Stress and anxiety affect our pets too
Stress and anxiety can have debilitating effects on our health, and unfortunately it’s no different for our furry family members either.
This Stress Awareness Month, PDSA Vet Nurse Nina Downing explains how stress affects cats and what you can do to help your feline friend.
“Behavioural changes in cats can often be down to stress, so it’s important to be able to spot the signs as soon as possible,” she said.
Stress can affect your cat’s quality of life. Your cat may be feeling stressed due to a health condition or a change in their circumstances or environment.
Stress itself can cause medical problems, like stress cystitis, which is a painful and potentially dangerous problem for cats.
This means it’s important to be able to notice when your cat is showing signs of stress so you can help them before it gets worse.
Some signs your cat might be feeling stressed include hiding or staying out of the way all the time, eating less than normal, avoiding certain places or people, over-grooming or skin conditions, being more vocal, diarrhoea or vomiting and weight loss.
However, many of these signs can be caused by medical problems as well as stress, so if you’re worried about your cat or they show a sudden change in behaviour, we always recommend contacting your vet for advice.
Cats can be stressed by lots of different things, and not all cats will find the same things stressful,” Nina adds. Some of the common stresses include new animals or people coming into their home or garden and changes around the home including where their food, water and toilet are kept.
One of the biggest causes of stress for cats is changes to their environment or home. This might be as big as moving house or as small as new furniture or carpets.
Changing rooms around or redecorating can really upset them, as can moving their food or water bowls and litter trays. This may even lead them to toileting in the house in strange places so introduce any changes carefully and avoid making too many changes in one go.
Alterations to their territory can also be upsetting to them.
For more information visit pdsa.org.uk
Picture: Pixabay/Pexels
