All living things, including humans and animals can experience anxiety. Anxiety is defined as the anticipation of dangers that usually stimulates some body reactions. Animals, such as cats, can also experience anxiety.
There are some factors stimulating anxiety for cats, such as separation and some changes in the environment they live in. Cats, unlike humans, cannot express their anxiety through words, in fact they show it in some gestures, behaviors or physical symptoms.
It happens most of the time when you adopt a cat from a shelter. Your cat might feel anxious of having new environment to stay in. You can see the ways to deal with your adopted cats on the first night at home so you will be able to make your cat feel more comfortable.
Let’s see and be more aware of the symptoms of cat’s anxiety and what should be done to calm it down. Anxiety is one of the reasons why you should play with your cat.
By understanding the symptoms and the solutions, you can handle the problem better and prevent any uncomfortable situation for your cats.
Symptoms of Cat’s Anxiety
Words can express someone’s anxiety, but not for cats. Cats express their anxiety by their gestures, behaviors or some physical symptoms. As a cat’s owner, you should be aware of these symptoms because they may give you clue about what you should do to solve them.
Physical symptoms might also be shown by anxious cats. Cats which experience anxiety will probably have:
- significant weight loss
- loss of appetite
- poor coat condition
- more eating/drinking than usual
- excretion (urine and feces) less often
- interest in eating non-food items (plastic, paper, etc)
- diarrhea
- vomiting
Besides physical symptoms, cats which experience anxiety will also show some behavioral or gestural symptoms as listed below:
- Hiding Most of The Time
Who doesn’t love to play hide and seek? Everybody does. But, if you find your cat tends to hide all the time, then there must be something you need to pay attention to.
Hiding is an instinct of a cat whenever it feels stressed. Try not to disturb your cat while it is hiding and wait until your cat approaches you by itself.
- “Meowing” a Lot!
Meowing is the way your cat tries to communicate either to other cats or to you as its owner. It is a common thing you know about cat.
However, when your cat starts to meow a lot, you need to be aware of this. Your cat might want your attention and don’t want you to divide your attention to others.
- Over Grooming
Another symptom of cat’s anxiety is over grooming. When your cat starts to lick or scratch its body a lot it, especially when your cat even loses some hairs over some parts of its body, means there is something your cat might be anxious about. It can be a sign of a stressed cat.
- Change in Eatng and Drinking Habit
The change in eating and drinking habit can be a symptom of cat’s anxiety. When your cat starts to eat less often, or even does not have any interest to eat its food, it could be a sign of anxiety or your cat tries to be a picky eater.
Don’t take this symptom easily as it might be a serious sign of your cat’s digestive system as well. There are some reasons why your cat refuses to eat dry food and you might find the solution there.
- Cystitis
Cystitis is a problem of inflammation of the urinary bladder. This problem leads to painful urination. If you see your cat starts peeing more often but only giving out small amount of urine, feeling hard to pee and peeing in odd places then your cat might suffer from cystitis that is resulted from anxiety. If this cystitis happens, you read the tips of how you can help your cat that can’t pee.
After knowing all the symptoms, you might be wondering about the solutions, how you should solve those problems. The first thing you need to do is do a check up to your vet. Make sure that your cat is healthy and not suffering from any serious illness.
After you are sure that your cat is healthy, then the next step will be creating more comfortable environment for your cat. Provide some toys for your cat, so once you leave it in the house, your cat will keep being “busy” and not thinking too much about the anxiety.
And lastly, manage your anxiety as well. Cats are able to sniff their owner’s anxiety. So, keep your body language and voice normal, so your cat will not be anxious about that.
Keeping a pet at home requires attention, awareness and understanding. Once you keep a cat as your pet, you need to understand some signs that it shows, such as signs of scared cats and signs of nervous cats.