Urgent question re: safety, a bit ear and my daughter

[karenlynn79]

My 2.5 yo F5 Zyon jumped about 3 feet across the room today (I did not witness) and bit my 9 yo daughter's ear very hard, and apparently would not let go. He got her pretty good in 3 different places, both sides of ear and behind her ear on her head. Lots of blood, he also tangled her hair and yanked it.
This is 100% completely out of the blue. We've had Zyon for over two years. He is very sweet and gentle, at times he can be quasi aggressive when playing, but is very easily directed with a stern NO. He has nipped me or my husband a few times over the years, usually after we've been gone for a few days or something.
We got our new baby boy who is almost 5 months old. We've had him nearly 2 months now. We did everything right, intros were perfect, they get along very well, groom each other etc. There hasn't been a single real fight or anything else between them.

My daughter was in our living room alone, playing with some toys with both cats. She was sitting on the floor which we always do while playing. She says that she was looking @ the kitten, thought she saw Zyon look at him too, then out of blue with no warning he leapt at her and basically went straight for her ear and she was screaming VERY loudly, blood, etc.. He got her really good, I can see where his teeth were on both sides of her ear, it looks like he bit then scraped his teeth as there are lines of small tears.

Evee my daughter, is never, ever rough, never provokes, both my kids are great with animals and very gentle and careful.

I'm truly at a loss here. She's alone with them all the time, if I'm in shower or whatever. As far as we can tell, there is nothing new, no circumstance that might partially explain this. None of us have ever been scared of Zyon. Now I'm super freaked out. He's locked in my bedroom, it happened about an hour ago.

I don't really know what to do, but now I'm scared to have either of my kids anywhere alone with him, which will be impossible.

??

 

[Patti]

Wow, that is scary! I would strongly suggest you have your daughter looked at by a health care provider because she may need antibiotics, and the sooner they are started the quicker the infection can be controlled.

I am not sure but it sounds like this may have been an episode of redirected aggression. He perceives the kitten as moving in on his territory, and 'favored' by the family so instead of attacking it he strikes out at the next nearest subject. I may be wrong so check out this article: http://www.catster.com/lifestyle/cat-behavior-tips-redirected-aggression-in-cats

I would also seriously consider discussing this with a cat behaviorist such as Marilyn Krieger: www.thecatcoach.com as this is a grave and frightening concern.

 

[karenlynn79]

Thanks so much Patti. I had no idea that she'd have to go to the doctor. I talked with a nurse and made an appt - she definitely said cats bacteria can cause severe infections and Evee will need a tetanus shot (which is going to be ugly, she has a near-phobia of shots).

I also emailed Marilyn Krieger so hopefully I'll hear back soon. In the meantime we're keeping a close eye on Zyon and his body language etc.. which we're pretty good at already. Also we're going to try to prevent Evee being alone with him, as well as avoiding having her play with him or RP (kitten) while Zyon is around.

Long-term I'm not sure what to do, I guess we'll have to see what happens. If only there were some antecedent that we could figure out, in order to avoid it in the future...

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

Completely agreed with Patti on seeking medical attention for your daughter, best to be safe than sorry when it comes to cat bites.

This is quite shocking and incomprehensible behavior, you have to be freaked out and your poor daughter too.

I think Patti may be correct and it is redirected aggression or else Zyon interpreted RP's play noises as being upset and instead thought that maybe your daughter was harming the kitten and leaped to protect him?

Zyon is not declawed is he? Just thought I would ask as a declawed cat is far more likely to use teeth than a cat with claws.

I also agree that Marilyn would be a good choice to be able to interpret what happened here and hope to find a way to work through this. Is Zyon calm now? Of course if you can't calm down (understandably) it may keep him on edge. So sad for you, this is a horrible situation.

 

[Rob1984]

maybe he was jealous but my first thought was what bridgette said maybe he thought he was protecting the kitten

 

[karenlynn79]

Completely agreed with Patti on seeking medical attention for your daughter, best to be safe than sorry when it comes to cat bites.

This is quite shocking and incomprehensible behavior, you have to be freaked out and your poor daughter too.

I think Patti may be correct and it is redirected aggression or else Zyon interpreted RP's play noises as being upset and instead thought that maybe your daughter was harming the kitten and leaped to protect him?

Zyon is not declawed is he? Just thought I would ask as a declawed cat is far more likely to use teeth than a cat with claws.

I also agree that Marilyn would be a good choice to be able to interpret what happened here and hope to find a way to work through this. Is Zyon calm now? Of course if you can't calm down (understandably) it may keep him on edge. So sad for you, this is a horrible situation.

No he isn't declawed, and yes he has been calm since the moment she started screaming and kind of pushed him off of her. When I got there seconds later he was across the room as was RP, just kind of staring at us, startled. He's been fine since. My daughter feels more hurt (emotionally) than scared. Our kids and us too, are animal lovers and she understands that animals are not people and sometimes their behavior doesn't make sense to us, so the atmosphere here is same as always, thank goodness. I'm more worried now that the doctor has to report this or something? Isn't that the case with dog bites?

I also feel it must have been either jealousy (though we make sure to give Zyon loves and time as much as RP, at least try to) or maybe he did feel like Evee was somehow hurting RP, though she denies holding him or grabbing at him, which she usually doesn't do. BUT now that I think about it, RP does tend to growl at Zyon when RP has a toy that he likes and doesn't want Zyon to take it. Zyon is often the submissive one and has never attempted to take his toys. RP stops growling when I say no and he has never growled at us, even if I take the toy he likes. I guess it's possible that he was growling in play because Zyon was there, and somehow Z thought he felt threatened by Evee. Man I wish I could read cats' minds!

 

[Patti]

I have been told both that cat bites need to be reported and that they don't, so I think it depends on where you live. If you are asked for more information on the cat - and you feel comfortable doing so, I would tell them it was a stray that your daughter crossed paths with. Depending on where you are, they may require quarantine or worse...

 

[Cathouse1]

Depends on your state. In Texas it is a mandatory 10 of 14 day quarantine. My wife separated two of our cats that were fighting and took a few bad bites. Went to the ER and they called animal control before she was even bandaged. Told we had to provide the animal for testing/quarantine or she had to get rabies vaccinations. Was a costly and painful lesson to learn. Along the way we were told cats mouths have more bacteria than dogs, and the only bite worse than a cats is a bite from a human.

 

[karenlynn79]

As far as animal control goes, I did talk to an officer because our doctor/nurse reported it. I was really stressed all day but I talked with the animal control officer already and thank goodness because it occurred in the home and during play, nothing else needs to happen (I'm assuming, unless something else similar occurs). So at least that is out of the way as far as that goes. I'm working on figuring out a consult with Marilyn and in the meantime we're continuing to keep a close eye on him, as well as his interactions with us and RP. Thanks so much everyone for the help! I'll keep posted if anything changes...