I have two male cats, a shorthair and a longhair, both neutered, that I adopted together as kittens about a year and a half ago. They have always gotten along very well and neither has ever been aggressive in any way, I had never even heard either of them hiss and growl before. They are both exclusively indoor cats. The longhair is definitely the dominant of the two, he is the larger of the two, but only asserts his dominance in passive-aggressive ways, nothing violent. They are both very mellow cats, especially the longhair who is usually very easygoing and loving.

Last week, my shorthair somehow broke his leg. This itself was not a problem, in fact, the longhair seemed a bit concerned when he saw the shorthair limping and heard him meowing in pain. The next day I took the shorthair to the vet and had to leave him there for most of the day so he could get xrays. When I brought him home, the longhair started hissing and growling at him and became very upset, he was even aggressive toward me and my husband. We took the injured cat back to the vet a couple days later for surgery and brougt him home the next day. The aggressive behavior from the longhair has continued. It isn't as severe as it was at first and he is no longer being aggressive with us, but he won't have anything to do with the shorthair anymore and hisses at him if he gets too close. The shorthair occassionally hisses and growls back. This behavior is breaking my heart, they were such good friends before and it is very upsetting to see them acting like this... it has been a week since it first started.

Will it get better, will they get over this and get along again? Is there anything I can do to get them past this? Any advice would be appreciated!

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