I suppose its not really “may” at this point, just “have to”. I’m not sure why I’m even writing this, other than that I don’t have anyone to talk to about this at the moment. I can’t stop crying. My cat severely attacked my mom tonight, to the point that my mom had to go to the ER, with scratches on her face, arms, and legs. She’s going to need stitches for the cut on her eye. This isn’t the first attack incidence, and we’ve tried so many things to help my cat, but at this point, I’m not sure what else to do, other than make sure no one else gets hurt again.
I’ve had my cat Smokey since she was four months old. She grew up with her litter mates, wasn’t a bottle baby, stray, or feral. She has been an indoor only cat for her entire life (with the exceptions of some attempts of leash training). For the first couple years of her life, she was a normal kitten and then a normal cat. Maybe 5 years ago, at our old place, she saw something outside (we had a glass patio door), at night, that completely freaked her out. I woke up to her yowling, got out of bed, and she lunged at my face, then threw herself repeatedly at the glass door. It may have been an animal, but I had found the back yard door unlocked earlier that day and thought it was someone trying to break in. I didn’t have my glasses on. I turned on the lights and yelled for whoever it was to go away (in retrospect, this probably made things so much worse). My parents also came rushing into the room and Smokey attacked me again. She was absolutely terrified; wouldn’t let me get past her to get out of her sight, and would alternate between hiding under the table and trying to attack me. Eventually, my dad lured her away with food and I was able to get away, but for days after, she would try to attack me if she saw me.
Eventually, by keeping food and toys constantly on my person, the attack attempts mostly stopped and she went back to her friendly self. During this entire time, she was friendly with everyone else. We moved apartments and there were a couple more incidents where she tried to charge me, but I was able to either close myself away or calm her down.
Then one night, when we had guests over, she managed to get out of the apartment and ran down the stairs. My dad ran after her (again, in retrospect, bad idea) and she hissed at him but ran back into the apartment. I closed her in my room to let her decompress, the guests left, and I let her back out again and she immediately attacked my dad, to the point of drawing blood. We closed her away again to let her decompress and kept her separated from my dad for a couple days. She was fine when we let her near him again, but something, maybe a recollection, triggered something and she ran into his bedroom and attacked him. I was able to cover with a towel long enough for my dad to hide, then closed Smokey away again.
Multiple vet visits and medications later, and after spending two years on clomipramine, with the first year being mostly segregated away from my dad, she was fine again. We had one really good year where she was mostly calm and happy. During this time, she was also diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, dealt with a couple incidents of pneumonia, and we found out she was FELV+ (how, I don’t know, her mother was FELV-).
I figured her attacks were either PTSD or anxiety related, or triggered by something outside. In this last year, her anxiety has increased. We identified some common factors and shaped her and our lives around them, including keeping certain windows closed and specific blinds down. We tried a couple anxiety meds, but those didn’t resolve anything and sometimes, we had no idea what the trigger was. About five months ago, my brother was cuddling with her, set her down, and she attacked him. Que the old cycle of close her away, let her calm down, try treating the anxiety, let my brother become her best friend (via food) and she was fine with him. Then, two months ago, she attacked him again. Same process, all over again, but at this point we weren’t fully allowing her to be in the same room as him without one of us there. Last week, he went to grab something from my closet when I wasn’t home and she cornered him and attacked him a third time. All three times have drawn blood.
Her anxiety was through the roof. I gave her diazepam and it didn’t calm her down. She went back to the vet and got a shot that should have reduced her anxiety for 3-4 weeks. It lasted maybe two days. She was anxious two nights ago, then was completely calm last night. She was calm today. I closed her away in my room before my brother came home and went to take a shower. During this time, my mom went into my room and Smokey attacked her. She’s never attacked my mom before. Its pretty bad.
At this point we’ve tried so many things. We’ve been in and out of the vet’s every month this year and every other month the year prior. She is so sweet at the vet’s office - she always has been, to the point that I’m pretty sure the vet doesn’t think these attacks are as bad as they are. Most of the time she’s a sweetheart. But I can’t give her away to someone, without risking that she’ll attack them.
We haven’t been able to determine what has triggered these last four attacks and my parents don’t trust her anymore. Add to that, her heart disease prognosis was that it would be manageable for 2-3 years by medication before the medication stopped working. We’re on year 3 now. She receives 2x the maximum recommended dose every day to keep her heart under control. At this point I’m not sure what more I can do, other than to have her put down. She’s locked in my room right now, meowing and scratching at the door, but I don’t know if she’ll even let me go in with her. I called the vet’s office and just left a message asking them to call me back. They’re closed on the weekends but sometimes have a staff member who checks the phone.
Sorry for the massive wall of text.