Hello All Members,
We have been living with our two sweet Bengals for almost a year, they always loved each other, groomed each other and played together from day one. Yesterday Ponty was brought back from the hospital, where he had to spend two nights and had some treatments. He came back feeling better and his symptoms stopped (traditionally with him vomiting and diarrhoea). We could not wait to take him out. When we came back home, his sister, instead of showing him her support (in our silly human understanding), attacked him with her claws and teeth, hissing and growling at him. This situation still persists. We separated them for the night, during the day they pass by each other fine, but every now and then, she does it again. The intensity of her aggression does not decrease, she is just oblivious or distracted most of the time, but when they are left unsupervised, she attacks again.
We have tried smells and rubbing them with same blankets and wipes, brushing them with the same comb, but it may be still too early for their smells to blend like before.
When does it change? Will it ever change? Will they love each other like before? It is such a sad picture to watch those two siblings falling out so suddenly. Ponty does not quite get it yet, as for him she hasn't changed, so he wants to play with her, but he is more and more cautions and ...detached.

We are considering bathing Pony, but he hates it, and is still very stressed after the hospital.

Have you experienced this kind of change in beahviour with your kitties?

Thank you for your advice and suggestions.

All the best,

Marta

Hi

I've had a less extreme version of this, but then Jagger was only at the vet for a microchip so wasn't away for two days. He came back an hour later stinking of surgical spirit, and went running up to Hendrix to get swiped and hissed at for his troubles. He seemed to know the problem (after all he did really stink of whatever they put on him) and spent the whole evening washing himself and even laid down in a litter tray to try to get his scent back. By bed time, they seemed to be pretty much back to normal, but like you, it worried me. Scent is how the identify each other so keep doing what you are doing with the brushing etc as that can only help and eventually your girl will accept him again, once he gets his normal scent back and not 'hospital' scent. I wouldn't suggest washing him as I'm sure he grooms himself and eventually that hospital smell will dissipate.

It may take a bit longer simply because of the longer time away from home. I'm sure someone else on the forum had this issue not so long ago if you search through the posts and I'm fairly certain it sorted itself out eventually.

Hope everything is back to normal for you soon.

One of our moggies (Diesel's best friend) was at the vet all day for a teeth cleaning and when he came home Diesel hissed, growled and swatted at him. It took about 3 days for things to get back to normal.

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Dallas, TX USA
Diesel - snow Bengal born 09/01/2013 adopted Feb 2014
Tuck, Chloe, Buddy, Lewis & Tia - rescue kitties
Clyde, Bleu & Coal - Great Danes

This is really common, although the reaction of your cat seems a bit more extreme than I've personally experienced. When I've had this situation with my cats, they growl and hiss and mostly want to avoid the poor smelly, recovering cat, and it lasts for a few days. A friend of mine had a case where her back-from-the-hospital kitty was shunned for several weeks.

To put this in context though, imagine a smell that you really dislike, that has some really traumatic or unpleasant associations for you, and then imagine that smell magnified 17x (which is how much stronger a cat's smell is than ours). Needless to say it would be really overpowering. Giving a bath might be an option, but like you say it might also further traumatize an already traumatized kitty. I don't really have any specific suggestions beyond what you've already done, except to say that it will get better and very likely to back to how it was before in a couple of weeks. You might need to keep them separated until then though for their own safety.

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The little monsters 3

The vet's office smells pretty medicinal. He's been handled by all different types of people and cat's smell is about 14 times stronger than ours. The odors will wear off in time, but I'm fairly sure this is what is going on. I'm glad he's doing so much better.

Thank you Guys, for your replies. It is the third day today, they kind of played a bit together in the garden, as if the girl forgot for a while that she doesn't like him, then they even touched each other's nose for a very short second and she hissed again. When we keep them busy they seem to be almost ok, but if Ponty gets too close or she does want to emphasise her attitude, she growls like a dog. And he just wants to play as usual! He wants to sleep next to her and he jumps on her for fun like before, but she gives him the cold shoulder and cold claws!
We gave them catnip yesterday and they paid no attention to it!
We cannot leave them alone for one moment, it is like being off work with sick children:)
I hope they will be like the loving siblings again soon.
Thanks a lot for your support,
Marta

Grab yourself a proper chamois leather. Dampen it slightly and rub BOTH kitties all over with it - They will then smell the same, and it tends to activate the oil glands in their coat, making those nasty vet smells vanish.

Works every time!