Two cats who have been together 10 years have become increasingly violent with each other recently… at a loss
I have 4 cats, two boys and two girls. Three of them have lived together for the past 10 years and one of the girls has been with me five years. Over the past two years my boys have been fighting harder and worse over time. I’ve cleared them of everything medical related several times. Really hoping anyone has any advice or insight. They were super sweet and cuddly with one another up until a couple years ago. Even now, a majority of the day they are fine, but they no longer cuddle
In terms of environmental aspects/changes - I moved around a few times when they were young, but stayed in the same place for 6 years until about a year ago. The fighting started seemingly randomly well before I moved out, they were cleared medically and it was very sparse and not that severe at the time so I felt like it was due to strays outside and such setting them off, even though that had never been a challenge before.
Their fighting has now escalated to become extremely violent, fur flying and screaming and hissing and drawing blood (also destroying the entire house in the process)- both of them have been the aggressor on and off, but one of the two will typically try to run off and my other cat always pursues and continues the fight. These fights have lasted up to 5+ minutes and multiple times a week. Even though I have taken some scars I usually have to step in for their safety (catch one while they’re running and separate them until they calm down). Sometimes I can tell what triggers the fight -for example when they’re running around excited at meal time and someone gets suddenly offended while energy is high- but other times it comes out of nowhere when everyone is seemingly relaxed. Sometimes it’s almost like “you looked at me wrong and now we’re squaring up”
I really just don’t know what to do because we’ve had 8+ years of being good and this just keeps getting worse :(
The girls always stay out of it so it seems like there is tension specifically between the two.
Everyone has been spayed/neutered for ages, healthy as clams, and I live on the second floor so outside factors like stray cats wouldn’t affect anything now to my understanding.
If anyone has had similar experiences or fixes I’d appreciate any input. If I can avoid medication being the only answer I’d like to
*Apologies if this is a little convoluted. I’m posting this after one particularly bad fight. Separated them for an hour and they’re still growling and hissing as soon as they saw each other