My cat suddenly started to attack us!

Question

My cat was really calm and remarkably very friendly for a month since the beginning of March. She was sterilized when she was 3, now she is 5 years old. She has always been always aggressive and does not really like to be touched or hugged. But she let us touch or hug her even touch her stomach for a month. She has never hurt us for a month.

Today is the 30th of March, we were watching "Lost" on the TV with my wife and my cat. And we were eating pasta with pork sausage, which turned out to be 5 days past its best-before date. I just sneezed and she looked at me with big eyes, then I thought she wants to help me and then I faked another sneeze. She suddenly started to scream and run towards me. She was attacking to kill me. I hold her like 30 seconds, and she acted like it's OK and then I let her, and then she started to attack my wife. Then I held her and threw in bathroom. Her nails were all over me. She broke her nails attacking me. My arms and hands are completely bleeding out. We had waited for half an hour and she sounded calm, so we let her out again. She walk a little bit to living room and then she turnes to us and started to attack us again. It was unstoppable. I have never experienced something like this, she was like a monster. I threw her into the bedroom and she did not stop. An hour later we checked the room, it turned out she has urinated and soiled the floor which she has never done before. We put everything she needs inside. But I do not know when she will become normal. When we try to talk or open the door she is attacking and screaming. She is also sniffing something.

Maybe the expired pork sausage did it, maybe my sneeze or maybe the end of the March? Please help us.

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Edit: answer.

Thank you so much for your answer. There were a lot of things therefore I can't find the reason. The house was smelling like bad pork, the room was dark, and the day was the end of the March, so it might be related to mating season. But I am sure that my sneeze triggered her. She just looked at me and started to move towards me slowly, then suddenly ran over my wife and attacked me.

The interesting thing is, my wife's roommate and her boyfriend was with the cat last year on the same day. And the guy laughed and then cat started to attack them like a monster and it was really bad. They ran into bedroom and locked themselves. Then my wife came home and held the cat, but she had no idea about the situation. Cat suddenly started to act normal and this never happend again until this year same day.

But this time she is not turning back to normal. We locked her to a room, we put everything inside. But she is not eating anything. She meowed till morning, then we open the door and let her our. We went to other room and waited like 2 hours. Then I opened the door, she was waiting in front of the door. She attacked and I closed the door, 10 seconds later we went outside, she was in the living room. And she urinated and vomited everywhere in the house in two hours, which she never done before.

We tried to talk and calm her, but she was screaming and trying to attack from where she sits. After 30 minutes we decided to put her back to the room. I tried to hold her with a blanket but she was unstoppable. worse then yesterday. She vomited herself while I was trying to hold her. Eventually we put her back to room.

She is always sitting in the same place and never sleeps, just looks outside from the door lock. It is not possible to get inside. We went to vet and had 2 medicines prescribed: Calmex Cat and Feliway Classic. I put some into wet food but she is not eating and I sprayed a pillow and threw inside. These should make her calm, but not sure if it is going to work.

She is acting like we are enemies. She does not recognize us. She is not blinking. I don't know what to do. I just keep her inside for few days. Let's see what will happen. I am open the all suggestions.

Edit: Problem solved. After several months she finally started to act normal. She is not what she used to be she is always afraid when she heard a sound. But at least she is ok with us. We always tries to stay calm with her, she senses if we afraid or worried. So it is really important to stay calm. But most important thing was water. Running or trying to stop her makes everything worse. We used water spray to keep her away when we sense she is going to attack. She really hates water so she just went back and acted like nothing happened after a little water. We started to touch her while holding the spray in one hand and we always walked at home with a water for months. Now after 12 months, we do not need any water. We are sleeping together again. She can attack to others but we can stop her so its ok. We will make it work somehow. We always give water to our guests to make them feel safe. We should have use water at the beginning the we would not had these issues most probably. Thank you all for your replies. If your cat ever goes to evil then just use water! And stay calm. Bye.

Answer 1

Fırat Özkan, I read your question and also your answer. This is a medical emergency. You need to act immediately.

Take your cat to the vet immediately. Also get yourself and your wife checked out by a doctor immediately. The scratches to your hands, arms, and face are dangerous because they are very close to your brain and the cat's germs got into your blood. The cat must be tested for rabies, as well as other illnesses and medical issues. You and your wife must be vaccinated against whatever the cat passed on to you. The vet and your doctor may have to communicate; your doctor will have to know what the cat infected you with. Other than rabies, tetanus is a big concern for my doctor when I get bitten or scratched by a cat or dog.

If you cannot safely catch the cat and take it to the vet, keep it locked up and call the authorities to catch it for you. Be aware that the cat may have to be killed. You say the cat will kill you. This is very sad but better the cat die than you. If the cat must be killed, its body must be tested for rabies, etc. The purpose of this is to vaccinate you and your wife so you won't get sick.

If you can safely catch the cat and get it safely to the vet, the vet can inject it with a sedative. The sedative will calm down the cat so the vet can do blood tests, etc. to find out what is wrong. Do whatever the vet, your doctor, and the public health officials tell you to do. They have experience with cases like this.

If you know that the cat is not sick, and you cannot get to a vet because of lockdown due to COVID-19, here are a few things to consider for calming your cat. After getting my cat five months ago, I had problems and did quite a bit of reading online to find solutions. I forget where I read all the tips but I will share them and also my own experience.

A cat uses three ways to show aggression.

• direct eye contact
• vocalization
• extended claws in cats, extended fingers in humans

You say that just before attacking, you made direct eye contact with your cat, and your cat made direct eye contact with you. I notice this happens every time when my cat play-attacks me. He stares at me several seconds, his pupils get very large and round, and then he jumps on me. His claws are partly out as he grabs my arm or leg or back. He often leaves scratches, and also uses his teeth to play-bite.

This is not much fun for me so I tried to train him not to do it. The usual discipline one uses for animals and children (scolding, prying his mouth open, shaking him off) didn't work. The Youtube How to stop your cat from biting you makes three suggestions (Min. 1:15-1:56):

1. give the cat a time-out (picture shows cat placed in a box or bag; I sometimes hold my cat tightly for a bit; please note that some cats get stimulated and hyper from these things)
2. turn your back for a few minutes
3. put cat in another room for a few minutes

Turning one's back and ignoring an aggressive cat goes against every human instinct; we want to face our attacker and but it works. When my cat is biting and scratching, I detach him and turn my back. He stops. I don't know if it works with your cat because your cat seems to be traumatized.

Here is an article I found just now, Techniques to calm a scared cat, posted by a Cat Rescue Charity. I don't have experience in this but the author says:

These are techniques that I have used successfully to calm a stray cat that lived on the streets for 3 years. She is now this biggest cuddler and purrer that I have.

Here are a few more articles on reputable websites about helping traumatized and/or frightened cats and dogs:

• How to Heal an Emotionally Traumatized Pet

• How to help a frightened cat

Answer 2

You mentioned the cat's eyes were large, but do you know whether it's pupils were dilated? Cats' eyes dilate when they're about to pounce, or when they're scared. If you think back to the situation, perhaps you can remember the cat's body language. Did it seem jumpy? Or did it seem aggressive?

I think a fear reaction is the more likely explanation, since from my experience, cats don't normally get suddenly aggressive at you when you're just sitting around watching TV, and from your description, that sounds much too intense to be play. If it was a fear reaction, it may be that something else unrelated is stressing the cat out and putting it on edge. For example, maybe there are animals outside, or it's seeing something else outside that's freaking it out, or maybe there's something going on in your home that's stressing it out. I'd keep an eye on the cat to observe its body language. A relaxed cat (when not playing) seems sleepy and doesn't move much. A stressed out cat is jumpy and moving around a lot. From there you might be able to pinpoint something specific that's freaking it out, and do what you can to put a stop to it.

There is, however, another possible explanation, that your cat has something medically wrong with it. If you cannot figure out any reasonable explanation for the attack, or maybe you can find some explanation, but you feel the cat's reaction was completely outsized for something that's rather minor, then a trip to the vet might be in order.