Traumatized males-reintroduction

Question
QUESTION: We have a 22-lb part Bengal male (Joey) who is about 7 years old, and a 15-lb marmalade male who we adopted almost two years ago who is 4-1/2 years old (Mikey). Mikey has what I'd describe as PTSD when he hears another cat scream (accidental stepping on the other cat's tail, for instance) - he goes wild-eyed and either attacks the injured cat or, on one occasion, sunk his claws into my legs and went feral.  Joey has always been aggressive - we never know when he may decide to bite or scratch us, and he doesn't let go, even if you say stop, etc.  Our vet finally prescribed 1/2 Prozak every other day a few years ago - he still isn't nice, but he's manageable.  Mikey and Joey aren't best of friends, but they've basically co-existed - sometimes have boxing matches, but it doesn't go farther.  We also have a petite female, Mia, who is about 6 years old, fairly docile.
About 10 days ago, Mia got her head stuck in a plastic bag and started racing up and down the hallway.  This seemed to have caused Joey to feel frightened and he went nuts, which made Mikey go nuts (not sure which male went first) and turned on each other and started to try to attack, snarling, feral, screaming, growling - quite terrifying to us and it took about 5 minutes to even separate them.  Mikey ended up under the bed with Mia, Joey on top of the bed, and we ultimately dosed him with a full Prozak and got him calmed down enough after a while to lift him up and get him out of the bedroom and into a separate room.  Mikey came out and appeared fine - no after-effects.  We called our vet in the morning and she suggested keeping them apart at all times (we were leaving for a 2-week vacation two days later and had our usual catsitter moving in).  We tried to see if they could be together the next day (while waiting for our vet to call back), but Joey wasn't having any of it and it started to escalate immediately.  Our vet changed Joey's dosage to 1/2 Prozak every day - and they're still apart.  I read about Rescue Remedy.  Is this something that could help here?  We may have to employ a local behaviorist to come in and try to get us through this.  It actually seemed as tho something snapped in Joey's brain (which, as I said, isn't the most stable to begin with).  Both were clearly traumatized by the event - and we don't know what sets Mikey off if he hears another cat cry out, but obviously it brings back terrifying memories to him - don't know enough of his history to speculate.  Any advice you can offer would be so appreciated.  Thanks - Carol

ANSWER: Carol,

In all honesty I think that considering an alternative approach to anti-depressants and other such drugs may be in order since your kitty has really only had his major issues suppressed rather than cured as evidenced by the fact that a simple mishap sent him over the edge so easily. I think that homeopathy, acupuncture and other alternative therapies just might do wonders for this little guy - you can certainly try finding a veterinary homeopath or acupuncturist (some human acupuncturists are willing to treat pets, but the reality is that their acupuncture points are different than those of people so you really want a veterinary acunpuncturist if at all possible), a holistic vet trained in acupuncture/homeopathy or both to help your little guy on his journey to getting well again. A holistic vet would be a great place to start in my opinion as s/he can help to pinpoint trouble spots that you may not think anything of currently and suggest remedies or treatments that may take time to work (but then again so does prozac!), but in my experience they're worth it. Rescue Remedy won't hurt anything and you may be pleasantly surprised to find out how well it can work for all of your cats (because everyone's a bit on edge after that production I'm sure!). I keep Rescue Remedy in our pet first aid kit all of the time because it has been such an effective tool for dealing with fearful, agitated, anxious and traumatized cats and kittens, it's perfectly safe, readily available and has no negative side effects (the same can't be said for psychotropic drugs). I don't recommend dosing your little ones orally since cats tend to hate the smell and taste of anything with alcohol in it and the remedies in Rescue Remedy are preserved in grape alcohol, but you can easily dose them with a minimum of fuss by gently rubbing 3-4 drops into the relatively fur free area on the outside of their ear flaps, you can also gently rub a drop or two of that 3-4 in one dose into the fur between the ears on the top of the cat's head. Bach remedies tend to be quite effective used around the head and face and ideally you'll want to administer them 3-4 times a day until you start seeing improvement then in a case like this taper off the dose and frequency of dosing slowly to avoid unintentionally aggravating this sensitive little man. If you'd like to ask a question of a homeopathic veterinarian I believe there is still one on this website on the Ask A Vet portion by the name of Dr. Christine (or Christina) Chambreau, she's absolutely fantastic but difficult to get in touch with so you'll need some patience. Dr. Chambreau also keeps a pretty respectable list of resources for pet parents who want to provide their pet's care in a more natural way. Please feel free to contact me again at any time with any questions or concerns that you might have - I'm more than willing to help in any way that I can.

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

QUESTION: Thanks, Ali - I'll try to find a place that has Rescue Remedy and try it when we get home.  I have used acupuncture for my (now long gone) 20 year old Maine Coon - not sure it helped her, but she seemed almost to enjoy the process, so that vet may still be around in our area.  Our vet has suggested a behaviorist (we live in the LA area) - do you have any experience with them and if so, do you think one might be effective?  If we try the Rescue Remedy, any sense of how long it might take until we see a difference?  Also, I saw you had discussed putting drops into the pet's water ... but in our case you felt they would be put off with the scent of alcohol - do you not recommend trying it in our case?  All of our cats like drinking water - but if it tastes or smells funny to them, I can imagine they won't try it.  Again, your thoughts are much appreciated.  Thanks, Carol

ANSWER: Carol,

As I mentioned in my initial answer I don't recommend dosing your little ones orally. You can easily dose the cats with a minimum of fuss by gently rubbing 3-4 drops into the relatively fur free area on the outside of their ear flaps, you can also gently rub a drop or two of that 3-4 in one dose into the fur between the ears on the top of the cat's head. It has been my experience that Bach remedies tend to be quite effective used around the head and face. Ideally you'll want to administer them 3-4 times a day until you start seeing improvement then in a case like this taper off the dose and frequency of dosing slowly to avoid unintentionally aggravating this sensitive little man.

You can easily find Rescue Remedy in most health food stores. Since each cat is an individual there's no real way to say for sure exactly how long it will take for any given cat to improve with the right remedy, but in my experience you should start to see a noticeable difference in behaviour within 3-4 days at the outside most if this is the right remedy for your little man - that's not to say he'll be perfect, we're talking about progress here not perfection. Do remember that just because one remedy doesn't fix the problem does not mean that homeopathy doesn't work, it simply means that this wasn't the right remedy for that specific cat at that specific point in time. As my holistic vet says, homeopathy is somewhat like peeling an onion - when you find the right remedy behaviours/medical issues begin slowly resolving and the layers peel away until eventually you get to the last layer and you've got the underlying imbalance to treat, once that's done your layers of issues are gone and you should have a healthy, well balanced cat.

I was somewhat of a skeptic when it came to using homeopathy to treat medical issues up until 2007 even though I'd seen amazing things happen with the behaviour of cats and other pets when the right remedies were given at the right time. During the Menu Foods pet food recalls of 2007 our eldest cat nearly died, she developed severe acute renal failure after eating what was supposed to be a top quality food that hadn't yet been pulled from the shelves of our local pet supply stores. We rushed her to a 24-hr vet clinic where blood work was performed and the results weren't good, the on call vet recommended that we euthanize our girl right there and then, but we weren't prepared to do that without our own vet at least weighing in which she couldn't do at 2 AM. We politely declined the offer of the ER vet to euthanize our girl and brought her and her lab results home to wait for the time when our vet's previous answering service would put us through to her directly - it was an incredibly long 4 hours I must say. When we went over the lab work over the phone our vet asked us to meet her at the clinic ASAP where she examined our girl and recommended that we at least try treating her to see if she'd improve. Our girl was placed on IV fluids and given heavy doses of antibiotics to help treat any possible infection in her kidneys and then we waited. The following day her blood work was repeated with discouraging results - her kidney function had deteriorated further and aside from hope and prayer there wasn't much we could do beyond wait to see if she'd come around. Our vet being much wiser than we were suggested that maybe the blood tests had been repeated too early and that we should give it another 48 hours before repeating the blood work so we did. Again the results were disheartening, our girl's kidney function had again deteriorated. We were sure we'd be saying good-bye to her soon if things didn't turn around and we just weren't ready - apparently neither was she though! Our vet asked our permission to give our girl some homeopathic remedies that would help to settle her kidneys down and allow them to heal, she was honest with us and told us that if this didn't work we might have to consider some tough options so we crossed our fingers and prayed to every deity we could come up with (slight exaggeration, but the desperation was definitely there). Within 24 hours of receiving her first installment of remedies our girl's blood work was repeated and to our delight and surprise her kidneys were functioning completely normally.

She was discharged home on a pricey prescription diet that she refused to eat (apparently cats don't like hospital food any more than humans do!) with instructions to give supplemental fluids at home under the skin. It took some figuring out but we finally got into a routine with fluids that didn't have our girl running for cover. The needles they hand out for giving fluids at home are huge so we bought smaller ones knowing that she might need daily fluids hoping to minimize the pain of repeated injections in the same area. Vet staff administering fluids in a clinic setting aren't able to take the time out for niceties like heating pads and blankets, but we noticed our girl shivering when she got her fluids so we did our best to keep her warm and we rewarded her with illicit tablespoons of tuna for every injection she needed to endure even though conventional medicine at that time said that she shouldn't get such high protein treats. After a year of normal blood work performed every month for three months, then every three months for nine months our vet suggested something virtually unheard of at that time - weaning our girl off of her fluids. We were scared to death because our research had told us that we'd need to give supplemental fluids to our girl for the remainder of her life, but we went ahead and began the process of decreasing her fluids because we hated sticking her with needles just as much or more as she hated being stuck with them. To our great relief our baby girl's kidney values remained normal, her kidneys don't seem scarred on exam and she's completely healthy. She'll be 13 soon and if we'd listened only to the advice given by conventional medicine we would have lost our girl that November night in 2007. We're incredibly grateful for every day we've shared with her since and we hope to share many years with her in the future. Ultimately the moral of this story is that if homeopathy can do what conventional medicine says is impossible and restore kidney function in a cat who had poor odds of survival I see no reason why the right remedies given in the right strengths by a qualified veterinary homeopath (or in our family's case a holistic vet trained and experienced in using homeopathy) wouldn't have the potential to change your fearful little guy's life in amazing positive ways.

As far as behaviourists go in my opinion there are some fantastic folks in the field...I do however have some major concerns - some behaviorists seem to take a superior approach to dealing with clients and their pets, some to the point where they forget about basic common sense techniques that aren't generally taught in school - these are generally the folks who don't believe that anything can be accomplished any way but theirs...Others shy away from working with pets who have fear based issues because it takes an incredible amount of time, patience, experience and insight into a fearful pet's behaviour to help rehabilitate that pet. All too often behaviorists recommend euthanasia for fearful pets...I don't think that this is necessarily the right approach because I've rehabilitated many 'impossible' cases in my time caring for cats and kittens from every background you can possibly imagine and these kids are enjoying life in wonderful loving homes (some of them live with me, others have been adopted out to loving forever families committed to their care for life)....It upsets me to think that a number of these cats had been assessed by people with far more education than me who recommended ending their lives because they either didn't have the knowledge or weren't willing to work with these guys.

In my experience it's more than possible to rehabilitate pets with difficult behaviors, in fact with a gentle, natural approach for as many aspects of their care as possible you'd be surprised at what can be accomplished. My answer is that when it comes to cats all things are possible if you have the patience to be still and quietly outwait them - that's not a statement to be made lightly since cats are masters of outwaiting others! If you want to get a behaviorist's opinion I see no reason why you shouldn't go ahead and get it, but I wouldn't advise making permanent decisions about your cat's life based solely on what any behaviorist tells you because there's a good chance that you might be told that your kitty's fear issues are too great for him to be rehabilitated and it would be kindest to humanely euthanize him. I can offer practical tips that might help to settle your little guy down somewhat, but without seeing his behaviours in action or how he functions within his environment I can't really give the detailed advice I'd like to...My experience with behaviour is largely based on my own observations of everything from a cat's body posture to body language as well as how external factors affect cats with behavioural issues, in other words my knowledge is based purely on experience and instinctively knowing what's going to work for a specific cat at any given time.

I have no doubt that this little guy's fear issues can at worst be made manageable in the sense that he might remain slightly timid - maybe running off to hide when he's startled by changes in his environment, but returning from his hiding place relatively quickly without the aggression attached. The best case scenario with the right handling and treatment is that this little guy could come around completely and be a happy, normal cat. Training and desensitizing this kitty are going to be key and ultimately the best way to figure out which approach is going to work best is to watch your cat closely - what does he work for? Food? Toys? Affection? Once you know what he works for then you've got a way to pay him for learning new skills. Once that's been established you can begin training him slowly but surely even with basic obedience commands (not too much different in principle from humane dog training techniques, at least in my experience having taught my current 3 resident cats to come, sit, sit pretty, beg and stay). Initially I began training my eldest cat to do basic obedience because someone challenged me saying that cats were too stupid to learn to obey simple commands. I always knew that cats were smart, but I admit that I was surprised how quickly she learned the basics. She will perform with or without food present and she's never let me down when it really counted (like when the door to the outside was left open by someone visiting who forgot that our cats don't go outdoors and I asked her to sit and stay when I saw her heading to check out the door, which she did promptly much to the amusement and surprise of my guests). Personally I think that 'Come', 'Sit' and 'Stay' are three lifesaving commands that all cats and dogs should be taught for their own protection because life is unpredictable and it's good to know that your pets have a reliable safety net when life happens.

Here are some basic tips for training a cat to do a basic trick like 'Sit':

- Approach training in as relaxed a mindset as possible. You want to be calm and assertive. Keep your voice at a conversational volume for commands just use an assertive tone when you're giving the command.

- Stay positive!

- Any disciplinary techniques should be kept far away from training sessions - positive reinforcement is key for behaviours you want, ignore the ones you don't want.

- Cats have really short attention spans so when it comes to training keep sessions short, 2-3 minutes at a time works best.

- You'll get to know your cats fairly well if you teach them basic obedience commands like sit and say so you'll learn how long they work well for or even if they simply aren't in the mood at any given time. For example our eldest cat will work at obedience for more than 15 minutes on a day when she's really focused and interested in what we're doing on a good day where our middle cat averages about 2 minutes or so and then he gets bored with the whole thing. Our youngest cat will work indefinitely for food.

- Don't offer lower value rewards at least at first, in other words if your cat works for food offer him real chicken instead of dry pet store cookies (fish tends to be too high value for most cats as they will typically ignore you to get to the fish).

- Keep commands simple 1-2 syllable commands work best for most cats.

- Be consistent. Try to set up regular time each day for training, if you can manage 2 or more sessions a day that would be ideal, but you'll notice that your cat will pick up commands fairly quickly even with once daily training sessions.

- Be patient. If you get frustrated with training your cat will sense it and he won't learn much of anything beyond that you get agitated during training which is a negative for a sensitive cat.

- Be persistant. Stick with it because it's been my experience that cats learn best when they're exposed to training regularly. Besides regular training time will build a phenomenal bond between you, other family members who participate in training and your cats, especially once they start learning commands and performing them reliably.

- Start and end training sessions on a positive note so that your cat begins to look forward to them. Always leave them wanting more because that's motivation for the next training session. Training sessions don't have to be overly formal - you can do training by muting commercials on the evening news. I also find it works best with timid/fearful cats to begin working with them when their curiousity about the reward brings them over to you. I'd also say starting with some type of food reward such as chicken that's been cubed into pieces the size of a pencil eraser would make for good motivation, particularly if your cat likes his food.

- When the cat comes to you for his first lesson reward him.

- I start with a simple command - 'sit' and you accomplish this very much as you would treat training a puppy to sit, hold the chicken over the cat's nose just out of reach then gently move the hand holding the reward backwards, your cat should automatically sit if you've got the technique right.

- As his bum hits the ground you've got a couple of things you need to do simultaneously with him, say 'Sit' in a quiet but firm tone, immediately reward him, and praise him quietly in a positive tone.

- Generally my word is 'Good' when I'm training my cats.

- Each trick my cats know has a verbal command paired with it as well as a hand command in case they should lose their hearing as they age, the hand command doesn't have to be anything fancy each command simply has to have a very different hand signal if you plan to pair hand signals in with training.

I think that training your cat may help to increase his confidence which will hopefully alleviate some of his anxiety. Paired with alternative approaches like homeopathic remedies and acupuncture training is a powerful tool, particularly for a kitty who has shown a more than reasonable amount of anxiety in relatively innocuous situations. Another tool you may want to consider is a massage technique called Tellington Touch - you can often find weekend courses where the technique is taught and I've heard that some pets respond incredibly quickly to this technique. I'm willing to do whatever I can to help in any way that I can from a distance but unfortunately I'm in Canada so it's not practical for me to pop over for a visit to observe this little guy's behaviour and make recommendations regarding training and care that are 100% personalized for your kitty and your home. If you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me again, I'm more than happy to do whatever I can to help with any issues that may arise.

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

QUESTION: I think training each cat could be a good idea ... but we've kept them apart for over 2 weeks ...how would you go about trying to reintroduce them? We're afraid the 22-pounder might try to attack the 15-pounder again (or even vice versa - we just don't know if they may be over their terror of or to each other yet and are almost afraid to try letting them be in the same room (they sniff and see each other through closed doors - no reaction)

Answer
Carol,

I think that between the use of the alternative therapies I've recommended in my previous answers and following a gradual reintroduction technique you should be able to reintroduce the furry kids with a minimum of trauma all around. I would start by swapping out bedding and toys as well as feeding these kids on either side of that closed door. Watch the cats closely to see their reactions but try to keep your personal emotions out of it because cats are very intuitive and they will pick up on negative thoughts or feelings quite quickly (haven't you ever noticed that the first one in the household to know if you've had a rough day is usually the cat?) and that negative energy can contribute to or even in some cases cause further outbursts from sensitive pets. I understand that watching two cats you love get into a nasty fight is traumatic and upsetting, but holding onto that fear and repeatedly reliving it isn't going to help you or your cats get past this one traumatic event.

The cats have probably long forgotten about the upset, but to be on the safe side reintroducing them gradually is the way to go and remedies like Rescue Remedy don't hurt when it comes to tipping the scales towards a positive outcome. You could also add Elm which is another Bach Remedy that does a fantastic job of creating positive interest in life and surroundings for cats in a variety of situations including those recovering from trauma. You'll want to administer the Elm the same way that I suggested for the Rescue Remedy by gently rubbing it into the reasonably fur free portion of skin on the outside of the cats' ear flaps. You can administer these remedies together without a problem, in fact they work well together in my experience.

The fact that these kids are sniffing each other through a closed door and they can see each other without being overly reactive to each other's presence is a very positive sign in my experience. I think that if you go about this gently with a serene and assertive attitude and you take your time your kids should be back to being as friendly as they ever were with each other. Take this journey in baby steps and don't anticipate failure at any stage. The worst case scenario is this - one or the other of the cats gets a bit reactive when you make a change too quickly...The fix is simple, go back to the last step in the journey that your kitty was comfortable at and stay there for a bit longer then try to move ahead again another day. Wipe the slate clean, forget any mistakes that these kids make during this process and above all stay calm and relaxed because this will keep the cats calm and relaxed.

Cats are masters at reading body language since so much of their communication with us and with other cats is all about body language so if you think that you can fool a cat into thinking you're calm and relaxed let me set you straight - you can't because they probably know your normal body language better than you do so you actually have to BE relaxed as you go through this process with them. Rehabilitating cats that can be reactive from a fearful standpoint is all about dealing with these kids when you're at your most relaxed, tools like homeopathy, massage and acupuncture to treat the underlying anxiety and any other issues that might be hiding behind the fear within the cat, obedience training and disciplinary techniques like using a squirt bottle or can of compressed air to stop squabbles from getting out of hand are only a small part of the process.

This is a process that doesn't require fancy equipment or expensive tools. Being completely at peace and in touch with your instincts when you do work with each of these cats is going to be the most valuable thing that you can contribute. I can tell you all about body language and fancy behavioural programs but the bottom line is that you know your cats best, you know instinctively if your mind and body are at peace what the cats are saying. Right now it sounds like there aren't too many hard feelings based on what you've said in this last follow up, in fact it sounds to me like these guys are curious about why there's a door in their way, but on the off chance that I'm missing something (I can't see the cats or the current housing arrangements so I'm sure you understand that I'm at a bit of a disadvantage as far as reliably predicting what would happen if you simply opened the door and walked away to allow the cats to sort things out) the gradual reintroduction is the smartest course of action. I would expect that you should be able to have these guys interacting with each other unsupervised within 1-2 weeks at most.

For now the focus should be just on feeding the two boys on either side of that closed door as close together as they'll tolerate being without any displays of aggression or fear. Then if all goes well in the next few days or so you can begin switching out toys and bedding on a daily basis so that the cats will become accustomed to each others's scents being around their area without any negative things happening. Once you've accomplished having the boys tolerate eating together and using each others' bedding, toys and other items you can try for short supervised visits on neutral ground within the house (in other words don't just let one cat waltz into the room where your other is isolated, that's spoiling for a fight and you don't want to do that....Think living room or spare bedroom where the cats don't normally spend much time so scents are minimal and there aren't any negative associations for anyone involved. Gradually you'll want to increase the amount of time the boys spend together and if they regress slightly and get into a fight it's not a big deal - the simple answer is to keep things positive and if something negative happens between the boys simply go back to the last step where they were completely comfortable with each other. Honestly the only way to mess this up is to allow your fear and anxiety to be a part of this process because cats will pick up on subtle cues in body language and overall demeanor very quickly since that's one of their major ways of communicating with us and each other. If you have any further questions or concerns about this process, please feel free to contact me again - I'll be more than happy to help you early in the new year once the holidays are over.