Top Reasons for Cat in Stress an How to Relief it

Stress is one of the most popular reasons for health and behavior problems in cats. The most effective solution in this case is getting rid of the source of the stress. This article will tell you what are most popular causes for stress in cats, and how to avoid them, or at least relief the stress if cause is unavoidable.

• New experience. In most cases experiencing something new creates a considerable amount of stress in a cat. Examples may be indoor cat going outdoors for the first time, encountering with an unseen animal (seeing a frog for the first time) or even switching to new cat food brand. New experience is not only something that has never happened before, but something that did not happen for a long time. Being present, petting or talking to your cat is important in overcoming this.
• Revision of a bad experience. Most cat owners know that meowing and hissing starts before entering a clinic when visiting a vet. Cats that associate vet visit with a bad experience (when was a vet visit good experience?) may start to stress out when they notice a vet visit routine occurring. It may start even at home if owner take a pet carrier used to visit a vet or taking his vaccination record from a shelf. Playing, petting or talking with your cat may relief the stress this experience causes (of course avoiding this experience is way better solution, but it’s not always possible).
• Environment changes. Cats love everything as it is and changes are not what’s on their mind. Moving to new house, hospital or pet hotel are significant changes and most probably will cause a stress in any cat. But even small changes, like getting a new piece of furniture may cause some amount of stress in your cat. Best relief for this is introducing changes gradually (if possible) and spending tons of time with your cat.
• New pet or family member. Adding a new pet to existing household, whether it’s a cat, dog or other may challenge your cat’s ability to keep it cool and will take some time to make things calm down. Same is for baby arriving or a mother-in-law moving in. Best to avoid this is to introduce cat to new family member (including other pets) gradually. Please note, new pet in a neighbors house may also be a source of stress.
• Routine changes. If cat wakes up every morning, stretches, scratches and heads to its food bowl he’s expecting a freshly poured cat food in there. If, by some reason, he do not find it in there, stress is induced. It’s true for other stuff like getting a play, peace for a nap or greeting an owner coming back from work on expected time. Getting yourself disciplined and sticking to your cat’s schedule is important to lower the stress. If you find it hard to follow some paths, gradually change the schedule and stick with it.
• Absence of the owner. If an owner is not present for longer period than usual. Like going on vacation, getting in a hospital or starting to work in a new job with longer hours. Must note a death of an owner here too. Best ways to avoid this kind of stress is avoiding or lowering amount of owner being absent (wish everyone could avoid their death) or having someone else who cat considers a friend spending some time with him during owner’s absence.
• Mourning. It’s no different than for humans. Cat’s mourn for losing their loved ones. Owner, family member, kittens or other pet in household. Combined with the overall mood in house when someone dies, it creates lasting and often hard to overcome stress for your cat. Spending time with him is the best way to relief it.
• Lack of activity. In other words it’s boredom. It’s especially stressful if cat had active life before, but then because of some reason it lowered. No daoubt, best way to overcome it is providing activity to your cat.

• Too much activity. It’s the other side of lack of activity. Cat’s need a time of their own. They can’t chase a toy mouse or get squeezed all day. Create a corner (or a room) where your cat can feel safe. Instruct your family to leave a cat alone when his at the designated spot, a cat tree or a window sill in example.
• Forced confinement. If you’re traveling with a cat in pet carrier, it’s tons of stress combined. New experience, fright of sound of motor and disability to move around. Forced confinement also occurs if house is visited by some cat-haters and owner locks him up or when outdoor cat is forced to live indoors. Best ways of course is avoiding confinement. Playing and talking with a cat can help if confinement is required. If stress levels are very high trying stress relief medication is also optional, but check with your vet if it is okay.
• Illnesses and traumas. They make cats feel incapable and useless. The higher the disability, the higher risk of stress. Cheering up and petting a cat during this period is the best way to relief. Heavy illness may require medications as well if prescribed by a vet.
• Noise. Does your house alarm turns on constantly? Or maybe a neighbors dog is barking too often? Even an ultrasound noise which we don’t hear, but is induced by many household items may be source of stress as well.
• Stress of the owner. If we are stressed out our cats do feel it and start to worry about it. Also, if we have problems in our life we usually spend less time playing with our pets. Spending time with your pets when you are stressed out can be very helpful for both of you. There are scientific proofs that cats are very good stress relief for people and being with your cat will make him confident everything will be okay.

There are some other causes of stress in cats, however, we can’t mention all of them. If you feel like there is a source of stress that must be here, please leave a comment below. It would be much appreciated.

About Mario Monk

Hello, my name is Mario. I love to share what I've discovered while trying to become a better owner to my pets here on PET-happy.com. Currently I'm broadening my field of expertise in cat behavior, so probably you can expect more posts on the topic soon. Creation of most articles are co authored with a veterinarian Signe, who is also my wife. I'm also a bit active on twitter and would be pleased if you chose to follow me.