Help!Cat home from Hospital-other Cat freaked out

[Shelsteree]

I am a new pet owner. My cats, who are litter mates, are less than a year old. One of them became suddenly very ill last Weds and has been at the Vet until last night.He's still sick- he's very dizzy and weak.
His brother, Dragon, has been wining and crying ever since he left. I thought he would be happy when we brought Falcor home. Apparently not.

Before they were thick as thieves. Now Dragon doesn't want anything to do with him. Has hissed at him, smacked him in the face a few times, and runs away when he comes out from under the bed.

What can I do? I'm sure it has to do with Falcor smelling different, and acting different. SOmeone suggested that Dragon is now trying to knock Falcor down off the dominant male pedestal. What can I do to help both of them? Poor kitty can't really stick up for himself- but he looks at Dragon like "I am sooo gonna kick your butt as soon as the room stops spinning"

[Tambrey]

Welcome to our forums...you will find lots of wonderful people and hopefully answers to questions...

It is not unusual that when one pet comes home from the vet, that others will alienate it for a time...the one comes home with a different smell that the others do not recognize...

give them time to get used to each other again...and until Falcor has regained his strength, it might be best to separate the two unless you are there to supervise...

I use a water bottle to give a squirt to whoever is instigating an issue...and that tends to stop the negative behaviors really fast! I actually have a couple of bottles placed strategically around my house! And I get ones with blue nozzles so I know they are JUST for water and NOTHING else...EVER

[gurl2005bby]

My cats did same thing as your cats did... It is the smell of it and it took time for them to get used to each other... What i did is grab of my shirts and start rubbing all over trouble and try to help with the smell.

But if Faclor is still dizzy and sick why not to put bedroom or any places where you spend alot of time and give them bunch of loves

[Tambrey]

that is a great idea to rub one of your shirts on each cat to familiarize them once again with a common scent!!

[Shelsteree]

Thanks!!! well- yesterday I decided to read up on cats. wow- overload. One of the things I read was about how the scent mark everything. So yesterday when I got home from work I started petting Dragon, rubbing those areas specifically and then I went in to rub my hands all over Falcor. Which was easy because before he got sick he was a big baby and now he's even more musshy. Poor thing. I'm going to do the shirt thing tonight. I'll use my youngest sons pajama shirt because he's the one person in the house that they both will let do whatever he wants to them

Then I went back to Dragon and did the same thing.

My husband said that Dragon was being a little less aggressive towards him yesterday during the day anyway. And this morning when I fed them Dragon didn't sit and wait for Falcor to go away before he would eat. He went up and ate right next to him. So I'm thinking it will be alright

Now if only Falcor would get back to normal.... I'll make that heartbreak another post