My cat attacks me, but dont know why?

[Vik76]

Like a question/story raised on 30 March I have similiar problems with my cat.Last November he started to become vicious and was taken to vet for blood tests, unfortunately a window was left open and the cat fell 2 stories to the ground (he is a house cat and has been from a kitten), 10 days later he was found and got a clean bill of health, though the blood tests had shown some tummy problems, gave him metacalm and changed his diet. Slowly he did calm down, and for the first few weeks I put it down to trauma.
I have had him from a kitten and he is now just over 2, but the attacks on me and visitors have become too regular. I have a felway plug in, bought new toys, another scratching post with different levels and toys on it, play with him as often as I can and as often as he wants and yet still he can turn dangerous in the blink of an eye. His tail goes up he starts to hiss and growl, the eyes grow huge, he arches his back, and then he will take a swipe at me. This is when I have warning he is going to do it, other times the first I know is when I feel the pain and see the blood from where he has got me.
I have had him to the vet and they couldnt help, said physically he was ok.Have tried ignoring him when he gets like that, locking him out the room, spraying him with water, trying to be nice, distracting him with toys, sometimes this works but other times he will actually chase me to attack.
There are evenings where I end up sitting in the bedroom as I dont feel safe around him, and he is quite a big cat and has left me with a couple of bad scars.
I live in a 2 bed flat that he has the run of while I am at work all day, weekends I spend at home with him but he cant go out due to living on the 2nd floor with a security entrance.
Any advice would be appreciated as I hate to see my boy like this as obviously he is unhappy/in pain or something. He will even sit on my knee for cuddles for a little while but then starts to growl and eventually jumps down, I dread the day he doesnt jump down as he would do some very severe damage to me. As a kitten he was never a cat for being picked up or sitting on your knee but the violence and randomness of these attacks and the frequency has me now thinking I may have to rehome him.

[zodiacqueen]

Here is another idea-why not take your cat for a CT scan or an MRI to see if your cat has some kind of brain injury from the fall.  They really do these specialty tests on animals!!  Not kidding.  I've had two of my cats to a cardiologist(specialist for cats).  They had echocardiograms-about $350 to $400.  The CT and MRI will probably be more, and if you can possibly swing the cost of it, it may be worth it to finally get to the truth about your cat's aggressiveness.

PLEASE keep us updated, a lot of us on this forum love the updates and like to hear if our advice has helped!!!

Best wishes

[Vik76]

thanks for your advice on this, will keep trying and persevering, I have read somewhere that camomille on the back of the ears can help? or Rescue Remedy in his water. In some cases prosac for cats was prescribed but that seems a bit drastic, does anyone have any other ideas?

[PrettyKitty1]

If you re-home the cat, he wont probably last very long being the fact that he is now aggressive. He was out for 10 days so my guess is somebody, not an animal but a human abused him. He is acting in a defensive matter and it sounds to me his attitude is that of  "I'll do it before they do it to me again"...very defensive. Try to understand your boy, and think that maybe he had a tough time out there. Look at this article I got from a magazine I trust.
Dealing with aggresive cats:

Do not encourage rough play. You can also clap your hands or use a loud noise when you see him begin to stalk you. Punishment never works in curbing aggression in cats. It simply makes the problem worse. Your cat will become fearful or turn its resentment toward you. Instead, simply withdraw your affection as soon as an incident occurs. Cats quickly learn that life suddenly got more boring after they became aggressive. Be patient. Improvement takes time. A good way to socialize with your cat is by brushing it down with a slicker comb. Be happy with small successes and don’t push the cat too much. Try to read the signals and body language that your cat is giving you before things get out of hand. First try to decide what the stimulus was for the aggression and remove it. Lower the blinds on the window if a stray cat has approached and shoo it away. If the aggression is directed at you leave the cat alone until it calms down. Do not punish or yell at the cat. Turn off the lights in the rooms.  If the cat is highly agitated it is best to wrap it in a beach towel when handling it. Calm your pet and praise it. Once the agitated cat has calmed down, reintroduce the cats slowly.  A food treat comes in very handy in these situations. Remember, even faint smells of another cat can trigger redirected aggression. That is why cats returning from the animal hospital are sometimes attacked by their housemates.

Some health problems, like arthritis may cause the cat to turn into an aggressive pet. You mentioned his health was fine. Have you doouble checked?

[Savas]

I'm guessing he suffered a decent amount of emotional trauma at the hands of humans while out and is having trouble getting over it.

The best thing you can do is pick a tack and stick with it. Be consistent. Often a house cat will get outside and come back with a significant personality change. This isn't necessarily bad; sometimes a little self confidence via aggression is a good thing.

I have one (Pippin) who had a similar experience. She also came back more aggressive, although it's directed at the other cats. She's never really gotten over it and we do our best with her but she's just more aggressive now.

I would say follow the advice I gave in the other post and choose the tack of ignoring her (stare at her deliberately for a few seconds and then look away casually).

treat her like you would an animal that's challenging your status. Don't overpower her, but don't back down.