Vicious Cat Attack

[Jimboblair]

I have read of unprovoked attacks in your forums.  This week our 2 yr old dsh that we raised from 2 weeks of age made an unprovoked and viscious attack on my wife and I while we were laying on our bed.  She was on the phone and I was watching TV.  I saw the cat get up on the high shelf in the closet and leap off, then from the landing, leaped onto my wife and bit her.  He then jumped and bit her again.  As we were reacting, he lunged at her face and bit the back of her arm as she defended.  I then got inbetween them and he attacked me, biting my leg severly twice.  We managed to fend him off with pillows, but he was totally crazed and had to be chased out.  He remained crazed and I eventually captured him.  We took him to animal control where he was euthanized and will be examined for rabies.  He has been a good cat up until about 3 weeks ago when he started exhibiting extremely "spooked" behaviour.   We miss him dearly, but are just bewildered at what happened.  I have been around cats all my life and never saw anything like this.  We are in a new place with lots of toxic spiders, ie; brown recluse and black widow.  Could a spider bite lead to this kind of behaviour?

[dtab222]

My boyfriend's cat hates me, even after I am continually giving him treats, but never invading his space.  Well he has this problem with attacking me from behind, primarily in the bedroom when my boyfriend is not around.  He usually attacks from underneath the bed, but not always.  He has made me go to the emergency room twice where I was treated for severe cellulitis.  We took him to the vet and he came through fine and our vet offered no solutions.  Is there anything that I can do or he can do, short of giving him away?  I can not trust him and cannot go up to bed alone or get out of bed during the night without waking my boyfriend up to tell me where the cat is.  I can't live in fear anymore, but he loves his cat who he's had since a kitten.  PLEASE HELP!!!  We are both animal lovers and it's killing us to think of what the alternatives are.  THANK YOU!!!

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

I am so sorry about your tragedy!

The following is a list of diseases that can mimic the furious stage of Rabies and could have caused unprovoked aggression in your cat:

Rabies, of course
Pseudorabies
toxoplasmosis;
CNS infection of many causes(viral, fungal, parasitic and insect, or spider bites that carry neurotoxin);
feline infectious peritonitis of the brain;
neoplasia in the brain;
severe head trauma
hepatic encephalopathy;
thiamine deficiency;
poisoning  (lead, mercury or other toxic heavy metal), organochloride compounds, benzoic acid strychnine and many others;
spongiform encephalopathy ("holes" in the brain that develop over time).

I don't know if your cat's body is still available for a post-mortem but it would have been a good idea to check for spider or animal bite wounds, and to perform a toxicology screen to find a definitive diagnosis.  Spongiform encephalopathy, brain cancer, and other forms of encephalopathy can cause aberrant behavior.  There can be neurotoxin in spider bites.  Spider bites usually cause physical symptoms though, in addition to the neurological systems.

Please let us know if you find out anything.  Thanks!