attacking cat

Question
Dear Ali

Why has my 11 year old cat suddenly taken to attacking my daughter, husband and my other cat. This has happened in the last 2 days, These attacks are not of the playfull kind but very serious.

Awaiting your response
Fiona

Answer
Fiona,

My recommendation given the sudden onset of this kitty's aggressive behaviour would be to schedule an emergency consult with your veterinarian ASAP to determine if there is a medical reason for your kitty's attacks. Cats can become aggressive suddenly like this for a variety of reasons both medical and behavioural and the first step in this process is to rule out the medical reasons such as hidden sources of pain or various types of illness - your vet may need to perform a variety of diagnostic tests to rule different issues in or out so please be patient with him/her and expect that you may need to put out a bit of money to determine what's going on with your kitty medically. If the issue is behavioural you need to consider whether or not there have been any major changes in your household or whether the kitty has been unintentionally frightened by someone or something in or outside of the house as redirected aggression can sometimes manifest this way. In the meantime for the safety of your daughter, husband, yourself and your other cats my suggestion would be to consider isolating your aggressive kitty in the spare room with all of the usual kitty necessities (food, water, a cozy place to sleep, toys, etc) until your vet has a chance to examine her. If the issue is medical in nature treating her condition should settle things down substantially, if the issue is behavioural in nature you can either ask your veterinarian to recommend an experienced behaviourist to come in and work with your family and your kitty or I can do my best to offer tips via this website, however there are advantages to having someone who is physically able to see what's going on come in and work on a behavioural program to solve issues like these. If you have any further cat related questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me again - I'm more than happy to help in any way that I can.

Kind regards,

Ali