My cat keeps attacking me!

[Jodiex]

Hi everyone,

I hope you can help, I am new to this site and my friend who is on here regularly suggested I join as people may be able to help me.

I have had my half ragdoll cat Ollie since he was a kitten and he has always been a feisty little fellow and biting from a young age, however recently since moving into my own place he appears to now have pure hatred towards me and he will go at me like he is going to kill!

I will be sat on the sofa and he'll all of a sudden get an angry look about him and then lunge at me and bite me as hard as he can until he draws blood. I have no idea why he has started doing this, I thought it may because he's always been an indoor cat and has always craved going out. So I have now started letting him outside and now he wakes me up demanding that I let him out and if I don’t he does on a path of destruction to annoy me until he gets his own way.

Ollie has lots and lots of toys to keep him occupied and I even play with the toys with him but this doesn’t make any difference.

Please help!

Jodie

[angieh]

Ouch Jodie! I am very sorry to hear about your problems with Ollie. Firstly, I would make absolutely sure there is nothing physically wrong with him and then I'd try an animal behaviourist. IMO his attacks really must be stopped. He's not happy and neither are you.

I am sorry I can offer no other advice - I've never had to deal with an aggressive cat. Merlin sometimes had his moments but they were the exception rather than the rule.

[PoshPuss]

I'd have to agree with Angie here and say that after ruling out any physical problem then referral to a behaviour specialist is a good call. Take him to your vet and maybe they can refer him on.
Posh is very placid so no idea how to handle this, sorry

[Shelley123]

Welcome to the forum, Jodie.
I can only echo what people have already said about ruling out a physical cause. It sounds very odd in the fact his arracks on you sound aggressive. I did have a Cat once who liked to hide behind doors and bushes and ambush people or the dog but he wouldn't realy hurt you.
Waking you up at night to be let out sounds normal behaviour to me, ours would do that if we didn't have a cat flap.

[dandysmom]

Welcome, Jodie. I agree. a vet checkup and then a behaviorist if needed; that is definitely not normal. if slightly rough, playfulness. You might try a Feliway dispenser in the meantime if you have a wait before he can be seen.

Do let us know what the outcome is.

[Jodiex]

Thank you for all your support everyone, I bought a couple of Feliway dispensers a couple of weeks ago and they havent appeared to have made any difference. I have spoken to a behaviourist but she hasnt been in yet, she told me to use Zylkene as well which also hasnt made any difference. She said if after another couple of weeks there's no change then she'd come in and start finding out what's wrong. I've had cats my whole life but I've never had an agressive cat like this before, it's heart breaking and makes me think I've done something wrong.

Jodie x

[dandysmom]

Jodie, I'm sure you haven't done anything to cause this from your description, please don't blame yourself. Sorry the Zyklene and Feliway haven't helped; sounds as if a vet checkup is the next step. Although I do wonder if it might be psychological, since you said it started after you moved. Does there seem to be anything in the new home that is stressing him and causing this aggressive behavior? Are there unneutered toms around? Just speculating here ......

[Moli]

Is he neutered....We had the same problem with my Oliver, he was down right nasty as a kitten..he would bite and not let go...I had him neutered at 4 months..Everytime he went to bite said No!!!and always held his front paws when holding him...he has settled down now...

[Jodiex]

Hi, yes he is neutered I had this done from a kitten. I did try holding the paw thing when he was younger but that spurred him on, I would let go and he'd still be full of rage and then go after you like he had to have the final say.

Ollie can really be the sweetest little thing and comes up for cuddles and purrs really loudly but then this demon cat takes over him and it's like he's possessed. Recently when I had to take Ollie to the vet to get an injection he refused to let them do it so he had to be put under, afterwards they said that he was really aggressive to them whilst he was in the recovery area.

I think I had a bit of a break through last night, before I moved out on my own Ollie use to have a cushion that was always his, anyone who put their feet on it he went mad and would attack. Now he is using the sofa as his possession, so I tried sitting on the other side of the sofa and he left me alone all night and he curled up and slept. Not sure what this means, but I was thinking perhaps he is territorial? Another indication of this is if I shut the window when he is outside he runs up and goes mad trying to get back in because he doesn’t like me closing off part of his territory, as soon as I open the window again he’ll run off again so it doesn’t make sense.