Why is my cat acting so strangely?

by Harmony
(Northampton)

I have two cats. one grey longhaired neutered female (shadow) who is about 4, and a short haired tabby neutered male (sonic) about 6, these two cats used to live quite happily together during the first 2 or so years, but recently sonic is acting quite aggressive towards her, I'm not sure if its just play-fighting or what, because sometimes he'll happily sit with her but recently he's started to pounce on her and attack her for no reason and its all the time. She'll be just sitting there, and he'll come over lick her a few times then start to bite her, then wrestle around, biting scratching and usually she does the same back and starts yowling and hissing at him, so im pretty sure its not play-fighting.

I'm not sure why he does it?

and also, recently our other cat died (shadows son before she got neutered, Axel) of around 3, he wasnt neutered and came home one day in a pretty bad way, and sonic saw. and as a result of that, he's constantly washing himself and pulling unwanted fur off and its gotten to the point where he has balding patches, and he acts really strangly recently, like for instance, he never used to sit with us, always on his own or with shadow. but now he comes up to us and sits on our laps, usually purring or kneading (which is very strange for him!)
but when he kneads, he uses all four legs and kindof crouches twitching his bum a lot as if he's about to poo but he never does, my mum gets quite freaked out and i'd just like to know if theres anything wrong :/

thanks! xx

Answer from Kate
Hi
First thing to check is that your male cat is not suffering from something which is irritating him which would be causing the scratching and his possible bad mood. He may have developed an allergy
https://www.our-happy-cat.com/cat-allergy.html

Or even may have a mite problem. Your first action should be to have him checked by a vet to rule these things out. If he gets the all clear then it is behavioral and would indicate that he is anxious in some way.

If he is anxious then it may due to the recent loss of the other cat which can be upsetting for some cats.

https://www.our-happy-cat.com/scared-cat.html

There are medications and plug in sprays you can buy which are designed to help calm your cat down.

Regarding the cat fights, it sounds more like play to me which the female cat may probably be getting fed up with their frequency and so she is trying to tell him to stay away. The licking before hand from your male cat is an indication that he wants to play. My cats do this to each other when they want to play fight.

The frequency of these play fights should decrease once your male cat feels less anxious.

Hope he is back to his old self soon

Kate

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