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cats and dogs
Hi everyone! I have what feels like a really dumb question but I can't seem to find an answer online... my husband and I are staying with some friends temporarily, we have two cats and a dog, they have 7 cats including a foster. One of their cats has started to get super aggressive and is mauling the others (including mine) for no apparent reason. From my understanding he was found and brought home around the nine week mark, and wasn't fixed until almost a year old (he's around a year and a half now I think), has been known to play rough, but this lately is not playing. My question is, our dog is in heat. Would a male cat react to this and trigger more aggression, or if it's just the stress of more people/animals in the house? The dog is not left unsupervised to chase their cats as they haven't to my knowledge ever been around a dog and aren't used to her like our cats are, she is either napping in her crate or we are playing outside. I'm just wondering if her pheromones are a contributing factor to this cat's behavior. Any experience or tips would be great!! Thank you! 
Edit: my screen is showing some sentences and words bolded and in different sizes, if you're seeing that too it's not intentional!
Re: cats and dogs
1) The cat sounds like he's not loving the influx of new animals. It's not easy for cats to adjust to new situations. You should all be doing anything possible to keep all the cats calm and from stressing too much, which could certainly lead to lashing out. Rescue Remedy, Feliway spray, and Feliways diffusers all work naturally to help calm kitties.
Also, if you just threw everyone into the house together without slow introductions/safe spaces, you're more likely to have issues since no one had time to slowly get used to each others' presence.
2) Is there a reason your dog's not fixed? There are plenty of clinics who will do low-cost speuters if cost is an issue. Health risks increase with the more heat cycles a dog goes through. I certainly hope you're not breeding/thinking of breeding her.
B/w 1/8: betas 17,345, progesterone 25.6
Ditto all of this. Introducing animals to each other should be a gradual process - if you didn't do slow, controlled introductions when you moved in, start over and do them now. And definitely get your dog fixed - it may not be the only reason the cat is acting aggressively, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's one of the reasons. Plus, it's just the responsible thing to do given the current pet overpopulation issue.
What breed of dog is it? We have a huge breed dog and it's actually in our contract not to get her spayed until she's 2. Puberty hormones help with her growth and decrease chances of quite a few bone issues..
If it's not something like that, I'm with PPs. You should get her spayed and please don't breed her. That's probably one of many things driving the cat nuts, but my guess is the worst is all the new animals and people. Does he have enough high places to escape to, or out of the way areas to hide in?
Our girl cat was NOT happy when we brought the puppy home, even with slow introductions. But we recently got a new HIGH armoire and since she can now get up there and be high and safe, her attitude is totally different.
You might want to find some place, even a small place, that the male cat can claim as his. That way he has a safe comfort zone and he knows that he owns at least part of his domain and these other people and animals aren't going to push him out and take over.
Hopefully just a few months, I'm trying to get a job and my friends offered to let us stay with them until we can afford a place, but hoping it's soon!
uhhh.. sorry I thought this was replying to individual comments... good grief sorry for all the posts!!
I will also agree with the PPs about Rescue Remedy and Feliway and products like that. When we moved, both of our cats (but the girl cat especially) were very stressed out. The boy cat escaped their safe room once and ended up cowering behind the fridge panting. Loudly. It was scary.
We started using the plug-in variety and it really calmed them down. Now we're using a rescue remedy liquid in their water to help deal with the pup and THAT'S really calmed them down. I will warn, though, that we tried a Feliway collar on the girl cat and she had a pretty bad allergic reaction to it, so you might want to stear clear of those, but the plug-ins and liquid are fabulous for any cat owner.