[devilshalo]

I have a small tabby cat who for all of her 6 years of life has been the sweetest, cuddliest, most affectionate little furball anyone could meet. Even her name is Sweetie Pie, for crying out loud!

About 2 months ago she attacked me out of the blue, without provocation. She just walked into the room I was in and started slashing me viciously with her claws. My hands and legs were cut pretty badly. I had to buy a squirt gun and would subsequently squirt her when she came over to attack me again. In between attacks, she just perched in a window sill and hissed and moaned threateningly whenever I came near her.

Three days later, it stopped. Completely! Back to being the most lovey-dovey animal I ever met. The whole ordeal shook me up quite a bit, however, and made me worry it could happen again at any time. I talked to the vet and he suggested she get spayed as it might be a hormonal/"in heat" issue.

I made the appointment for the next month and for all that time up to the time of surgery, she was fine and dandy. All sweet and normal.

She was fixed three weeks ago and has been wonderful ever since until today when she viciously attacked me all over again, out of nowhere!

Her diet has been the same all this time, the vet (pre-surgery) said she was a very healthy cat so I am at a loss here to understand what is going on with her.

After her attack today, I put her in the washroom to give her a time-out. Half and hour later, I opened the door and she came out. I knelt down to see what she was going to be like and she hesitantly approached and I started petting her. She purred and seemed very calm again.

Then she happily trotted away to have a nibble of food while I was in the living room in front of the sofa. Next thing I knew, she leaped on top of the back of the sofa looking down at me with murderous intentions! She bolted down towards me, hissing and howling and I quickly grabbed her at the back of the neck, gently but firmly held her down and tried to talk softly to her. She just kept hissing in response with her ears back waiting for me to let go so she could kill me.

I put her back in the washroom, along with her food, her blanket and her litter box until I talk to the vet tomorrow. I just can't trust her right now.

Have any of you guys ever had a cat go feral on you like this? One second sweet and the next second ready to tear you apart?

Any ideas or advice?

I really love this cat and don't want to have to get rid of her but I can't live with this kind of nagging fear of being sliced apart at any moment either...

 

[Happy Camper]

Give her a VD power cord. They are a favorite of cats.

Have you tried flying lessons?

j/k

 

[freakydrew]

call a priest and have your cat exorcised. now.

seriously though, does your cat ever go outside? been exposed to other cats?

is she spayed or neutured (I never which one for females)?

next time it happens, grab her quickly by the scruff of her neck. this will not hurt her, I promise. You will need to hold her down and assert dominance. she will relax when you are doing this. make sure your cat gets lots of play time. by some cat nip and a laser pointer and have fun for an hour!

 

[ecclesand]

Keep that salmon out of your pocket and your cat will leave you alone.

 

[Marcus_C]

I don't really have much to suggest but IME cats tend to act wierd only when they are either in unusual surroundings, are ill, or someone does something new. I've been the occasional victim of a cat attack but only when I was doing something silly and out of the ordinary. Their senses are very acute.

It seems a bit more likely than a Jekyll and Hyde Character Cat anyway...

 

[nycdoi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ecclesand /img/forum/go_quote.gif Keep that salmon out of your pocket and your cat will leave you alone.

instead of salmon, did u put on some kind of perfume/cologne/body spray?

 

[d.g]

Thats weird, are there any new smells in the house or on yourself that the cat may not like? Any new cats in the immediate neighbourhood?

Here in the uk we have a product called Feliway which is a plug in diffuser that calms the cat, there is also a spray to treat specific areas of a house if a cat is showing signs of anxiety there. Not sure if this might help.

Other than that could it be a developing mental problem of some kind perhaps?

 

[Kees]

Sounds like a brain tumor? Ask the vet.

 

[Deep Funk]

I hope your cat goes outside often enough. Weird...

 

[Guidostrunk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kees /img/forum/go_quote.gif Sounds like a brain tumor? Ask the vet.

Very well possible what Kees said, happened to me about 9 or 10 years ago, and thats what the cat had was a tumor growing on the back of its brain. Have your vet do a scan. Cheers

 

[francisdemarte]

Have you been hanging around someone that also owns a cat? Maybe she's catching a scent of them on you.

 

[wantmyf1]

There's generally not many reasons why a cat will attack. Usually they have to feel threatened or want to assert dominance. Threats can be a change of surroundings, new sounds, new scents or new people or animals. Cats are very sensitive to new scents and have exceptional hearing so it could have to do with one of those possibilities and you might not even be able to detect it.

As suggested above a brain tumor is certainly a possibility, particularly coming right out of the blue like that. Or maybe some other disease that the vet hasn't tested for. Certain parasites could also be responsible for her mood swings. Does she go outside or have contact with other cats? I think a very thorough physiological exam is called for.

I would also suggest you read a book called "The Cat Who Cried for Help" by Nicholas Dodman, Professor of Vetinary Medicine at Tufts University. Great information delivered via case studies on the psychology of cats. Who knows, you might find your exact case in there with what it took to solve the issue.

I have two cats and I wouldn't want anything like this to start happening so Good Luck!

 

[Foshizzle]

SATANIC POSSESSION!!!

 

[Bender Rodriguez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Foshizzle /img/forum/go_quote.gif SATANIC POSSESSION!!!

Complete and utter nonsense. This is unrelated to the OP's dilemma. ALL cats are possessed by Satan.

 

[J W]

You say she likes to sit on the window sill? Is it possible that she's getting riled up because she sees another cat outside?

Or maybe you're doing something annoying (do you breath funny? do you ever sing? listen to music? one of my cats absolutely goes crazy when I play Bjork).

Anyway, look at the contexts of the attacks very closely.