So yesterday my 2 cats got in a fight. I got the worst of it.
Long story short. I checked both cats over after the incident and all the blood was mine.
Black cat, Noir, had a little scratched spot on nose and near left eye but looked fine.
This morning I wake up and notice he’s got, what I thought, was some eye goo in his left eye.
As the day goes on into the evening, I notice it’s still there.
I get a qtip and wet the end and try to catch it to pull it out.
I notice at this point it doesn’t look like goo but like the bottom of the eye is cut. Or maybe the extra eye membrane.
It really looked like that.
Now mind you he’s been normal all day and not been rubbing his eye or anything. No drainage or redness but I kinda panicked thinking. “How did I miss this eye injury yesterday when I checked him over!?!”
So I rush him to the ER vet. Cause it literally looks like a cut into his eye with a flap/gash.
We wait like 1.5 hours. While in the exam room I noticed he’s got a big eye booger in the corner of his eye. Dried. Dark. I wipe it off.
A moment later I’m like. Hey. Hold on.
I check his eye again and the “gash” is gone.
It actually was eye goo.
Even the guy who first saw him agreed it looked like a cut.
But I called him over and was like. Yeah. So I think it actually was a booger.
He looked over Noir and agreed. The eye was fine.
Booger.
Flipping eye booger.
Almost cost me $200.
Yeah so my hand is actually infected from a bite. I went to a walk in clinic today and got a tetnus booster and the biggest antibiotic pills I’ve ever seen.
Here is how it all went down.
I was holding one cat when the other attacked.
I have one old cat and one new. (2 months together).
They are slowly getting used to each other. I keep them separated most of the time and at night but I do supervise shared time in the main living area.
My old cat has a bad hip. I was trying to move him to show him a treat I had put out but accidentally grabbed him near his bad hip and he yowled.
Immediately the other cat ran over from across the room and started attacking.
I don’t understand cat logic.
Maybe new cat (who is quite attached to me) thought the old cat was attacking me and ran to my defense. Or maybe thought the yowl sound was an attack on him even though he wasn’t that close by.
I don’t know.
But basically I had to grab the older cat who is quite large and pull him away and up (he was on floor) while trying to push the black cat away.
And I had already grabbed his bad hip which I was further irritating by this quick yanking up I had to do. Further pissing him off while he was also fighting the black cat and yeah.
He bit me a few times in a few seconds. Few moderately bad scratches but the bites were the more serious injury.
The whole ordeal was crazy and I was also really disappointed because I thought there had been some progress with them out together. But now we are back to square one with no shared time in the main living area.
Right now I am in a house with a guest room and the main bedroom is in the back. So it’s easy to block them off from each other. The old cat is content to sleep most of the day in the guest room. He loves that room for some reason so I designated that as his space. Litter box and food in there with some cat things.
The newer cat is locked in the back of the house at night and for first few hours of the day until old cat goes to the guest room. Old cat gets main rooms at night and mornings.
There is a 3rd litter box in the main part of the house. Because packing the other two back and forth got old fast.
It’s been so much drama with these two.
When I have let them out together in main room I have used a spray bottle to keep black cat from approaching old cat. That seems fairly effective. They constantly try to block each others route. Posturing.
I feel bad for being cruel with spray bottle but they can’t be fighting. And they gotta learn to stop antagonizing each other.
The vet assistant did suggest some pheremone scent thing I should try. I’m probably going to try it.
I understand how it went down, it sounds pretty unavoidable given the circumstances. I’m glad you went and got the bites taken care of.
And I also understand why the younger cat would react you the older cat protesting, that sounds like quite the triggering howl.
It can be a nightmare introducing old cats and new cats. I’ve given up myself and will not house any new cats until my current grump passes away, it’s not worth stressing him out over it at this point (nearing 20 years old).
I hope the pheromone helps.
If they are indoor cats, are you making sure to activate them enough? Like playing at least 15 min at least twice a day with each of them, especially the younger one? I mean getting them to chase and jump and climb and bite and finally successfully kill their pray with a snack (can be part of their feeding time). If they’re tired from playing they have less pent up energy turning to aggression.
I play quite a few times with the young one. I also thought maybe wearing him out a bit would make him less hostile.
I do think he’s getting better but for some reason just had a trigger and set him off.
Yeah I’m very protective of my older cat and I also don’t like him to be stressed.
Another time the black cat went after him he defecated. Which makes me think he was terrified. And he didn’t have a great life before me and has chronic pain. So I feel even more responsible to give him the best life I can.
I had no intention of getting another cat but Noir showed up literally on my door step starved and injured. And he needed a home.
I also initially thought Noir was older. But he was just in bad shape.