sister upset at brother after vet visit

[YC40]

Hello, i need advice. My kitty boy was just treated at the vets for a uti and crystals in his urine, he stayed one night and was sent home on a medicine called Phenoxybenzamine, plus was given a long-lasting anitbiotic injection. When he returned i would have thought his little sister would be happy to see him, however, this was not the case. They were the best of friends and now she just hisses and swaps at him. It has now been 4 days since his return, we gave him a bath to get rid of some of the vet smell he may have had, it has gotten a little better.. she will be ok until she sniffs his face or walks by his face. If we go out to the yard, she will even try and play with him- right up until again she sniffs his face. Could the medicine he is on be affecting the rebonding process? I'm just not sure if she can smell the medicince- if that is even possible. Please help me it breaks my heart to see him sad trying to figure out why his sister is doing this and breaks my heart at how angry she gets with him. I dont think its about reintroducing since they both try to bond. Any advice, suggestions? is there something i can give him to mask the medicine smell?

[zodiacqueen]

No matter how much you bathe him, he will still smell different than the sister.  You might be able to turn things around by using a brush and brushing her first to get her scent on the brush and then brushing him.  OR, you can take a towel/kitty toy, or something else that they play with or use a lot and transfer the scent to both kitties.

Try this and let me know how it goes.

I bet they will be getting along great in no time.

[CML2014]

Hi Y,

I agree with ZQ. Brushing her first to transfer scent is an excellent idea. The Pheno is a muscle relaxer for the urethra to allow the urine to flow better.

It does create some side effects such as nasel congestion , vomiting, low or high blood pressure. Any drug with side effects can easily be picked up by other felines--they have incredible abilities to sniff out things. Perhaps she is picking this up from his breath or nasal cavity through some congestion.

I think once off the antibiotics and phenoxy he will be her loving brother again--right now she is just not sure--but something is just not right with his smell, LOL!

Keep us posted and sure hope the little man feels better real soon.

[AppleBr]

The fact you mentioned about "familiar problems" after his stay at the clinic is perfectly normal and expected.An animal coming from those places brings new smells and so, as well as the use of some medicines
Just be patient and not let them really fight - but dont leave them apart or they never will be friends again
First time it happened in my house was when 2 siblings were spayed at the same time.The one that took more time to recover was rejected for the other .It took about a week for things set down
Recently mama cat Loreena had a bladder surgery to remove a crystal .
She came back home the same day but we had to use a e-collar for she was using a probe.That was a HELL,and for this reasons I had to keep her apart of her sisters for a long .The scenary when I could let them all together as not very hopeful - LOTS of hisses and slaps.No one hurt because kids know well their cat mama :)
Now they are slowly returning to the routine, but Loreena is just licking Lucky, the shyest one.Joy still get some hisses...
Be patient,and good recover to your cat...
N

[YC40]

Thank you so much for your reply. We are now on day six and she is still hissing. I tried dental wipes but not much luck. We have 4 more days of phenoxy left. I'm hoping after that things will get back to normal. In the meantime I will keep brushing them and doing the dental wipe.

[AppleBr]

ps not  her sisters -  her siblings :)

[zodiacqueen]

Hi, the trick is to wipe anything you can on BOTH kitties.  You want them to smell the same to each other.

Do it every day, a few times a day.  See if that helps.