How Can I Help My Cat’s Separation Anxiety? | Vet Tips

You don’t hear too much about separation anxiety in cats, do you? Yet cats can indeed feel distress when left alone, especially for long periods of time. Thankfully, Dr. Kirsten is on hand with tips to help ease symptoms of your frantic feline’s fears. We hope you found this video useful! However, remember that this should not replace advice from your veterinarian. If you’re worried about your pet, please contact your veterinarian as soon as possible. Need pet insurance? 🐶🐱 ManyPets Pet Insurance sees your dog’s wellness as a complete package – that’s why our policies include cover for behavioural conditions if your pet is referred by a vet for treatment. Start your quote today!

TRANSCRIPT

Cats, they love being alone, right? well maybe not always well yes it's true that dogs are the ones who more commonly experience what we think of as separation anxiety it doesn't mean that our feline friends are immune Although our cats can generally tolerate being left alone for longer stretches of time than other pets it's important to remember they are also creatures of habit our cats love routine so being fed at regular times and knowing when they'll be able to see you despite popular belief really is important to them so if you're cat is used to you being around a lot if you've been working from home for example but then you're suddenly away for longer stretches your cat may feel stressed or anxious or even just bored and UND stimulated and this can trigger a change in Behavior if your cat has separation anxiety or anxiety in general some signs could include the following restlessness hiding more than usual excessive vocalization and meowing being more jumpy than usual going to the toilet outside of the litter tray excessive scratching of the furniture unprompted aggression vomiting or diarrhea though these are usually in more severe cases if you've noticed any of these signs the first thing I'd recommend you doing is visiting your vet as the symptoms are quite vague we'd want to rule out any other underlying health conditions before we work on helping your cat with separation anxiety but what can you do to help a cat with anxiety that might be associated with separation number one set up a regular routine so like I said before cats like to know what to expect from their day so feeding them at set times making sure you spend some quality time with them each day will go a long way in helping your cat feel more secure and calm number two prepare through play so if you know you're going to be out for a longer stretch of time you can help an indoor Kitty burn off some anxious energy with a short burst of play time to help keep your cat mentally stimulated there are some toys that you can leave out for them to play with unsupervised these can be things like puzzle feeders that are great for this and so are scratching posts and climbing trees number three give them safe access to outside if you do allow your cat to go outside installing a cat flap is a great way to help them indulge in their natural hunting and exploring instincts for indoor only kitties a good idea is to give them a dedicated area for climbing and hiding such as shelving along the walls or an indoor outdoor ctio if you have the space this allows them to get some of the benefits of outside without actually being loose outside number four make any changes gradually if you know a longer period of SE operation is coming up it's a good idea to build your cat up to this little by little if your cat is very anxious try leaving them for as short amount of time as possible and stand outside and gradually increase this time and the distance so they get used to you being away from them like I said we typically tend to think of separation anxiety is more of a dog problem but our feline friends are definitely not immune so if you're worried about changes in your cat's Behavior there are plenty of resources out there to get help including your veterinarian and in some cases if we feel like the symptoms are severe reaching out to a boarded Veterinary behaviorist or a certified pet behaviorist