Natural Pet Health

While you may not realize it, your pet can suffer from stress, just like you do. It certainly won’t be the same kind of stress you feel, such as paying the bills or getting to work on time, but it is very real to your pet. Pet stress can cause a variety of problems with your pet, so as a good pet owner, it is a good idea to know how to recognize the signs and what to do.

Dogs probably show signs of stress more than cats, although cats feel it, too. Stress in pets can range a great deal and the symptoms can also vary. It seems that being a loved cat or dog in the family is quite easy. They don’t have a thing to stress about. That is just not the case. Here is a look at common pet stresses and how you can help you pet overcome these situations.

As a pet owners, we come to expect mishaps now and then—a wetting accident after being left alone too long, changed behavior in a new environment, stomach upset after a new food—but sometimes, unavoidable and seemingly inexplicable triggers can send even the most composed animal into a frenzy.

For instance, many animals experience anxiety during thunderstorms and fireworks. Animals may cower, hide under the bed, tremble, or exhibit nervous behavior. However, sometimes the response can be disproportionate to the situation or result from an unlikely trigger such as beeping from an electronic device, a hair dryer, or a vacuum cleaner.

As more and more people become pet owners, sometimes disturbances in behavior, such as anxiety around noise, aren’t considered before adopting or buying. However, to provide both emotional and physical support for your pet during times of nervousness, it is important to be ready to care for your pet in the best way possible—without exacerbating an existing problem or creating a new one.

• Regular exercise is essential. High energy pets need a natural outlet for their energy and exhaustion can have a dramatically calming effect on an overly active animal! Plus, exercise has been shown to have a mood-stabilizing, calming effect

Cats experience anxiety and get stressed out just like us human staffers. Unlike people, cats don’t have a lot of creative ways to express their feelings. Unfortunately, when cats suffer from stress and anxiety, they generally communicate it in a very clear way that can really turn humans upside down. They usually tell us by not using the cat litter box.

And since we can’t speak meow, and cats don’t talk, the challenge is to figure why our cats aren’t feeling right. Usually when a cat stops using her litter box, it’s a medical problem. But if it isn’t, one of causes high on my list is stress and anxiety.

What do cats get anxious about? Here’s a partial list: