I have an approximately 3.5 year old male neutered DSH. From his known history, him and his litter were taken away from the mother before 8 weeks of age, and then the litter was immediately split up and he lived with a female littermate until the previous owners turned both cats outside. He found his way to me about a year later. During that time, I observed he was bullied and chased off by feral toms/other strays in the neighborhood. He sustained an injury, as a result of a fight, to his leg that ultimately made me bring him inside permanently.
He came to us with fear aggression of other cats. Which we addressed with medication and behavior modification. He's since been titrated off of the SSRI's. The fear aggression is no longer an issue with the resident cats. However, with his early life being less than ideal, he's lacking social awareness and isn't great at interacting with the residents. The only remaining issue is that he chases two of the cats. He is not being aggressive with the chasing, but he is failing to "read the room" and routinely misses corrections given by the residents.
With the background out of the way, a couple of questions.
He's been taken off of the SSRI's and his "normal" personality is now able to be observed. This may be a bit anthopomorphizing, but it seems that his lack of motherly correction and cat-to-cat socialization, as well as him being turned out to the street at a young age, has resulted in him always being hyperaware of his surroudings. His fight, flight, freeze, was engaged constantly for such an extended period of time and has remained on since then, rarely allowing him to relax, truly. And that seems to lend itself to periods of restlessness/antsy despite enrichment, play, training, etc.
The question is, have you observed such a behavior in a cat, where they can't seem to "turn off" the stress loop and become restless despite mental and physical enrichment?
If so, what are some different approaches that one could take to help the cat "rewire" the brain to allow for less reactivity and achieving appropriate stress reactions and relaxation?
Thanks!
