Inappropriate Elimination and Aggressiveness

Sorry in advance for the long post, but we're not sure where to turn. Here's what's happening...we adopted Sophie in 2010 when she was 8 weeks old. At the time, we had two male littermates who were 3 years old. We integrated Sophie very slowly and gradually and it went very well. Both male cats accepted her and there was harmony in the house. In 2015 we moved into a rental for a year while we built a house, then moved into the current house in 2016. Again, no issues among the three cats, and they all adapted well to the move. In December 2017, I happened upon a small male cat (kitten actually) along the side of a dark road and after looking for his owner for a few days, we decided to adopt him. His name is Wilbur and at the time he was approximately 6-7 months old. Again, we went through the slow and painstaking process of integrating him into our home.

The two older males accepted him fairly quickly and the three get along well. However, Sophie has hated Wilbur from the start. Initially, she hissed at him and chased him to the point where he would hide or run to me for protection. As he has grown in size (he's her weight now and may be a little longer/taller too) he has learned to defend himself to some extent, smacking her on the behind and even on the head when they are waiting for food (which, in fact, is one of the only times that they can be together in the same space and she's not attacking him). However he has not chased her back. She often chases and attacks him unprovoked, and yesterday afternoon, she jumped him on a chair while he was asleep and attacked him to the point that my husband had to pull her off and she tried to go back to resume the attack. It got to the point where we could not get Wilbur to visit the litter pans in the basement of the house (always lights on, in an open area) for fear of being attacked, so we put a litter box "cabinet" thing in one of our upstairs rooms for him and he uses that exclusively.

We found out that Sophie was diabetic in August 2018 when she started peeing on the floor in our basement, where the litter pans are. She also peed on the kitchen counter. We figured that was her way of telling us that she was not well, because we've noticed when her glucose spikes (after the random "fur shot" or while we were finding the right food for her) she will pee on the floor in the basement. Vet did a thorough work-up at the diagnosis point and she didn't have anything else wrong with her physically. We explained the behavior issues and the vet said that the peeing could be related to that, but was most likely because of the diabetes. Once we regulated her glucose, the peeing became less frequent - but it was still happening about once a week and was not confined to the basement where 4 of our 5 boxes are. I spoke to the vet about medication and one of the doctors recommended the Prozac, but the other said he didn't think we'd have much success with it (this was two different visits to the vet during Fructosamine checks and wellness checks). We decided to give it a try and put her on it on March 25th - .5 ml once a day.

The first thing we noticed was that she seemed to have occasional runny stools, and with that, she started pooping outside of the box, not just in the basement but in other rooms of the house. However, she seemed to 'chilll out' a bit behaviorally - for a few weeks. Then over the past week or so, she has become more aggressive with more attacks against Wilbur. I plan to call the vet today and am thinking that we should wean off the Prozac, that perhaps that is making the problem worse and not better, but I wanted to check with folks here as well.

When she's not being a "witch with a b," Sophie is very sweet. She does tricks, comes when I call her to check her blood, tolerates that well, and takes her injections well. I have a feeling that she is suffering from "new baby syndrome" meaning that she used to be the baby of our cat family and demanded attention (and got it - like a bratty little sister does). I know she probably feels put out by Wilbur but we recognized this early on and have really tried to give her extra attention because of it. Although, she used to sleep on our bed with us, and now Wilbur does (because he fears her) and she sleeps elsewhere. And she has tried to attack him while he's on our bed (one attack resulted in a bad scratch of my ear during Wilbur's escape).

Any suggestions or advice would be helpful. I know her spreadsheet is not up-to-date and I apologize for that, but her glucose has been regular (unless we mis-shoot) and her Fructosamine levels have been in excellent range according to the vet.

Thanks, folks. We're at our wit's end.

 

Fructosamine can be deceiving because it only gives you an average over time, but doesn’t show extreme highs or lows. I would first recommend you start testing her blood glucose at home to see if the pee incidents are related to high and/or low incidents. This will also help you keep her safer from possible hypoglycemia.

For the behavioral issues, have you thought about CBD oil? I have my grumpy kitty on CBD oil for pancreatitis pain, but I do notice that he is generally more calm since he’s been on it. May be worth a try!

 

For the behavioral issues I've known of some people who have used Feliway and got some good results and there's also https://www.jacksongalaxy.com/products/ultimate-peacemaker.html I've haven't used this particular product but I've been using the Easy breether to help Babu with his allergys and it really works very well so it may be worth a try

 

@SpotsMom thanks. I understand the fructosamine as it's very close to the human A1C test that our son has every 3 months for his type 1 diabetes. We do check her glucose regularly but I have not had the opportunity to update the spreadsheet. I have it on a log sheet in the kitchen. We have noticed that whenever we have a "fur shot" (which is not frequent), her glucose spikes and she pees outside of the box. However, she also pees outside of the box when her glucose is NOT high so that part is behavioral I'm sure. The pooping - maybe it's to do with the prozac - which I'm going to wean her off of immediately based on what the vet told me this afternoon.

The CBD oil is something that I have considered but frankly forgot about so thanks for reminding me! Any particular brand that you recommend?

And by the way, today, after yesterday's aggressive attack, Sophie was rolling around being cute right in front of Wilbur and has been pretty good all day (at least when I've been home). Husband thinks she's schizophrenic.

 

Thanks. We used Feliway when we integrated Wilbur and left it plugged in around the house for quite a while but it did not help her aggressiveness. We also tried the JG products - both peacemaker and bully and neither one made any difference. But I appreciate the response!

 

I use cbdMD (catnip flavor for Spot, orange flavor for myself) because its in a coconut derived oil that has a mild flavor. Spot seems to tolerate it really well. We tried a few other brands and the ones in the stronger flavored hemp oil he could not tolerate at all... he’d immediately start drooling and dry heaving!

Lol of course! The picture of innocence!

 

Again, thanks! I looked it up and it looks pretty reasonable. Should I be consulting with the vet on how much to give her?

 

My vet wasn’t at all familiar with CBD so I’ve just been keeping her in the loop. For dosing, Spot gets 5mg per day now, but he started at 1mg and we worked up. I use a 1ml oral syringe instead of the dropper that comes with it so he gets the same amount each time. If you end up giving too much, you’ll just end up with an extra sleepy kitty, so the risk is very low.

 

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