FELINE AGGRESSION

Feline aggression is not seen in surgery as often as canine aggression but is still a significant behaviour problem.Reported by some animal behaviourists, as being second only to problems of indoor urination or defaecation, be that marking or elimination.

Below, categories for diagnosis of aggression, underlying motivations will be specific and not interdependent:

Affective aggression: Because this is not related to sexual or food gathering behaviours, various types of affective aggression are often not goal directed but are usually initiated by either a somatic (relating to or affecting the body not the mind) or external stimulus that lowers the irritability threshold for the aggression. Genetic factors are related to these behaviours. Some cats that are basically aggressive towards humans or other cats or both, produce offspring showing the same behaviours regardless of how they were raised.  Visual and olfactory stimulation elicit adult like agonistic behaviour patterns as early as 6 weeks of age.

Intermale aggression:  Always proceeded by threat rituals.  Fighting between tomcats is a common and innate form of feline aggression.  Differential diagnosis included competitive, territorial and sexual aggression. 

Pain-induced aggression: Pain effectively elicits defensive aggression and it can cause aggression at levels significantly greater than expected in certain situations because thresholds levels of pain are predicated by littermate play – orphans may not have this learning opportunity. Heavy handling by humans may produce learned ‘pain’ aggression.

Fear-induced aggression: Fear or stress (immediate or perceived), if continued long enough, result in neurosis, and either can produce aggression.  This form of aggression is usually preceded by attempts to avoid escape, indicating that some degree of confinement is present in conjunction with a threatening situation. Frightened animals can react aggressively if escape is not possible when their critical distance is reached by an approaching animal or object. The body posture is usually that of defensive threats, and the cat is growling or hissing.

Forced restraints such as cat bags or throw blankets aggravate the situation.

Maternal aggression: A female’s defence of her young is a form of affective aggression.  Queens with kittens are the least tolerant of approaches by other cats and intruders.  This is one of the few times when the female cat is truly an aggressor, and the display tends to be one of threats over long distances rather than attacks.  Maternal aggression is regulated by hormonal influences on the appropriate hypothalamic centres of the brain and by environmental factors, particularly the presence of the kittens.

Territorial aggression: Defence of territory is relatively common in the cat and is directed towards humans and other cats. Developed to aid in social spacing. A territory can be delineated by areas patrolled or marked via chin rubbing, urine spraying and ‘possibly’ middening. If a cat perceives an offender entering its space, it may threaten or attack – exhibited by both male and female cats. ‘No mans land’ is the free passage through territory for neighbouring cats, usually a party garden wall or fence.  A cat outside its own territory tends to be less aggressive in inverse proportion to the distance from its core area Despotic cats are usually male cats that enter and ‘take-over’ neighbouring cats territory and often enter other felines homes.

Competitive aggression: in the absence of a controlled dominance status or dominance hierarchy (e.g. dominant/subordinate relationships), competitive aggression is associated with threat and submission postures. This is demonstrated typically over particular items and is resolved by fighting or by reacting in a compatible first come, first-served basis – food sources. However, as solo hunters’ protection of food resources has not been seen.

Learned (instrumental) aggression: When aggressive behaviour is reinforced, a cat can learn to use the behaviour to affect a desired result.  Cats are rarely trained to attack but have occasionally learned that aggression can produce results, for example, a child pulls a cats tails the cat shows pain induced aggression by scratching and/or biting and then the child releases the cat.  The cat has learnt to act aggressively toward the child even though child applies no painful stimulus (perceived threat). This can generalise to all humans from one experience.

Play aggression: Directed towards cats and human and the bites tend to be inhibited and the swipes with retracted claws. Cats that are weaned to early do not always learn to moderate their social play e.g. bite inhibition and sheathe claws. Attacks almost always triggered by movement of the ‘victim’ and closely related to predatory behaviour and seldom accompanied by any vocalisation.  Owner should use distancing toys so predation play is directed at toy and avoid close contact whilst playing with cat. Owners should never use physical punishment, incuding water spray.

Sexual aggression: There is some disagreement about this classification, as it may be a type of affective aggression. Some behaviourists see it as a separate classification. The confusion stems from the areas of the brains associated with sexual aggression compared with those associated with other types of affective behaviour.

Predatory aggression: Innate feline behaviour causing problems to some owners. Aim of behaviour is not to communicate with the prey but to chase, catch and kill it! Characterised by silence and by a sequence of distinct behaviour predatory patterns for example the sequence of behaovur might resemble the following

 Eye, stalk, chase, pounce, grasp, and bite.        

This form of aggression differs considerably because it is not a result of fear or threat, but prey capture. Emotions are not involved, so there is little autonomic arousal, making this a type of non-affective agression. For example, when tom cats kill kittens, this is not an affective aggression, as theoretically the kittens are the same size as mice when born.

Redirected aggression: this form of aggression occurs when cat is stimulated to a high state of arousal characterised by aggression and directs that aggression towards a person or animal that was not the cause of the arousal.  Usually occurs when a person or animal approaches or touches the aroused cat. The threshold for the behaviour’s release is very low, and substitute targets are easily found when a third party interrupts the aggressive episode.  Very difficult to treat as it is not always possible to predict or control those things which trigger an episode, owners may have to confine the cat to a single room or very large cage to control the aversive stimuli causing this aggression. However, the treatment of this condition must be supervised by a qualified behaviourist as confinment may crate compromised welfare issues for the cat.

Petting-induced aggression: This may be very distressing for the owners. Resulting from a state of conflict and from a variation in the threshold of tolerance for physical contact. Some theories as to the cause of ‘Petting-induced’ aggression are:

• the Cat enjoys the contact, then reaches a threshold level of tolerance whereby the handling is no longer acceptable.
• Cat enjoys petting so much it falls into a light sleep, oblivious of its surroundings – wakes suddenly not completely orientated is aware only of confinement and fights its way to freedom!!!!
• The aggressive behaviour is a desire or need to control the time when the attention begins and ends e.g. allogrooming usually terminated by the licker/ humans go on for too long.

Feline dispersion aggression: As kittens reach the age of 6 – 12 months, their social play bouts begin to end with a fight. Over time the length of the play gets shorter and the fight segment becomes more intense.  Eventually the frequent aggressive interactions result in the dispersion of the kitten from their home. It is the time of personality change from social kitten to a less social adult. 

If kittens have been separated from littermates previously, the aggressive interactions may still be expressed to owners or other animals. Many owners at least notice that their cat’s personality changes.

Feline asocial aggression: Also known as ‘Retaliatory Aggression’; This form of aggression is shown by older cats toward kittens. The usual scenario is follows :-

When one or two older cats that have been co-specifics dies, the owner replaces the cat with a kitten.  The older cat becomes very aggressive toward the kitten whenever it approaches. The kitten is social and readily approaches the older cat, older cat responds aggressively to the approach. This situation may be difficult to manage as it generally takes several months for the kitten to become less interactive, owner needs to manage the interactions and keep them to a minimum.

Medically induced aggression

• Hypothyroid aggression: “grumpy” T4 screen/Thyroid hormone replacement
• Aggression of seizures: epilepsy
• Irritable aggression
• Others; Blindness, dementia etc.

Pathophysiological aggression: Neurological disorders stemming from conditions such as infection and neoplasia can lead to abnormal behaviours including aggression. The aggression is accompanied by other abnormal and physiological signs in most cases.

Idiopathic aggression: Defined as any primary pathological condition arising as aggression and not as a result of external dysfunction and/or and aggressive disorder of unknown aetiology.

Frustration related aggression:  Frustration related aggression is better described as re-directed aggression, because due to frustration the play/predatory behaviour is re-directed.

Cats remain aroused for up to half an hour after the first challenge and therefore can re-direct their behaviour to something or someone else – (boxing, travelling to the veterinary surgery, first physical encounter with the vet = re-directed aggression). Cats lash out after a sequence due to the release of pressure.

Misdirected Predatory Behaviour : This is not a problem when it’s directed at a toy or other appropriate item. Unless it’s misdirected at people.  However, often encourage by humans as people tend to use their finger(s) and toes to ‘play’ or encourage predatory behaviour in kittens.

Aggression associated with Play : Similar to predatory behaviour but not as much damage as predatory behaviour as it is not meant to kill

Cat to Cat Aggression: This is often misinterpreted by owners as aggression when it is merely rough play and you see these conditions in high density populations of cats, for example in a multi-cat household.

Aggression will cause population destabilisation, therefore territory behaviour is basically about defending resources. Within a household there is little expectation of defensive behaviour around food bowls but space will be fought over.

Outside the house and during hunting times say from dusk to dawn (hunting area) where there is live prey to prey upon then maybe there might be defensive behaviour between the local cat population.