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Cat Forum / Health and Behavior / February 2006Cat aggression against son
Pattern, our family female 3 year old indoor cat, just spayed week ago, viciously attacked our 10 year son last night. He suffered two gashes from her in his head, requiring trip to emergency room. Stitches required. Also, scratches close to eye and others on sides of his back. Dr. said he was lucky the eye wasn't damaged. Didn't see how it started but believe he was playing down on floor probably directly in her face and she freaked. All my wife and I saw was him standing with cat wrapped around his head and he was trying to pull her off. Hospital asked if incident was an intentional attack or provoked, if intentional, report to animal control would be required. We believe it was a little of both and cat attacked in defense even though he was playing with her. She has shown signs of aggression in past if provoked due to playful activity but nothing as violent as this. I am posting this message to ask if there have been similar incidents to their children and should we pay attention to any signs in cat behavior because of the recent spay. Or, are there any animal behavior experts in this group who tell me if this attack was part an inherent defense mechanism due to a sudden approach directly to the cat. Thank you. > Pattern, our family female 3 year old indoor cat, just spayed week ago, > viciously attacked our 10 year son last night. He suffered two gashes [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > in this group who tell me if this attack was part an inherent defense > mechanism due to a sudden approach directly to the cat. Thank you. She may have been extra defensive because of residual pain from the spay (I know I would have knocked the head off of anyone coming near my stomach after my hysterectomy). I would not only watch the cat's behavior, but closely watch your son's behavior when they play together (sometimes children don't realize how rough they're being and can't empathize with a smaller being). For now I would curtail *any* of your son's playing with your cat, especially any unsupervised play until you can determine the dynamics between the two. Hugs, CatNipped I would not only watch the cat's behavior, but > closely watch your son's behavior when they play together (sometimes > children don't realize how rough they're being and can't empathize with a > smaller being). I would agree. Children can pull a cat's tail very quickly, without the parent seeing what's going on. The cat may have been reacting to this. I remember when I was a child our family cat scratched me pretty badly. My mom asked me what I had done to make the cat scratch me. Sure enough, I had been pulling her tail. For now I would curtail *any* of your son's playing with > your cat, especially any unsupervised play until you can determine the > dynamics between the two. Yes, definitely supervise. I hope you aren't considering declawing the cat, as this could only make the problem worse, and then you'll have a biter. No inherent defense reaction unless your child or some one in the house has been abusive to the furball Please don't take this wrong but 10 year old boys are not the gentlest bunch of the group. at this age they have a tendency to be a rough neck and be extremely curious without any common sense. It sounds like he was rough housing got a little to rambunctious or a little curious and the furball showed him who the boss was the hard way. Specially after her recent operation just imagine your private areas worked on would you like some one even bothering you yet alone touching the area Cats don't attack unless there is a reason during playful activity over stimulus will cause a nip or a scratch but that is the humans fault for not looking at the signs of a cat becoming over stimulated. For a cat to attack likes this there had to be a reason. You saw the child with the cat wrapped around his head. that means he was on the floor face near the cat for what ever reason probably checking out the surgery area or rough housing with the cat. The cat reacted for whatever reason his face was the closest thing to be attacked. Your son out of natural reaction grabbed the cat and rose up natural human instinct to get away from the problems. By trying to forcefully removed the cat on aggravated the situation for the cat was all ready made nervous by the standing up it made the wounds worse than it could have been. You said there has been aggression in the past sounds like your child has not learned his lesson but keeps going back for more. You need to watch both the child and the cat All my kids including myself and everyone out there when we were growing up no matter how much parents tell them what will happen we all would will try it Human beings are inherently stupid when it comes to learning experience you can tell them the pan is hot yet they seem to get burned everytime > Pattern, our family female 3 year old indoor cat, just spayed week ago, > viciously attacked our 10 year son last night. He suffered two gashes [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > in this group who tell me if this attack was part an inherent defense > mechanism due to a sudden approach directly to the cat. Thank you. You must impress on your son and any other children that you cannot play with a cat like you play with a dog. If they do, the cat will get mean. I had to impress this on a neighbor's 35 year old son. Some people find this hard to understand. Sometimes cats will get full of anxiety for no reason that we can see. Good luck. MLB Appreciate all your reponses to my post and will take extra caution. No more trips to ER. Didn't want to be too verbose in my original post but will say here that since her spay week ago, she has been extremely affectionate toward myself and wife, and for the most part, kids too. She's on our lap every chance that is available, not to mention burrowing under covers. Just not like her prior to the surgery. Been wondering if vet gave us back the right cat! Guess kid got to close to her surgery scar. Thanks again. RJP > Appreciate all your reponses to my post and will take extra caution. No ..prior to the surgery. Been > wondering if vet gave us back the right cat! Guess kid got to close to > her surgery scar. Thanks again. RJP why don't you just ask him if he's aggrivating the cat you could turn your web cam into a nanny cam http://www.digi-watcher.com/ that's just one of several programs for the job. although! from your description, I think the cat has already drew the line. Toodles > You must impress on your son and any other children that you cannot play > with a cat like you play with a dog. I have a friend who insists on patting cats like you do dogs. Cats generally don't like it. I hope this situation works out. :(  SignatureWeb site: http://www.slywy.com/ Message board: http://www.slywy.com/phpBB2/ Journal: http://slywy.blogspot.com/ |
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