old. I knew she is somewhat possessive because of the way she interacts with my other office cat, Bun. But this was funny!

Before the collars, because he had terrorized her so much, any Jack sighting put Tyke in instant fight mode. Now, when Tyke comes up to the house, Jack and Tyke do pretty well. They play and seem to spend a lot of time hunting together. From time to time, if I lie down on the couch, they both come over and jump up on the back and take a nap. They did this the other day; sitting like bookends, and facing each other.

As I often do, I reached up and started petting Jack. After a moment I heard a subtle growl from Tyke. I glanced up but didn’t see a problem. After a minute, the growls got louder. I finally rolled over so that I could watch, and sure enough, Jack was being perfectly fine. His eyes were closed and his posture was entirely non-aggressive. But the more I petted him the angrier Tyke became. Soon her ears went back, her eyes got big and black, the hair on her neck inflated, and she started hissing! LOL! Talk about a possessive! I finally reached up to reassure her, which seemed to surprise her. She instantly turned non-aggressive, acknowledged my pet with a head rub, and ran off.

How strange.

 

[netgypsy]

Very interesting. Cats are solitary by nature, probably because generally there is not enough food for several. Glad yours are socializing better.

We've raised innumerable kittens from birth when a pregnant female showed up and feral cats are really different from domestic. One of ours is total terror on TP. If he sneaks into the bathroom in a few minutes it looks like it snowed in there. Knee deep in shreds.

I have six black cats who have adopted my premises since there is food available. Five are siblings and the sixth is the father. All are whole males who stay right on the property. They follow me all over the place but will not allow a human to touch them. The old male will tolerate a stroke while he eats. I'm going to have to borrow a trap and get them neutered but they get along fine. So most of the time the cats I've seen in groups are siblings.

I did have a feral female and a feral kitten show up at about the same time and she adopted the kitten as hers and they were inseparable but she already had the leukemia so had to be put down when she started showing signs of it. The kitten had gotten his shots and is negative so we put him in with our two porch cats who are brother and sister. He's fine with the male but he and the female don't like each other so I may have to try the collar on her. She doesn't terrorize him - just beats him up if he tries to come near me when she's at the door wanting her attention.

Speaking of human pheromones there was an experiment on male underarm secretions and women preferred the men who had it applied vs the ones who didn't. But thinking about pheromones and your cats, perhaps the secretions cause the human males to act in a manner that is more attractive to women? Because there are men who women absolutely flock to who are NOT attractive by any conventional standards so there has to be something else going on.

 

[Integral]

Ivan,
Good to hear that your cat problem has been resolved. We also have a crazy cat. About a year ago we had our new kitten fixed (or broken, as the case may be).

About a week or so after the operation she seemed to be healing fine. Then one evening while walking calmly towards a water dish, she suddenly leaped straight up, landed and dashed out of the room bouncing off of walls and doors on the way. For months after she seemed to live in terror, she would sit frozen in place for hours on end. If we wanted her to move we had to pick her up and move her. Very frequently this would send her into a terrified scramble resulting in scratches for the person holding her. Why would we want to move her? 'Cus she forgot how to use the cat box. For months we carriered to the cat box, but after getting regular scratches most people in the house refused to touch her.

Now after a year she seems to be having more days where she is remembering how to be a cat. It seems that she is even using the cat box on her own.

I am wondering if she has some form of a stroke, perhaps a blood clot from the operation broke loose and damaged a part of her brain. We keep hoping that our cute loving kitten will come back. :(

 

[DaveC426913]

Ivan,
Good to hear that your cat problem has been resolved. We also have a crazy cat. About a year ago we had our new kitten fixed (or broken, as the case may be).

About a week or so after the operation she seemed to be healing fine. Then one evening while walking calmly towards a water dish, she suddenly leaped straight up, landed and dashed out of the room bouncing off of walls and doors on the way. For months after she seemed to live in terror, she would sit frozen in place for hours on end. If we wanted her to move we had to pick her up and move her. Very frequently this would send her into a terrified scramble resulting in scratches for the person holding her. Why would we want to move her? 'Cus she forgot how to use the cat box. For months we carriered to the cat box, but after getting regular scratches most people in the house refused to touch her.

Now after a year she seems to be having more days where she is remembering how to be a cat. It seems that she is even using the cat box on her own.

I am wondering if she has some form of a stroke, perhaps a blood clot from the operation broke loose and damaged a part of her brain. We keep hoping that our cute loving kitten will come back. :(

Wow. Did you consider taking her back to the vet for a followup? I wonder if something went wrong with the operation and was causing her pain whenever she moved.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Ivan,
Good to hear that your cat problem has been resolved. We also have a crazy cat. About a year ago we had our new kitten fixed (or broken, as the case may be).

About a week or so after the operation she seemed to be healing fine. Then one evening while walking calmly towards a water dish, she suddenly leaped straight up, landed and dashed out of the room bouncing off of walls and doors on the way. For months after she seemed to live in terror, she would sit frozen in place for hours on end. If we wanted her to move we had to pick her up and move her. Very frequently this would send her into a terrified scramble resulting in scratches for the person holding her. Why would we want to move her? 'Cus she forgot how to use the cat box. For months we carriered to the cat box, but after getting regular scratches most people in the house refused to touch her.

Now after a year she seems to be having more days where she is remembering how to be a cat. It seems that she is even using the cat box on her own.

I am wondering if she has some form of a stroke, perhaps a blood clot from the operation broke loose and damaged a part of her brain. We keep hoping that our cute loving kitten will come back. :(

I'm sorry to hear about this. That's the thing about pets: When things go well they are wonderful to have. But it can be heartbreaking as well. And even then, that last trip to the vet must eventually come. After having seven animals put down in a little over two years - all old but about the same age - truthfully, I was emotionally damaged. It's worth it but comes with a price.

It sounds like at a minimum, your kitten was traumatized by something. You might try this collar. The synthetic pheromone used is the one produced by mom to calm the kittens. These collars have truly been amazing. It seems to be as close to a silver bullet as anything I've ever seen for stress issues.

 

[Moonbear]

Wow. Did you consider taking her back to the vet for a followup? I wonder if something went wrong with the operation and was causing her pain whenever she moved.

That's what came to my mind too, a painful reaction.

I'm starting to suspect that Little Tyke is the actual instigator, acting out of jealousy! She let's Jack take the blame, but maybe she starts it.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I'm starting to suspect that Little Tyke is the actual instigator, acting out of jealousy! She let's Jack take the blame, but maybe she starts it.

No doubt about it! The roles have reversed a bit. This particular episode was unusual. What normally happens is that Tyke tries to play, but then she gets scared when Jack plays back. In the past, she would attempt play and instead get mauled as Jack completely overwhelmed her, so her reaction is understandable. She'll often starts things and then run and hide by me while hissing, when Jack is trying to play nicely. But slowly they are establishing new behavior patterns and getting to be buddies. Jack even rolls on his back and does the submissive thing now in his efforts to entice her to play.

This is all part of the established patterns that had me so concerned. Poor Little Tyke has what we call Jack Mode, which is pretty much fight or flight mode. She is about the sweetest cat I've ever had, and we never saw Jack mode until she had been substantially terrorized, but between Jack, Zoobie, and Bun, Tyke was getting mean, as where they all. The collars seem to have effectively broken this pattern. But it is still a process.