Offering to help you get over your delusions of grandeur.

circa Thu, 06 May 2004 14:26:09 GMT, in rec.pets.cats.health+behav,
Professor (vze3vvj2@verizon.net) said,

No, you're posting attacks and then slapping an ersatz olive branch
at the end so you can claim magnanimity. You're also quite clearly
ill.

Laura

There are certainly sedatives out there. Valium, phenobarbital. Both used
for treating epilepsy, but perhaps they're used as general sedatives as
well?

It would be worth seeing if it could break the cycle. I wonder if other
seratonin uptake inhibitors (Right?) are effective for cats? Some have no
side effects (to speak of.)

Karen

personality of the owners and the circumstances they live in.  You've
obviously made a great effort with your cats.

Alison,

It's that UK/US difference again. My girls climb the cat trees, chase the
laser pointer, and zip around the house in great spirits every day. (The
latest thing Cheeks likes to do is leap around like a monkey until she has
bunched up the carpet runner on the stone floor in the hall, then lay on her
side and rabbit kick it. Very cute.)

Buddha is very active, eight years old, and has never once in her life been
outside. She plays, she leaps, she lays on her back and contemplates the
ceiling in a Zen trance, licking her little white mittens every couple of
minutes, then leaps up to stalk Cheeky and charges her like a little bull.

It would be cruel to let them out, here, where dogs or cars would certainly
kill them. But I can imagine if I had a lovely walled garden, or just a big
piece of land, no cars zooming past all day and all night, that it would be
hard to imagine that a cat deprived of that could be happy. Here outside
equals injury and death in most urban areas. I wish it weren't so.

Hi Cheryl ,
Sounds a nightmare .!
As I've said before Kim has allergies. I've never had her tested but
I know she is allergic to fleas and it can only take one flea bite to
get her scratching , she is allergic to flea collars too  and the
Acclaim  I spray the carpets with twice a year , if she manages to
lick the spot on flea treatment , it make her bottom lip swell . I
also think she is allergic to her food as well , perhaps the wheat or
the additives. I give her canned food that is wheat and additive free
whioch fortunately she eats . I noticed her coat improved when I
stopped feeding her the ordinary  cat foods. However, since  she has
to have a supplement Cystease which she doesn't like,  the only way to
get her to eat this is to mix it in a50 g Sheba or Felix each day  and
even this small amount seems to affect her coat .
You've seen these before but I posting them again for those that
haven't .
Allergies
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_food_allergies.html

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_inhalant_allergies.html

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_eosinophilic_granuloma.html

About calling in a pet behaviour and calming drugs.
Have you discussed drugs with your vet yet? . She is the one who will
know about them, she might also ask you to consult a behaviourist
first and perhaps recommend one.
You have experience and understanding of cats but  if you find the
right behaviourist , it could be a great help but on the other hand a
not so good one could do more damage.

In the UK , a vet will recommend a behaviourist or you can find one
through

The Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors
http://www.apbc.org.uk/

and
COAPE
http://www.coape.f9.co.uk/
Centre Of Applied Pet Ethology

The COAPE behaviourists generally will come to your house for a visit,
especially for cats as they need to sum up the big picture. They take
note of the lay- out of the house , each cat personality , the owners'
personalities  and the relationship  between cats and owners and the
relationship between the different cats . They assess what the problem
is and what could have caused it. It can be quite a thorough interview
and perhaps upsetting in cases where divorce and bereavement have
occured. There are  always labels for behaviour like redirected
aggression or petting aggression but sometimes  it's never that
simple.

A behaviorists trained by COAPE takes into great consideration the
emotions of the cat and they will make  :
     An emotional assessment of the cat at the time of his
action(behaviour) e,g angry , aroused , frightened.
      A mood state assessment of how he feels generally e.g what is
imposed on him by changing circumstances
      A Reinforcement assessment of why the behaviour persists and
how can the owner reinforce a new associative behaviour.(That's the
hard part!)

You and the cats have been through a great deal of upset and loss and
changes.
From  Shamrock's point of view, he has been through: his past before
he met you , Shadows illness ,  the sad loss of your son, Shamrock's
and your distress and shock at your loss , the introduction  of a new
cat , his own allergies, vet trips and nasty injections.
Any  of this alone could trigger  a change of mood and anxiety in a
cat, so I expect that all of these over a period of time  has made
Shamrock  feel anxious, less competent to be able to deal with life
and more emotionally reactive  He deals with it by being aggressive
whereas other cats might deal with it by beconing more withdrawn.
None of this has been anyone's fault. I think you're doing really well
and I'm surprised that you don't have worse  problems with them.

Also, you said that Bonnie had been chasing Shadow too, so that might
have something to do with it . At the time, you shook a can of pennies
at Bonnie when she chased Shadow , and it's possible that Shamrock
associated the horrid noise with them and he gets aroused and angry
when he sees them . This happens to people too. About 4 years, ago I
had a terrible row with a near neighbour  and even now, if I catch a
glimpse of her I get flooded with  tension  and anxiety , somtimes I
cross over the street or we pass and ignore each other but it wouldn't
take much to start another row .:((

When you seperate Shadow during the day, can Bonnie and Shamrock still
see him? If not maybe you could put something up like a screen door ,
(Pam Johnson Bennet recommends baby gates but maybe a small cat could
get through them) so they can still see each other.  When they meet at
night , catching sight of Shadow won't act as a trigger to Shamrock's
behaviour.
I hope this helps a little bit and I hope I haven't upset or offended
you in any way .
Alison