reintroduction after surgery

Question
QUESTION: One of my 9 year old tom cats has just had a tumor removed from his spine.  Recovery is progressing very well .  He spent 3 days in the hospital and has been home for the past 5 days.  He walks better every day and has jumped onto the bed for the past 2 days.  He is eat well and using his litter box.  Now that he is clearly feeling better he is bored and anxious to leave the bedroom.  His brother, the two have always been very affectionate, has been unhappy about being kept out of his bedroom.  He has hissed at the injured cat on 2 occasions.  I know that can be the smell of the hospital but its still upsetting.  There are 2 other female cats in the house, its a merged household.  The girls and boys have never gotten along though they had a living peace.  Granted in the past part of the peace was my injured boy keeping one of the girls trapped in her bedroom.  How do I safely reintroduce the weak cat to the others?

ANSWER: Lisa,

I would leave them back together and let them all work it out.  Certainly by now the hospital scent is gone, so the two boys, at least, should be doing OK. I would not worry about the occasional hiss.

Usually, in these kinds of cases, any human intervention after about a week or so is counter productive and will lengthen the getting to know you ritual that they will have to go through.  It is almost assure that the two boys will really not hurt each other, so you should just let them be.

Best regards... Norm.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: well Bugsy will be going for some radiation treatment so the hospital scent will return. I think he will be ok with his brother...after some time but I am concerned about the girls.  the smaller one had a very violent verbal  response to him.  If there are any trick to changing that I would appreciate knowing .

Thanks for your help

Lisa

Answer
Lisa,

No, no tricks. Cats know each other by scent and the hospital scent always wears off and, usually, things return to normal. No one is going to hurt the other, so I would not worry about any swearing on behalf of the girls.

All should be OK.

Thank you for keeping me in the loop.

Please let me know how Bugsy's radiation treatment goes.

Best regards... Norm.