When most pet owners and veterinarians consider their pets’ and patients’ well-being, they tend to focus on their physical health. Since pets cannot express much of what they are feeling to us, behavioral or mental health problems may go unnoticed until they are severe. Treating pet anxiety behavior problems is one example of how pet parents are looking to help their furry friends’ mental health. Below, our experts will tell you about the most common causes of anxiety in pets, the signs of anxiety in dogs and cats, and most importantly, what you can do for your furry friend.
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Causes of Anxiety in Pets
Even though the mind of a dog or cat is quite different from ours, they experience similar behavioral issues as we do. It can come as a surprise to many pet owners that their pet suffers from depression or anxiety. What can we do to help them? Much of it depends on the condition that your pet deals with.
Depression
Veterinarians frequently diagnose depression in pets, especially in pets who deal with chronic pain or a progressive illness. Your pet won’t speak of their sadness, but there are cues that they are experiencing depression. This includes withdrawal/hiding, change in behavior, seeming sad, lethargic, and changes in appetite and energy.
Separation anxiety
Separation anxiety is a common problem in both cats and dogs. It occurs when they become anxious and distressed when separated from their owners. This can be due to anything from being left alone in a room to being taken away for a short trip. Separation anxiety is like a panic attack in a person and can damage the quality of life for both pet and human.
Noise anxiety
With noise anxiety, pets feel stressed at the sound of certain loud noises. Some only react to fireworks or gunshots, while others are affected by any loud noise in the environment. Common triggers for noise anxiety include thunderstorms, sirens, parties, loud music, fireworks, instruments, among others.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
In captive animals, this disorder exhibits stereotypical behaviors like pacing, self-mutilation, and licking. In pets, the result can be similar. Your dog or cat becomes focused totally on an object. Pets do repetitive things, such as chasing their tail, digging, and chewing on things.
What Does Anxiety Look Like in Dogs?
Destructive behavior
Destructive behavior is a dog anxiety behavior problem. This is particularly heightened when they are home alone. With our proven behavior evaluation tool, developed by top veterinary behavior specialists working with thousands of dogs, we will help figure out the underlying cause of your dog’s issue. Based on that, if it can help, you can treat them with savory medicated treats.
Excessive Barking / Yelling
Excessive barking and/or yelling is a cry for help and a major anxiety induced behavior problem in dogs. If it’s ignored, there is a risk it will get worse. Once medications help calm the anxious brain, our pets are more receptive to training. In addition to tasty prescription medicated treats, we’ll give you the tools to implement easy-to-learn training exercises, plus environmental enrichment techniques, to create lasting change in your dog’s day-to-day life.
Trembling / Shivering
If your dog has a habit of trembling or shivering, in whatever their particular high stress scenario may be, it could be a sign of anxiety. At Treat 2 Treat, we treat anxiety like the medical problem that it is. We take a holistic approach, combining medication with vet-designed behavior modification.
What Does Anxiety Look Like in Cats?
Destructive behavior
Destructive behavior is a common cat anxiety behavior problem. This is particularly heightened when they are home alone. With our proven behavior evaluation tool, developed by top veterinary behavior specialists working with thousands of cats, we will help figure out the underlying cause of your cat’s issue. Based on that, if it can help, you can treat them with savory medicated treats.
Meowing / Yowling
Excessive meowing and/or yowling is a cry for help and a major anxiety induced behavior problem in cats. If it’s ignored, there is a risk it will get worse. Once medications help calm the anxious brain, our pets are more receptive to training. In addition to tasty prescription medicated treats, we’ll give you the tools to implement easy-to-learn training exercises, plus environmental enrichment techniques, to create lasting change in your cat’s day-to-day life.
Hiding
If your cat has a habit of running and hiding, in whatever their particular high stress scenario may be, it could be a sign of anxiety. At Treat 2 Treat, we treat anxiety like the medical problem that it is. We take a holistic approach, combining medication with vet-designed behavior modification.
Urinating / Pooping Outside the Litter Box
Anxiety or stress can be one cause of your cat eliminating outside of the litter box. With our evaluation tool, we will get to the bottom of the problem. Our goal is to help relieve their stress so they relieve themselves where they should.
How to Help an Anxious Pet
Take our pet behavior evaluation tool, free of charge. It has helped thousands of pets spanning hundreds of breeds. Over 100 veterinary academic papers have been published using this tool to evaluating the behavior of cats and dogs.
Our tool was developed by top veterinary mental health specialists at top veterinary schools. It consists of questions regarding your pet’s behavior an environment.
We then analyze the results, and compare it to the results and conditions of thousands of others to give you a custom package recommendation, personalized to you and your furry friend.
Based on the results, we may recommend some of the best clinically proven solution to anxiety in pets: prescription medications. We partner with specialty pharmacies to deliver them in savory chew treats!
