STRESS IN THE CAT: HOW IS IT MANIFESTED?

Stress is a disease that affects humans today as well as animals. The cat is an animal that appreciates stability, routine and regularity. The slightest change can be a source of anxiety, when the anxiety is not the consequence of an illness! Find out how to identify the symptoms of stress so you can act quickly if your little hairball is involved.

How does stress manifest in the cat?

Each cat has a personality of his own and can manifest his stress in different ways. Several types of symptoms are observable, depending on the character of your animal:

• Growing aggression: If your cat is used to being calm and docile, stress may make him aggressive. In this case, he can put himself without real apparent reason to spit or burn, to bite, to scratch, to refuse contact or to bristle his hair. His pupils are often dilated and fixed.
• An increased anxiety: the stressed cat is generally anxious. He is afraid of the slightest noise, he develops phobias and he can react by changing his behavior suddenly. This anxiety can cause him to self-harm by biting himself or pulling out tufts of hair, but he can also ingest any type of object, which is very dangerous.
• Common mews: a cat communicates a lot while meowing. Long, loud mews, rather serious, are often signs of stress.
• Compulsive licking: when feeling stressed or depressed by boredom, the cat tends to lick compulsively, mainly paws. If he is also licking his belly or tail when you touch him, it can be stress. This behavior can lead to a loss of mass of the hairs in the licked areas and to an irritation leading to the formation of crusts.
• Incontinence and uncleanliness: the stressed cat usually starts to take care outside the litter box. To manifest his discomfort, he tends to urinate where you can see.
• Marking by claws: disturbed, the stressed cat has the feeling of not controlling or recognizing his environment. He needs to mark it and he starts to scratch tall furniture and walls vertically.
• The development of infectious diseases: when stressed, the body of the cat secretes hormones that disrupt the proper functioning of white blood cells, which are the cells that protect the body. Its immune system is thus more vulnerable and subject to the development of infectious diseases. If these are repeated, it can be chronic stress.
• Eating disorders: in the face of stress, the cat may present radically different eating disorders. Some will lose their appetite and refuse to feed themselves. Others will not be able to stop eating compulsively and vomit everything immediately.
• The appearance of tocs (obsessive-compulsive disorders): the fearful and stressed cat can develop tocs, such as sudden and repeated hyperactive behavior, repeated non-stop gestures, he can remain motionless for hours, run after his tail or else put to touch an object for several minutes.
• The refusal of caresses: the stressed cat often seeks to avoid contact, especially caresses. If you insist, he can be aggressive and warn you by pointing his ears back.