Cat Chat Feline Forum

Hello

I am not new to having cats but this problem is

I have two cats both now a year old and from same litter brother and sister, both are neutered and always got along.. never an issue until now. the male ..Loki.. is twice the size of his sister ..Echo.. and both long haired cats. Yesterday morning came down to find Echo had soiled herself quite badly and only way to solve this was to bathe her. My husband went to a well known pet franchise and was told to use this shampoo to get rid of it. the shampoo is called fox poo from animology and he was assured it could be used on cats.
After being bathed and wandering around like a drowned rat the behaviour from Loki to his sister changed like a click of the fingers. he no longer recognizes her and will spit, hiss and run away much to echos,and ours, surprise.
I know cats go a lot by smell and realise that this shampoo is covering her scent but ive never had this problem when bathing cats in the past using other shampoos.
Has anyone used this shampoo on their cats with this kind of reaction and will Loki get over not knowing her? Maybe it will take time for her scent to come back but i'm a bit worried he may not recognize her again. Anyone got any tips on re introducing? i dont want them to fight if Echo decides she wants to play

I have never used that shampoo and my first reaction to your post was - what a remarkable cat to let you bath her. My only experience of bathing a full-grown cat (Bobby fell in the bog and came home even MORE black and sticky!) ended with me having to scrub the bathroom walls!

I'm sure someone will have the answer you are looking for, but I was a bit bothered as to WHY she had soiled herself? Has she done it before?

yes she has done it before.. when my husband gave her too many salmon flavoured treats.. and yes he did it again.. last time we just persevered with talc and a hard brush.. but couldnt this time.. as for bathing her i was really apprehensive but she is quite a gentle cat anyway but i used my hubbys biker gloves and i held her and talked quiet to her which helped a lot and my hubby dealt with other end.. wasnt the bad experience we thought it would be though echo wouldnt talk to us for several hours after.. the treats are in the bin with orders of not over feeding

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my daughter said to bath him too but not really keen on having him go through it.. plus hes bigger and heavier.. so harder to manage in a confined space.. she also said get in the shower cubicle and close the door and get him wet and put a bit on him and rinse off.. suggested it to my hubby.. lol

i dont know.. think will see if time helps

thanks for replies

No, don't bath him as well, as then not only will Loki not recognise Echo, Echo won't recognise Loki either!! Try some scent swapping, ie brush Loki, then wipe his fur on Echo, or stroke her with his blanket (or one that smells of her pre-bath), so the scents are restored. It is very common for this to happen when one cat comes back from a stay at the vets, but as soon as her old scent comes back, they should settle down again.

As lilynmitz says, the smell should gradually go and things get back to normal, but scent-swopping would certainly help things along. I also agree that bathing him as well is just as likely to make things worse. From the cat's point of view I think it's not so much the new smell that's the problem, it's the lack of the old one! I hope things settle down.

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thanks for views on this.. i didnt go down the bathing road for both cats after i talked with hubby.. he felt that as one person commented would have echo in same boat so two cats not liking each other.. though i do get what OHWS said.. i may try this if it recurs again.

today was a little better. loki only hissed once at her but he is still shying away and leaving the room when shes there.. he comes over on his terms and will spend time sniffing her back area, i guess with her going to toilet her scent is gradually coming back. the last two nights have been really quiet in the house, normally they run around like demons possessed but loki chose to sleep on our bed instead. i do see them starting to get things back as they were so a few more days should see them ok... does anyone recommend another shampoo that can clean matted fur and not be quite as strong smelling?