F1 Female over grooming my other F7 male cats.

[Sean]

Bella is an F1 fixed female that has taken to grooming both of the F7 fixed males
to the point of red sore spots. She has chewed the whiskers off of one of them and is
now doing it to the other. I really don't want to give her up and have tried to distract her
when we see her doing it. I have even changed the sleeping arraignments so that she is
not over night in the same room as the boys. But we can't watch her all the time and
poor Tetsu is a raw mess all four lens and belly are red and missing hair.

I guess I could lock her in one room till the boys get better. But that will only stop
it for a short time and then right back to it. When she is caught in the act she does stop
and move away so I guess that could be called progress.

HELP. I am up for any ideas. I am too far north for Jackson Galaxy to come and help.

Sean

 

[Patti]

Is Bella spayed? This is not uncommon behavior for a female (especially F1) to overgroom her kittens so she may be projecting that onto the boys. I think separating her is a good start but once the boys have healed you might want to try putting bitter apple or other deterrent on them to see if that slows her down.

Alternatively, are there any new stressors/changes that may be upsetting her? If this is related to stress an anxiolytic such as Paxil or Prozac may do the trick (it will NOT alter her personality). You might want to consider consulting with Marilyn Krieger, the Cat Coach for further suggestions: www.thecatcoach.com

 

[admin]

Bella is an F1 fixed female that has taken to grooming both of the F7 fixed males
to the point of red sore spots. She has chewed the whiskers off of one of them and is
now doing it to the other. I really don't want to give her up and have tried to distract her
when we see her doing it. I have even changed the sleeping arraignments so that she is
not over night in the same room as the boys. But we can't watch her all the time and
poor Tetsu is a raw mess all four lens and belly are red and missing hair.

I guess I could lock her in one room till the boys get better. But that will only stop
it for a short time and then right back to it. When she is caught in the act she does stop
and move away so I guess that could be called progress.

HELP. I am up for any ideas. I am too far north for Jackson Galaxy to come and help.

Sean

Sean, when did it start and how old are your F7 males? See if you can remember when it started, since often over grooming is a sign of anxiety in cats...

How often do you play with Bella? Does she get enough exercise? Do you use wand toys?

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

I definitely would advise consulting Marilyn over Jackson Galaxy...all he would tell you is that she is part-wild and that is why she is doing this. Overgrooming can happen in cats for various reasons, the idea would be to identify what Bella's issue is to work out how to modify her behavior. Anxiety does seem a likely cause...

 

[Sean]

I started to put some answers together and found that
I don't have the ages and dates right and will have to check
on the other computer for that.

One thing is when I got her she was being given up do to
there inability to deal with her. Things like outside of the litter
box, escape attempts playing too hard with there 10yo tabby cat.

Here we don't have any litter box problems.As far as escaping
goes she has gotten out once or twice and is easy to get back.
She seems to understand that if you say "No step away from the door"
not the exact wording she will step away.

Toy wise. We have a horse lunging whip that all three cats play with
and the laser and sometimes she just goes nuts about. Mokkun and Bella
both were having a time with it tonight. Bella also has mice toys made
from ribbit skin with a rattle inside and a very large squeaky frog for dogs.

Age. Bella is about 9 Mo older than the boys and they are 3 now I think.
The problem started with Mokkun and now has moved to Tetsu.
I think Mokkun started showing the raw belly about Nov of 2012.
Tetsu was not having any problems until about 1 Mo ago.

If we see her grooming the boys as tell her to stop she does and
tends to move away. Problem with Mokkun is he seems to like it.

When she first came to live here she spent the 1st week in a room
with under the door getting used to each other and then trips out into
the house when the boys were in a room. The face to face was in the
cat carrier and supervised out of the carrier for a few days.
So I don't think it was a case of dumping her in fast but maybe???

Very likely I am missing things and will post more as questions are
asked and as I recall things. I know it could be something small that
we have missed.

I'll let you all think on this and it's off to bed for Bella and I.
Right now she is in my room at night. Seems to like it that way.
During the day it's more like all three hang out in here with me.

Sean

 

[Sean]

We have a vet visit on Friday. They were swamped do to long weekend.

One thing about Bella when she first moved in. She earned
herself a nickname of BooKitty. If she was walking past and
you touch her she would jump in a surprised way. She came
from a family that had a child that was developmentally disabled.
What I don't know is if she was terrorized or not. If she was then
that could be something to look at. She does not like brooms
and is ok with the vacuum cleaner. But that is a built in type
so the noise is not that great.

Sean

 

[Sean]

Well we went to the vet aka Dr Dill. Did not take Bella do to
Mokkun also showing red again. He had a look at both of the
boys and also checked for fleas. None found . Tetsu was really
red today so he got a long acting shot of a steroid. Dr felt that was
a good thing to use with him at this point and if Mokkun keeps up with
his new red spot then he will also get a dose later. Tetsu may be a bit
sleepy for the next day.

Now on to Bella am over grooming mommy cat or at least she thinks that
is her job. She will be getting some Prozac (Fluoxetine Hcl) for 2 mo to see
how she does on it.

We also did some chatting about her and he felt I did a good job on the
interdiction between her and the boys. (always good to here I did it right)

So we will see how this goes and will keep you all posted.

Thanks for the support
Sean

 

[admin]

Sean, I think the Prozac will really help her! Fingers crossed! And glad the boys are ok...

 

[Carykd7kau]

I feel so bad for cats that have issues with nervous or obsessive behavior. Zidi has a bit of over stimulation when she is being petted. She tries to nip. She is getting better as she calms down but she nipped me tonight. No skin broken, but as soon as she did it she realized and ran. Took several minutes to talk her back close to me. So I understansd Sean.

 

[WitchyWoman]

Sean, I hope the Prozac helps Bella. It's stressful when these things happen. Thankfully, there are remedies and strategies available to help change the behavior. Please keep us posted and I'm looking forward to hearing good news from you soon.