- What is stress?
- The most common causes of stress in kittens
- Why stress is especially dangerous for kittens?
- Stress in kittens: symptoms
- Treatment and prevention of stress
Stress affects not only us but also our Pets. Especially at an early age. In our article, we will talk about stress in kittens.
What is stress?
Stress – emotional or (and) physiological response of an organism to environmental factors. In other words, changes in behavior and health, caused by a strong irritating factor or several factors.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to give an exact list of such factors for all kittens and adult cats. Each pet has its own peculiarities of mind and your level of stress tolerance. But you can highlight the most common causes of stress.
In addition, getting to know your pet better and better, you will learn to understand which situations make him nervous, and either avoid them or prepare in advance to them pet.
The most common causes of stress in kittens
– Separation from mother and relocation to a new home,
new environment, new people around, new routine,
– sudden changes in diet,
– the presence of other Pets in the house
– visits to the vet
– participation in exhibitions
– separation from the owner,
– loud noises (thunder, parties, firecrackers, etc.), and more.
After separation from the mother, the kitten will discover the whole world, to meet new people (and possibly Pets), learn the skills of parenting and to learn to behave in a new family. It is both interesting and very difficult time, it is not surprising that kittens are so susceptible to stress. But what would be a common problem or stress, its effects on the body cannot be underestimated. A weakened immune system, insomnia, loss of appetite, the development of various diseases – this is one of the traditional effects of stress. Therefore, careful owner in any case should not allow the situation to drift: with stress you need to fight.
Why stress is especially dangerous for kittens?
To grow older kitten have a long way to go. The body of the baby is formed and develops until at least the year, daily spending an enormous amount of energy. In the first months of life, the immune system of a kitten is very weak and she is not always able to cope even with minor infections. Stress, in turn, further weakens the already fragile organism, preventing its development and increasing the risk of developing diseases. That is why it is so dangerous for kittens.
Stress in kittens: symptoms
We mentioned above that the causes of stress on each pet can be different. The same thing happens with the symptoms. For example, one kitten is under stress, becomes sluggish, and the other, on the contrary, hyperactive. But if to distinguish of the most common symptoms of stress, we get the following:
– lethargy or hyperactivity,
– nervousness,
– increased aggression,
– the toilet in the wrong places,
– the failure of communication,
– loss of appetite,
– frequent meowing,
– insomnia, etc.
Often “bad habits” kitten is not a habit, and kid’s attempts to inform the owner about your concern. Stress kittens can ignore the tray, scratching the Wallpaper, ruining personal belongings of the owners and against the background of General concern to show aggression: scratching and biting. Therefore, if you suspect the kitty’s stress as quickly as possible to start fighting it. Most importantly, correctly!
Treatment and prevention of stress
What if the kitten stress? In the first place, where possible, eliminate the cause. Of course, if stress is caused by the arrival of the guests, a visit to the veterinarian to make it easy, but what if the kitten is experiencing because of the move or change of owner?
Whatever the stress is short or long, the best cure is your care, attention and patience. Be gentle, try to distract the child from negative associations, give him a treat, get a special toy that the kitten wasn’t missed. For the normalization of behavior: elimination of nervousness and anxiety, give the kitten any sedative for cats, based on herbs (they are sold without a prescription). Most importantly, choose a natural and safe facility (for example, Mexidol-Vet). Such drugs can be used not only for treatment but also for prevention of stress. For example, if you have planned a trip to the vet the day before according to the instructions give the kitten tool. This will prepare the nervous system to a stressful situations and to reduce its severity.
It is important to understand that short-term stress has nothing to do with chronic stress and phobias. If your pet is strong, long-lasting stress or mental disorders, the treatment worked out in cooperation with a veterinarian and possibly animal psychology. As with other serious diseases, this joke is not: chronic stress and phobias by themselves will not work.
Don’t forget that in many ways physical and emotional wellbeing of your pet depends on you. How you care about him and how to treat it. Be careful not to resort to physical methods of punishment and base your relationship solely on friendship and trust.
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