my cats got nasty

Question
hi jessica my cat gave birth to kittens in march, she was a fantastic mum, this last fortnight she has completely changed. she hisses and growl at them. bites them and is generally horrible to them. my other cat is also being treated the same. she used to be so placid with all of them and as i say a wonderful mum. what has made her change.could she be pregnant again as 2 weeks after giving birth i found her with the father of the kittens. i just cant belive the change in her. she is not a pleasure to have around im afraid. hope you can help. thanks

Answer
Hi Becki.  Sometimes mama cats do become nasty out of the blue.  Sometimes they get tired of nursing and will begin attacking the kittens when they approach.  And it has happened commonly that they'll lash out at any pet around them, and even people.  The amazing cure-all I have discovered is to have them spayed.  I don't completely understand why this makes such a dramatic difference, but it does.  I have a cat named Cahira, so named because it means Warrior Princess, and she was a cat who went out of her way to fight with anything that moved.  Then she was spayed, and two weeks later, she was sweet as pie and is now the even keel in my bunch.  And this is just one example.  I had another mom with a litter the same way this past autumn.  I was concerned she would actually kill the litter she was weaning.  I decided to separate the kittens for their own safety and have her spayed, and now they live together as a happy bunch.

It's possible your cat is pregnant again.  Most often, they do not go into heat until their litter is weaned, but this is not a hard and fast rule.  They can get pregnant again as soon as 2 days after delivering.  But if you think the only time she was exposed to the dad was a couple weeks after giving birth, then she will be about ready to explode with her litter by now, since gestation is 3 months.  If she doesn't appear pregnant, she probably isn't.

What I recommend is to schedule a pre-operative appointment now to have her spayed.  They can tell you then if she's probably pregnant again and if she's still producing milk.  If neither are true, they can schedule her to be spayed.  Once her ovaries are removed, hormonal surges that can cause crankiness will die down, and I think you will be amazed with how nicely her behavior changes.

For now, you may want to see if you can separate her from all the other cats so she doesn't cause them injury or create a permanent rift between them all.