Fair warning: Stay the fsck out if you have nothing useful to contribute. If you don't like cats or just want to post a typical flamebait comment like "Cats suck", don't bother posting.
Cliffs Notes are not included. Reading comprehension and a attention span longer than 5 seconds are required.
As the title says, I've got a cat problem and thought I'd hit up the boundless wisdom of ATOT for help.
A little background first:
My wife had this cat for 5 years before we got together. We've been together for about 4 years so he's about 9 years old now. I love the little guy dearly since I've lived with him for a few years and we get along famously now. He was apparently abused by a (very) ex-boyfriend of my wife's some time before we got together (he was thrown against a wall by this asshole ex-boyfriend during an argument) and ever since then he's had a mean streak miles wide and absolutely hates people (men in particular), and other cats (with the exception of our other two cats). Not to mention, he was apparently diagnosed as being bipolar by a vet when he was a kitten, so his mood swings back and forth between being the sweetest kitty to being the spawn of Satan.
Fortunately, he did warm up to me after a couple of years of living in the same house and we get along just fine at this point. Unfortunately, he also seems to consider me "his" property and can't stand the fact that our youngest cat (a dominant female who has bonded with me) is so attached to me and I show her a lot of affection. I try to give all 3 cats plenty of attention, but it's not good enough for him, apparently.
This wasn't so much of a problem until recently, it seemed. We've lived in a nice big apartment, things have been nice and quiet for a couple of years and he was actually starting to mellow out a little. Unfortunately, with the birth of our son, he seems to have started getting worse. Every day he decides to attack the youngest cat (he doesn't actually injure her but he smacks the crap out of her with his paws), tear up the carpet or otherwise do something to be a pain in the ass. I'm tired of squirting him with the water bottle (we've trained all 3 cats with the water bottle) and trying to keep him apart from the other cats to reduce the friction. We've got plenty of room in the house for all 3 cats to stay apart from each other, so that's not an issue. As it is, he attacks the other cats or scratches the carpet because he knows it pisses us off, in addition to the jealousy issue.
What we're afraid of is that he's going to get worse and eventually attack our son. If he did that, we'd have no choice but to put him to sleep for the safety of our son. At this point, I just want to try to settle things down somehow so we can have peace and harmony again.
Putting the cat to sleep is the last resort. I don't know if there's anything like cat tranquilizers or something that we can give him to calm him down a little. He's too old and set in his ways for us to really modify his behavior, either. To say nothing of the fact that he's ornery as all hell to begin with. This wasn't really an issue until recently, either.
Any useful suggestions would be very helpful. Fausto, your vet tech experience any help here?
UPDATE: After much discussion, we've decided that the best option is to get him declawed. Yes, we understand what declawing entails and we're NOT thrilled about this idea but it's a hell of a lot better than having him put to sleep. At least if he's declawed, we don't have to worry about him hurting us, the baby or the other cats. We just want to keep him around above all, and hopefully his quality of life won't be degraded by the declawing, but we'll see how it goes.
The vet we've taken our cats to has said that there are medications available, but none of them are 100% effective and might even make him worse mentally, so that's off the list.
Cliffs Notes are not included. Reading comprehension and a attention span longer than 5 seconds are required.
As the title says, I've got a cat problem and thought I'd hit up the boundless wisdom of ATOT for help.
A little background first:
My wife had this cat for 5 years before we got together. We've been together for about 4 years so he's about 9 years old now. I love the little guy dearly since I've lived with him for a few years and we get along famously now. He was apparently abused by a (very) ex-boyfriend of my wife's some time before we got together (he was thrown against a wall by this asshole ex-boyfriend during an argument) and ever since then he's had a mean streak miles wide and absolutely hates people (men in particular), and other cats (with the exception of our other two cats). Not to mention, he was apparently diagnosed as being bipolar by a vet when he was a kitten, so his mood swings back and forth between being the sweetest kitty to being the spawn of Satan.
Fortunately, he did warm up to me after a couple of years of living in the same house and we get along just fine at this point. Unfortunately, he also seems to consider me "his" property and can't stand the fact that our youngest cat (a dominant female who has bonded with me) is so attached to me and I show her a lot of affection. I try to give all 3 cats plenty of attention, but it's not good enough for him, apparently.
This wasn't so much of a problem until recently, it seemed. We've lived in a nice big apartment, things have been nice and quiet for a couple of years and he was actually starting to mellow out a little. Unfortunately, with the birth of our son, he seems to have started getting worse. Every day he decides to attack the youngest cat (he doesn't actually injure her but he smacks the crap out of her with his paws), tear up the carpet or otherwise do something to be a pain in the ass. I'm tired of squirting him with the water bottle (we've trained all 3 cats with the water bottle) and trying to keep him apart from the other cats to reduce the friction. We've got plenty of room in the house for all 3 cats to stay apart from each other, so that's not an issue. As it is, he attacks the other cats or scratches the carpet because he knows it pisses us off, in addition to the jealousy issue.
What we're afraid of is that he's going to get worse and eventually attack our son. If he did that, we'd have no choice but to put him to sleep for the safety of our son. At this point, I just want to try to settle things down somehow so we can have peace and harmony again.
Putting the cat to sleep is the last resort. I don't know if there's anything like cat tranquilizers or something that we can give him to calm him down a little. He's too old and set in his ways for us to really modify his behavior, either. To say nothing of the fact that he's ornery as all hell to begin with. This wasn't really an issue until recently, either.
Any useful suggestions would be very helpful. Fausto, your vet tech experience any help here?
UPDATE: After much discussion, we've decided that the best option is to get him declawed. Yes, we understand what declawing entails and we're NOT thrilled about this idea but it's a hell of a lot better than having him put to sleep. At least if he's declawed, we don't have to worry about him hurting us, the baby or the other cats. We just want to keep him around above all, and hopefully his quality of life won't be degraded by the declawing, but we'll see how it goes.
The vet we've taken our cats to has said that there are medications available, but none of them are 100% effective and might even make him worse mentally, so that's off the list.
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