How to Relieve Cat Stress

A couple of weeks ago, we discussed how to tell if your cat is stressed.  While it would be wonderful if we could simply remove the stressor from our cat's life, this isn't often possible.  If you believe your kitty is experiencing stress, you may want to try one or more of these stress-relieving strategies to help your kitty cope.

Play: Playing with your cat can help reduce her stress.  Engage your cat in 10-15 minute interactive play sessions twice a day to help her relax.  Many kitties enjoy fishing pole type toys.  Others may prefer to play fetch or chase after balls with bells in them.  The Humane Society of the United States suggests setting a few toys aside specifically for interactive play sessions with your cat.  Only use these toys when it's time for you and your kitty to play together.  

Between interactive play sessions, provide your companion with toys he can play with on his own.  Many kitties enjoy catnip toys.  Your cat might also like balls, toy mice, crinkle balls, and puzzle toys.  To keep your kitty from getting bored with his toys, rotate them every few days.  

Environmental Enrichment: One cause of stress in felines is boredom.  Providing your cat with an interesting and enriching environment can ward off boredom and stress.  Provide your kitty with sturdy scratching posts.  Ideally you want to give your cat a few scratching posts in different shapes and sizes.

Lots of cats enjoy looking out the window.  To make the experience more pleasurable for your kitty, buy her a window perch or put a comfortable bed by the window for her.  Placing a bird feeder outside the window will attract birds to entertain your kitty.  

Provide your companion with comfortable spots to nap.  Carmine and Milita can choose to nap in cat beds, cushy cubes, or on fleece blankets.  Of course, they are always welcome to steal my bed if they want, too.  As mentioned earlier, rotating your cat's toys every few days will help prevent boredom as well.  Cat DVDs, music, and puzzle toys are other great ways to enrich your feline's environment.  Give your cat something fun to do while you're away by hiding a few treats or toys around the house for her to find.  

Provide Enough Resources: If you live in a multicat household, it's essential to provide enough resources for every cat in the home.  A good rule of thumb is to provide one of each resource for each cat in the home plus one.  For instance, if you have three cats, you should have four litter boxes and feeding stations placed throughout your home.  I divide up Carmine and Milita's allotted amount of daily kibble into three separate bowls.  They have never fought over food, but having three separate feeding stations ensures that they can both eat at the same time, and there is never any competition over the food bowl.  

Cats need to feel safe and secure in their homes as well.  That's why it's important to provide cats, especially those in a multicat household, with numerous hiding spots, resting places, and high spots.  Boxes, cat cubes, condos, trees, closets, and cat carriers are all great places for kitties to hide.  Bookshelves, desks, cat trees, and shelves make good safe high places for cats to hang out.  Providing your cats with plenty of choices reduces the likelihood that your kitties will fight over hiding places and high spots and helps ensure all of your cats feel safe and secure.  

If tension exists in your multicat home, you may need to reintroduce your cats or employ the advice of a cat behavior expert.  Tackle multicat tension early whenever possible.

Calming Aids: Another thing you can try is a calming aid.  Calming aids include collars, sprays, and plug-ins that use or mimic feline pheromones to give your cat a sense of well-being.  We have had good results with Comfort Zone (Feliway) plug-ins and Sentry calming collars.  These calming aids have been especially helpful to Carmine and Milita during moves and after Jewel's passing.  

Stick to a Routine: Cats are creatures of habit and do not like change.  Sticking to a routine is one of the best ways to prevent your cat from experiencing stress.  When you know you will need to change your kitty's routine, do so gradually whenever possible.  For instance, if you need to change your kitty's dinnertime, do so by gradually moving her dinnertime forward or backward.  Likewise, if you are expecting a baby, gradually get your cat used to the sights, sounds, and smell of a newborn before your due date.  

If you are expecting a short-term change that will interrupt your companion's regular routine, return to the old routine as soon as possible.  For example, if you go on vacation, resume your cat's regular routine as soon as your return home.  

Natural Remedies:  Some herbs are also useful for reducing stress in cats.  Remember that it is always best to consult your veterinarian before beginning any type of treatment, including using herbs to treat cat stress.

• Catnip: You're probably wondering why catnip is being suggested for cat stress when it tends to rile kitties up.  PetMD suggests giving catnip approximately 15 minutes before you know a stressor will occur, such as a trip to the vet.  After your cat runs around at high speed for a few minutes, he will become tired and calm.
• Chamomile: Chamomile acts as an anti-anxiety agent for cats.  PetMD recommends putting the dried flowers into a tube collar or making a little pouch with the dried flowers inside so that your cat doesn't eat it.
• Valerian: Valerian is said to act like catnip with one difference.  After your kitty's initial craziness, valerian is more likely to make your cat sleep.  Some humans use valerian for insomnia as well.
• Bach Rescue Remedy: Rescue Remedy is know to calm anxiety in cats and dogs as well as in humans.  Perhaps the greatest benefit of Rescue Remedy is that it works immediately, so it is a good choice when you need to calm your kitty right away.  Please ensure that you give your cat the Rescue Remedy formula that does not contain alcohol.  

It would be great if we could remove all of our feline's stress triggers.  Unfortunately, that's not usually possible.  If you believe your cat is stressed out, I hope you'll try some of these strategies to help relieve your kitty's stress.  

How do you relieve your cat's stress?

Sources:

The Humane Society of the United States: My Cat is Scared of Upset.

Pam Johnson-Bennett: Is Your Cat Stressed Out?

PetMD: 5 Herbs to Reduce Stress in Your Cat.

Separation Anxiety in Cats

Separation anxiety occurs when a pet doesn't like being separated from its owner or another companion pet.  Though it is more common in dogs, cats can suffer from separation anxiety as well.  

Signs of Separation Anxiety in Cats

Separation anxiety is typically more difficult to detect in felines than it is in dogs.  Some signs your cat may be suffering from separation anxiety include:

• Excessive self-grooming.  If your cat is over-grooming, he or she may have bald spots on his or her body.
• Vomiting - solely when you are away.
• Vocalization when you leave.  You can check for vocalization in your abscence by recording your cat.
• Inappropriate elimination.  Your kitty may urinate or defecate near the door or on your personal belongings in your absence.  
• Destructive behaviors.  Though rare for cats to exhibit, your kitty may chew on or scratch door edges.  It's hypothesized that they do this in order to escape from solitary confinement.  
• Over-attachment to you.  Your feline may follow you from one room to another while you're at home.
• Anorexia.  Your cat may be too anxious or stressed to eat in your absence.
• Exhibits an exuberant greeting upon your return.

Causes

The exact cause of separation anxiety isn't yet known.  However, researchers speculate that both genetic and environmental factors are involved.  It's believed that being weaned too early or being orphaned could put a kitten at risk for developing separation anxiety.

Treatment

If your cat is exhibiting any of the symptoms described above, it's important that you take him or her to a veterinarian for a physical examination to rule out any underlying medical conditions.  If your vet gives your kitty a clean bill of health, there are several things you can do to treat separation anxiety.  

Some things that may help reduce your kitty's anxiety are:

• Ignoring your cat 15 minutes before you leave home and for 15 minutes upon your return.
• Providing distracting toys.
• Giving your feline toys he or she especially loves before you leave and taking them away when you're home.
• Providing a window perch or cat tree or tower in front of a window for your cat's entertainment.  Place a bird feeder outside the window so your cat has bird TV to watch while you're away.
• Soft music or television may help your kitty feel less anxious while you're away as well.
• Some felines enjoy "cat TV" - videos of birds, squirrels, etc.
• Putting kibble or treats into food toys may also be entertaining in your absence.

If these suggestions don't work for your kitty, it may be wise to talk with your vet about getting a referral to a vet behaviorist specialist who can help you find ways to reduce your cat's anxiety.  In severe cases, anti-anxiety medication may be considered.

Have you ever had a cat with separation anxiety?  What helped him or her cope?

Carmine's Vet Visit

As promised, here is an update on my little baby, Carmine.

We went to the vet on Tuesday to get an opinion on his health and to see what else we could do to help with his stress levels.

The vet noticed what I've known for years - Carmine is a *very sensitive* cat.  He picks up on stress and he is stressed *very easily!*

She weighed him and he has maintained his weight (thank God!).  He has been feeling lighter to me and some days he is too nervous to eat much, so I was really worried he was losing weight.  She gave him an exam, too.  His heart is perfect (yay!).  But his teeth are not :(  Carmine goes to the vet on a regular basis and they always look at his teeth, so I was disappointed to hear that he now needs 1-4 extractions, depending on how many they can clean up versus have to pull.

The vet specifically said that she doesn't want to put him through the stress of an oral surgery and recovery from extraction/s *until* the family is gone.  She thinks the stress would be too much for my baby and I totally agree with her on that.  She wants Carmine to come back for his dental surgery in three months.  The family is *supposed* to be gone by Sept. 1.  IF they keep their word (God, PLEASE let them keep their word!!!) then he will have some time to recover from this situation before we have to take him in for his surgery.

I really hope my little boy isn't in pain from his teeth.  He doesn't really chew his kibbles, but he never really has crunched his kibbles the way Milita does.  It concerns me that he eats on the side of his mouth when he's eating wet food sometimes.

I'd much prefer to take him in right away for the surgery to make sure he's not in any unnecessary pain, but I think the vet is right - I think we need to wait for this stressful situation to be over before we stress him with the surgery.  I just hope we're doing the right thing.

She also recommended Rescue Remedy for cats for him in conjunction with the Comfort Zone deffuser for his stress/anxiety, so I'll look for that as soon as I make it over to PetSmart.  I feel so helpless sometimes to help my baby.  I just want to make his anxiety go away.

We are sorry we haven't visited many of your blogs lately.  We plan on visiting everyone again soon.

An Update on Carmine

I wanted to give everyone a little update about Carmine.

Some days he eats well.  Other days I have to try to get him to eat his noms about five times before he'll eat a decent portion of them.  He will eat his kibbles regularly as they're in my room, but the wet food is a little harder to get him to eat some days, depending on how nervous he is.  He needs his wet noms for his FLUTD.  We've been mixing a little extra water into his wet noms so when he eats some, he's getting a good bit of water. :)

I went out and bought the Comfort Zone diffuser like many of you suggested and that seems to be helping him quite a bit, actually!  Thank you everyone who has been offering suggestions, purrs, prayers, hugs, and kind words.  We appreciate you all so much! :)

Carmine still isolates himself in his cube a bit more than I'd like, but he has been running around at night more, which is a good sign.  When everyone but me is asleep I think he's most comfortable.  He has been acting like his usual self more often at night since I plugged in the Comfort Zone in our room. It's nice to see him improving.

Carmine has a vet appointment on Tuesday (because they aren't open on Mondays).  We'll see if he's losing any weight, and if he is, how to get some of that weight back on him.

Thank you all for your support.  It means a lot to us :)

Purrs and Prayers for Carmine and Some Sad News

It shouldn't still surprise me after so long in the pet blogging world, but it still does.  I have found some of the most compassionate, caring, wonderful people and kitties and woofies over the years; it never ceases to amaze me how supportive and wonderful everyone, every kitty, and every woofie is when a furry friend isn't well or crosses over to the Rainbow Bridge.  Thank you so much for all the love, support, comments, suggestions, hugs, purrs, and prayers.  We so appreciate you all more than we can say.

Ann from Zoolatry made this badge for us.  Thank you, Ann! You are so talented and such a generous and compassionate person.

Carmine is hanging in there.  He ate well both yesterday and today.  Everyone stayed downstairs for the most part when it was time for him to eat, and I think that helped him not be so anxious. He is spending a lot of time in his cube in my room.  At night, sometimes he goes out to the living room and lays under the coffee table for a while.

The more I think about it, the more I think a lot of his behavior is stress-related.  BUT I don't want to assume it's stress, so I'm definitely still taking him to the vet.  We will get him an exam and they will probably want to test his urine to make sure his crystals aren't back and probably some blood tests, too.  Of course, we will get him any other test the vet feels is appropriate as well.  I'm just guessing what they might want to use to figure out what's going on with my baby.  I hear that stress is very bad for FLUTD so that is definitely cause for concern.  However, I have been watching him in his litter box to make sure he isn't having trouble urinating.  He has been urinating without trouble so far, so that's definitely good. :)

I really hope the stress doesn't make his arthritis pain worse.  I'd hate for him to hurt at all.  He is too precious to me and I cannot stand to see him suffer - it seriously makes me cry to even think about it.

I am definitely going to look into getting him Comfort Zone or Feliway like many of you suggested.  Does anybody recommend one over the other or are they about the same in terms of effectiveness?

I think I will be heading to PetSmart later.  They have been selling Comfort Zone, but if Feliway is better, I can always order that on-line.

I just want my little fuzzy baby to be happy and content again.

In other news, my little fishie passed away today.......RIP my little Angel.  I wonder if fishies go to the Rainbow Bridge like kitties?  If you are there, Angel, say hi to Emma for us.  We miss you both.

Need Some Ideas on How to Get Kitty to Eat

I am getting really concerned about my baby Carmine.

There have been a lot of changes in his life in the past month (one horrid roommate moving out, a family moving in, kids being here....).  He uses my room as his safe place, specifically, he loves to spend time is his cushy cube :)

What worries me is......he seems to be losing a little weight - again - and he can't afford to lose any.  I have already made a vet appointment for him.  As soon as I noticed it, I knew we had to take him to the vet.  He is due for his three-month visit anyway....

He also doesn't seem to be eating as much as he used to.  I think a lot of that has to do with anxiety/nervousness.  I *thought* we agreed that the family would be in the basement (their space as they're only here for a couple of months) after 8 or 9pm.  Or at least we requested the kids be down there around that time (they are young so should be in bed then anyway) as the kids make Carmine especially nervous.  He's never been around kids before now.

But our request has gone ignored and they are up here a lot after the time we requested they not be up here.  Carmine gets his wet food around then and we want him to feel comfortable eating and not be nervous.

I tried feeding him in my room tonight to try and make sure he could eat in peace, but he was still too anxious to eat much of anything.  After everyone was actually downstairs, we gave him some more wet food.  I sat right by him and reassured him that he was okay.  He ate really well then.

My question is......what can I do to help my baby feel comfortable eating?  Should I just feed him later after everyone is supposed to be asleep?  Do you think me sitting by him would make him feel better?  I know quite a bit about cats, but I'm at a loss here.

Any ideas?  Of course I will ask the vet when we go, too.  I just know that a lot of you probably have some good ideas I can try in the meantime and I'd really appreciate it if you share them with me :)

Thank you so much!