Unprevoked Feline aggression towards Dog

[yankeeclipper]

Cat lived with senior dogs for over 5 years. He has lived with current dog without incident for over a year. They even play together. I brought a Chi home for one night to help out a friend.

Cat seemed fine with Chi until Chi after a couple of hours lunged at cat causing cat to run off. Chi did not pursue and is basically a sweet lap potato. Dinner time I baby gated Chi in kitchen to separate all 3 animals and to prevent another incident. Cat went after the Chi first through the gate and then jumped into gated area. Chi is smaller than the cat. Chi was kept out of harms way from cat and vice versa until he went home the following morning.

Before Chi left, he barked at a Comcast repairman stimulating cat to lunge and redirect his aggression towards the resident dog that was on the floor. I was holding the Chi. Cat was crated following the incident. Chi was picked up at 10:30 am. Cat released later in the day and peace and harmony seemed to be restored for a week.

Today the cat attacked the resident dog 3 times unprovoked. The dog has no aggression at all. He is a social love bug. I played with cat until point of disinterest in toy to distract focus from dog and to hopefully wear him out. Immediately following play he seemed focused on the dog who was safely secured behind a closed door.

I am planning to schedule a vet appointment for a wellness check up. Cat was very sick from July to September and never showed aggression towards the dog even during recovery following vet stay and surgery. I have some Gabapentin and read online it works well on cats for anxiety. Hope this helps. Has anyone else dealt with unprovoked cat aggression, if so how?

[xQHDQ]

Cats are funny. They are very scent motivated. Maybe the scent of the other dog is still around and it just sets him off and he’s redirecting his aggression. I would take something of the cat and rub it all over the resident dog to start. My cat was on Prozac for a year before he accepted the dog, who was here first, so I’m all for pharmaceuticals to help. I’m sure you’ll work it out since you had peace previously.

[yankeeclipper]

xQHDQ thank you for responding. I did the gabapentin for a few days and kept them separated when not at home. They seem to be back to playing together and resident kitty seems more relaxed. My dog seems more comfortable around the cat and less fearful. So fingers crossed, we put this behind us. No more fostering for me. It was too stressful for kitty.

[Brnord]

I can attest to the strong scent motivation of cats. We had a Siamese that was normally annoyingly affectionate and even slept like a teddy bear, under the covers, in the arms of my wife every night.

When we brought a second cat into our home, we kept her locked in a bedroom for a few days to acclimate. The mere scent of her turned our original lover boy into a savage beast. He would attack your hand for simply touching him and although he’d still come to bed every night, he’d wake up unprovoked snarling, hissing and biting my wife’s’ hand…imagine waking up to that a few times a night.

After about two weeks of this, he finally went back to his old self around us but he never did fully accept the other cat even after living with her for nearly a decade before he died.

The point is, your cat could very easily be associating the resident dog with the one linked to the stressful event of the initial lunge from the Chi and the cat is obviously reacting with fight instead of flight. I agree with the other posters, put the cats scent on the existing dog and give it some time - things should settle down. I would only use pharma as a last resort.

[yankeeclipper]

Peace and order has been restored. There was some nice ear licking yesterday following kitty head butts to dog. He is definitely back to his usual self.