How to break up a cat fight
If you’ve never witnessed a cat fight before, there’s no describing the high pitched screaming and fur-a-flying during the process. Then you’ll be able to better understand where the saying “women cat fighting” truly stems from. Cats definitely have an established pecking order (like the head lioness in a pride), but fighting should never be tolerated. ANY cat fight is bad enough to intervene, and should be avoided at all costs. That’s because cat fights can be very dangerous, and can result in deep penetrating bites to the other cat. Fighting can result in severe infections (abscesses), transmission of infectious diseases (such as feline leukemia or kitty AIDS – called FIV), or even sepsis (bacteria entering the blood stream). More importantly, never put yourself at risk by breaking up a fight with your hand (or any other parts of your body!). Cat mouths are very dirty, and can result in a severely infected wound to you, requiring IV antibiotics and hospitalization in some cases. Also, rare infectious diseases (like “cat scratch fever”) can also be transmitted to you if you’re bitten or scratched. When it comes to breaking up a fight, use a broom – or better yet – a stream of water from a garden hose or water bottle… or avoid a fight to start.
Cat fights occur in two environments – when you let your cat outdoors and he meets a new cat exploring “his” territory, or when you introduce a new cat to your household. To prevent and avoid fights, consider keeping your cat indoors, or slowly acclimating cats to new household pets (this may involve isolating the new cat to one room for a week, gradually introducing them to each other, supervising visits initially, and giving each their own private or escape space when fully acclimated).
Tips:
1) In general, avoid owning more than 5 cats – the more you have, the more cat fighting occurs.
2) Even if your cat has tasted the great outdoors, you can transition him to an indoor-only cat. Most vets recommend this for health reasons to prevent trauma, to avoid environmental poisonings found outdoors, and to keep your cat healthier (and fighting less).
3) Inappropriate urinating in the house may be due to kitty litter husbandry, too many cats in the household, or inter-cat aggression.
4) Working with an animal behaviorist or veterinarian to treat inter-cat aggression is key.
Cat fights occur in two environments – when you let your cat outdoors and he meets a new cat exploring “his” territory, or when you introduce a new cat to your household. To prevent and avoid fights, consider keeping your cat indoors, or slowly acclimating cats to new household pets (this may involve isolating the new cat to one room for a week, gradually introducing them to each other, supervising visits initially, and giving each their own private or escape space when fully acclimated).
Tips:
1) In general, avoid owning more than 5 cats – the more you have, the more cat fighting occurs.
2) Even if your cat has tasted the great outdoors, you can transition him to an indoor-only cat. Most vets recommend this for health reasons to prevent trauma, to avoid environmental poisonings found outdoors, and to keep your cat healthier (and fighting less).
3) Inappropriate urinating in the house may be due to kitty litter husbandry, too many cats in the household, or inter-cat aggression.
4) Working with an animal behaviorist or veterinarian to treat inter-cat aggression is key.
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