Melody came home from the vets yesterday morning, and we honestly expected Edna to greet her warmly, having been on her own since Friday morning.

Not the case Ed (normally the follower), has been hissing and growling at Melody, which is a real concern. Melody is still very quiet after her ordeal, and quite frankly I am really concerned.

This morning Ed flew at her again, and I honestly do not think that Melody is strong enough at the moment to cope.

Cat's are a bit of an enigma to me, so would appreciate your thoughts.

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I am not an experienced cat owner (only had mine for about five months now) but could Edna be intimidated by any new smells that Melody (lovely name) has brought home from the vets? That is just my first thought.
I have seen other people advice maybe rubbing some talc into both of their coats to give them the same smell?

HI

that could work

but it may be , that Melody is week now and Edna is taking advantage of that.
so you may need to separate them till Melody is 100% OK.
its a matter of "who is the boss"
and if Melody was always the boss... Edna will try to "overtake" him.

Melody smells 'wrong' probably. Cats rely on their sense of smell to recognise eachother . You often get this reaction after short separations. Especially I think if one has been at the vets or to stud for instance as strong scents can be carried from these places back home and upset the resident cat. Rub the scent glands on the side of their faces and keep alternating to exchange scents, and keep swapping blankets between them too. Some people say rubbing baby powder in them both helps as they both smell the 'same' . They just need a bit of time to settle back.

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Can't add much to whats been said Nina,can you seperate them until Melody has recovered slightly and feeling a bit stronger,once this happens and the smells have resumed their normal waft i'm sure you'll find they'll get along as they did,just give them a bit of space and couple of days hun

i have to agree with this, there's a pecking order and when one's ill it can change the hierarchy and things can be up in the air for a while x

The different smell also doesn't help after any vets visits - try the talc but also give Melody some time to get herself back on track, your boy will then realise that the hierarchy needs to go back to normal as Melody will be strong enough to enforce this xx

take things slow and don't panic xx

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I have to agree to I would keep them apart until melody has recovered fully then you could try the powder on them both and you can also put a sock on your hand and go fuss one make sure you get under the chin and along the flanks and then go do the same to the other and back to the first and that will mix the scents and should help.

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Thank you for your replies. It seems that I have a lot to learn about cats

I will certainly try the talc and keep a close eye on them both. Before Melody got sick, they were quite insperable. I could not really say who had the upper hand. Edna however, has a very close bond with my o/h as does Melody (I might as well not be here ), so when Melody was at the vets, Ed saw her chance to have my o/h all to her self. I guess she saw Melody having all the attention as a step too far.

Perhaps cats are more like dogs than I thought!

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