Placid happy cat now very grumpy! Any ideas?

[sunshine]

We have at home four cats, a male aged 9, then a brother and sister - aged just over 2, and more recently ( two weeks ago) a cute little male kitten aged 13 weeks.

About 6 weeks ago the girl has become very defensive towards her brother, with lots of hissing and growling. Within the last week it has got progressively worse, she is also withdrawn. We took her to the vets yesterday morning to rule out any physical issues. The vet found an ulcer on her tongue (nothing serious - could explain the more recent moodiness!) and also some flea dirt.

All cats have now been de-flea'd.

I can not think of any other reasons as to why she has suddenly become defensive. Her and her brother use to play fight and have the odd tumble, but also plenty of mutual grooming and affection. She also dislikes the kitten and occassionally will have a pop at the oldest boy. Other than perhaps her brother being a bit rough one time, I cannot think why on earth she has changed!

Part of me thinks typcial female cat!

Any suggestions? I am going to see my friend who is a homeopath to see if she can make any recommendations! I am hoping she can because at this rate - home life with the cats is proving exhausting.

[clareparry7]

it could be that she is starting to get a little too much unwanted attention from all the male cats. her brother may of been making it clear that she is his and as a result he may of become a bit more possesive of her witch could be aggrivating her.

has your cat been spayed?

and are all the males entire?

if not then she may well of become savaged by them all at one point.

i have a female and 2 males kittens all from the same litter. the female and her brother did have a close bond, but recently the female has been seperating her self from the rest. i think its becasue they tend to be a bit too boistrous for her at times.

so i feed her seperatly from the males now and let her in a room on her own for parts of the day away from the boys to get some rest.

this could help your cat too.

apart from the injured toungue that could also be making her feel not up for the ussualy playing and grooming , i think it is most likey the reason why she is acting diffrently.

[sunshine]

All the cats are neutered and have been since 5months old.

I can only think that she is going to be one of these narky old women cats, though she is still a youngster!

The ulcer has only been there a couple of days, so agree its probably aggravating her.

Her brother can be a bit boisterous for her and she calls the shots with him, though the older male is the head honcho so she is not as narky with him.

I guess we will never know eh!

[marigold not logged in proper]

Ooh cats eh?! We had some farm kittens once and the girl had kittens of her own a few years later and they all went NUTS. Thye sprayed all the furniture and worse...on the carpet it was awful. They were calmed down with some homeopathy and allowed more places. Sounds ridiculous as they were being so messy but it turned out the just needed some space for themselves. They all got on well after a while. Are you paying loads of attentio to the new kitten? Maybe the girl cat is jealous? I don't think they seem to cope very well wih new members of the household! Ours always take a while to settle if a new one is introduced.
I've just realised I sound like a mad cat lady!!! Anyway just to let you know you aren't alone!

[sunshine]

My husband keeps telling me that if we get any more we will be in the news "mad cat couple in Bucks!

I will pay her more attention for sure!

May be she is jealous!

Will spend some QT with her this evening when I get back from the stables!