Hello all,

First off - thanks for the info about the wet cat food (in the thread
"Best wet food for cystitis"), we've got both our cats (only one has
cystitis) on Science Diet now (the kitten won't eat the flavor of kitten
Science Diet that we got, so we're feeding her the Adult 'til we can get
back to the store in a day or two to try another flavor or two).  Yeah, we
know Science Diet might not be the best, but we thought that at least
getting them onto some wet food first would be good, then we can do some
research in the next few days to determine the best food for them.

Now, hopefully somebody (or somebodies) will be able to share some insight
on our situation (it's bound to be a pretty common one, but we haven't
encountered it before).  We would greatly appreciate any feedback because
my wife and I have a gap between our opinions on this matter.

Sharon's cat history (for the past 14 years) has been Leo (a 1 year old
male extremely mellow, loving orange tabby with all 4 paws declawed - he
was declawed before she got him, and yes, we're in the USA), then she got
Pepper (a 1 year old male DSH that she had front declawed) when Leo was
about 2 years old.  Leo and Pepper lived together fairly harmoniously
(they scuffled and played, but not real aggression) and she had both cats
when we met (in 1994).  In early 1996, Leo died and Pepper was alone for
about 6 months.  We got Iggy when Pepper was 4 years old (a male kitten
about 3 months old that we had front declawed) and Iggy and Pepper lived
together fairly harmoniously (see above) after about 2 years, he died of a
heart attack brought on by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (I think that's
what it was called - basically a heart that grows too fast in male
fast-growing kittens).  So Pepper was alone for a few months again until
we got Golddust (a 3 month old female Torby that we had front declawed)
when Pepper was 7 years old.  Pepper and Golddust got along fairly
harmoniously (see above) until Pepper died of lymphoma a few months ago (I
had posted about him in a thread about IBD a while back when the vet
thought he had IBD, but unfortunately it turned out to be lymphoma - he
went on chemo and had a fairly good last year of his life, but it invaded
his bone marrow and that was it).  Golddust was along for a couple of
months, then about a month ago, we got Luna (a 4 month old female that we
believe is pretty much a Blue Tortie Burmese - her personality and looks
fit the descriptions pretty well that we have not had declawed).  So we've
got a 5 month old female with all her claws and a 5 year old female with
only her back claws.  All cats have been spayed/neutered.  Golddust also
had the herpes virus when she was about 1 year old (it showed up by making
one of her eyes watery and swollen almost shut), which will apparently be
in her system forever.  So that's kind of the past history, now on to the
situation.

Golddust is currently going through a bout of cystitis (blood in the pee
started showing up in the middle of last week).  We're not sure about the
cause because the vet said no stones or crystals or bacteria.  We believe
it might be stress-related (with Pepper's death and/or the arrival of Luna
contributing) and we've had our cats on dry food, so it may have just
reached a point where Golddust went over the edge.  She's now on wet food
and Prednisolone and has started peeing much larger volumes each time she
goes (and she doesn't visit the litter box as often).  The vet said it
could also be viral (related to the herpes that's in her system that's
aggravated by stress).

Luna has been fairly aggressive, but we're not sure if it's just kitten
behavior or if it's true aggression.  We've read that female Burmese tend
to want to rule the household (according to the CFA description) and
Golddust tended to be top cat over Pepper (even though he was older), so
we're thinking that Golddust is probably feeling threatened by Luna.  
When we brought Luna in, Golddust hissed and growled (the Exorcist
demon-possessed type growls :-)) quite a bit.  Over the past month,
relations have gotten better, but Luna still pretty much starts every
fight, but I think it's because she wants to play and it's usual kitten
behavior, and Sharon thinks it's because she wants to assert her top-cat
standing and take it away from Golddust.  Golddust just hisses and swats
at her a bit, then runs away.  Luna will chase her sometimes and keep
dinging Golddust (that's the term our vet used).  Other than that, they
use the same litterbox, sleep in the same room at night, sometimes lay
around fairly close to each other, but they won't really play with each
other.  So, to me, it seems like they're tolerating each other and it will
probably get better as time goes on and Luna starts being less kittenish
and settles down a bit.  Sharon thinks that Luna might be a continual
bothersome presence to Golddust and they might never really get along.

We didn't have Luna declawed because I read up on declawing and realized
what kind of operation it was and didn't think we should do it.  Sharon
went along with this, but with reservations because she thought (and still
thinks) that in a fight, Luna might accidentally or instinctively use her
claws on Golddust.  I believe that this might happen, but that the
injuries (if there would be any, since Golddust has a pretty thick coat)  
would be fairly minor.  Sharon believes that the injuries could be serious
(such as a scratched eye or something similar).  It doesn't appear that
she has used her claws on Golddust (she really doesn't use them at all
except on her scratching posts, and occasionally while playing with a
string).  BTW, our vet (cat only) does declawing and he has all of his
cats declawed (all 4 paws) because (in his own words) his wife has spent
25 years accumulating a lot of nice things."  To those of you against
declawing, please don't discount his vet skills on account of that
statement - he's been really good to all of our cats so far and has never
really screwed anything up or caused any harm to any of our cats.  So, the
first of a few questions - Is it a possibility that Luna will use her
claws (either accidentally or on purpose)?  How much of a possibility?

Sharon believes that stress caused by us bringing Luna into our apartment
and Luna having her claws (actually, that Golddust might sense that Luna
has her claws and might use them) might have caused Golddust's cystitis.  
I believe that the cystitis could have been aggravated by the stress of
Luna's arrival, but I don't know if the stress actually caused the
cystitis or if it would've just happened anyway.  I don't believe that the
claws factor into the stress equation.  Anybody got any opinions on this?

Our vet told us that we had about the worst of all possible combinations
of cats - bringing another cat (kitten or adult, he said it doesn't
matter) into a household where there's an adult female.  He said that
males tend to be a lot more forgiving when you bring in another cat (which
has been our entire past experience - an older male with another younger
cat of either gender being brought in).  But I know that there are *lots*
of people that have an older female and bring in a younger cat and it
works out OK.  It may just be the specific personalities of each of our
cats that's not gelling right now, but if anybody has any insight on this,
we'd appreciate it.

So, if you've read this far, thank you very much!  It kind of all boils
down to this - Sharon thinks that it's a possibility that because Luna has
her claws and is aggressive towards Golddust, she will be causing Golddust
stress and might keep making her sick (we don't know if it's a coincidence
or not that the cystitis showed up now).  Sharon also thinks that in any
play scuffling, Luna would have an unfair advantage, therefore making her
the "top cat" by default, and it would be an unfair fight.  Sharon also is
reluctant to leave them along together after this bout with cystitis.  I
believe that the stress is caused just by Luna's existence in our
household, and has nothing to do with the claws (because I don't believe
that the claws will come out during a fight) and that once Luna gets a bit
older and settles down, they'll pretty much be in a truce.  Pepper's death
could also have contributed to the stress, we think.

Any opinions on what's going on with the cats and if they'll eventually
get along or if Luna will constantly be pissing Golddust off and Golddust
will be getting sick all the time or they'll reach a truce or ....?

Thanks again for reading this lengthy post and for any advice....

brian