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Senior cat bullies our younger cat, wondering if they should be separated.

Hello, my Wife and I have two cats, Nickoda who is 16 and Perlin who is less than 1.

Nick is my wife's family cat and came with us to our house when we moved in together, I brought Perlin with me all the way from Florida to Calgary.

Nick didn't have very much contact with other cats growing up, so when we first introduced them to eachother it was almost instant aggression. Hissing, batting, chasing him around. Perlin on the other hand wanted nothing but to be friends, calmly approaching, trying to sniff hI'm, attempting to play. Perlin has only ever hissed at him once.

It's been around 7 months now and Nick is still a total jerk to him. Nick makes sure to position himself where he KNOWS perlin has to go so he can harass him. We have two separate food and water bowls and Nick will always steal perlins after Hissing and batting him.

Perlin has changed a lot too, he's much more skiddish around us, he's completely given up on being friends with Nick and will even pick on him every once and a while, and he rarly likes to be held anymore.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Nick, he's the sweetest cat in the world... to people. However I'm worried about Perlin. I'm not sure what the psycho development stages are for cats, but I'm pretty sure being harassed and exposed to aggression on a daily basis may leave him with an agressive disposition. Or something else equally unhealthy.

So here is our situation, Nick has been doing increasingly strange things. Like pooping and peeing in weird places. Her sister and parents think he may be stressed and are offering to take him back to their old house where he used to live. Do you think it would be best to separate them? I'm basing all this under the assumption that Nick's negative behavior is negatively affecting Perlin. However it's possible that perlin just doesn't care and the extra stimulation is just entertaining him. Often times Perlin obviously finds Nick's "bulling" fun.
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874521 tn?1424116797
I think after 7 months if they haven't learned to be friends than it likely isn't going to happen unfortunately. Separating maybe the best option, as long as the other house doesn't have more cats?? Rehoming though is also very stressful on an older cat!!!!
The inappropriate elimination can be due to crystals in Nicks bladder since he is a senior male, this is a very painful condition and they go in places outside of litter box because the pain is associated with that box. Also he is trying to tell you it hurts!!!
He needs a Vet checkup and a urine sample taken to be sure but there is no doubt in my mind he has these since male cats are so prone, part of his aggression could be due to the pain he is in
Number one cause is dry food, it's so dehydrated it causes these stones to build up. Only cure is a totally wet food diet which I urge you to try, just do the transition over slowly
Good luck to both your poor kitties.
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