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Chelsey Stone
Hi y’all! So my husband and I have 4 cats.. 2 are fantastic, no complaints. The other 2 on the other hand…. They’re both gingers and one is supposedly a Maine Coon mix, the other a domestic shorthair.
We adopted Leo (Maine Coon mix) in January 2023. Bart (domestic shorthair) was adopted February 2019. Leo was very timid and shy at first, but once he realized he had a home for good (he was abused previously), he started attacking our other boy cats. I think he just wants to play, but he plays very rough and Bart and Oliver don’t like that, so they hate Leo. When one of them walks past, Leo fixates on them like he’s hunting them. He’ll actually get into that crouched down position as though he’s hunting. We’ve tried playing with him and getting tons of toys for him and none of that seems to work.
For the last 6 mos+, Bart has started peeing outside the litterbox. We know that this has something to do with his discontent with Leo. When we originally got his pee tested, there were no crystals, so it was purely behavioral at that point, but a month or so later when it was retested, he had some crystals and so he was put on Rx food for it. We thought we saw some improvement, but in the last month, it has gotten way worse… He even will jump in the kitchen sink and squat and pee there. We can’t leave anything in a bag on the floor, he’s peed on our counter several times, literally nothing is off limits for this cat to pee on. I’m at my wit’s end with him… He (neutered) also tries to “mount” our female (spayed) cat even though they’re both fixed. When I asked my animal trainer friend about this, she said that could mean that he’s trying to either mate her or dominate her.
When I talked to my animal trainer friend about all of this, her suggestions were to give Leo back to the rescue or isolate him to a room in our house to give the other cats some peace. Unfortunately, Leo has a history of biting (I have a bite from him from October that’s still very visible), and I know I’d have to tell the rescue about that, which they would have to relay to any potential adopters, which would then make him unadoptable. Thankfully, he has stopped biting me to get attention and paws at me instead. He’s also very extremely attached to me and I’m very attached to him so it would be really hard to give him up. I would put him in a room away from the others, but we don’t have a room available to put him in. What we did end up doing was separating them at night – Leo and Tianna stay upstairs, and Oliver and Bart go downstairs so they have a break from each other.
If anyone has any suggestions, I’m totally open to them! I was hoping for some suggestions on herbal supplements for them, like some nervines possibly? Or a formula? Don’t know if Bart also needs some urinary support as well or if his is purely behavioral so he needs something for his brain more? I don’t know… Am hoping Doc Jones will have some input!
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