Friday, February 4, 2011

If You're Changing a Pet's Routine, You May Want to Talk to Them About It!

A study involving cats was recently published in the January 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. The study, which took place at Ohio State's Veterinary Medical Center, documented sickness behaviors in both healthy cats and in cats with feline interstitial cystitis (IC), a chronic illness that causes recurring discomfort or pain in the bladder and often leads to both an urgent and frequent need to urinate. The study concluded what I already know as an animal communicator…..any changes in a cat’s routine (or any pet's routine for that matter) can cause stress and, with stress, comes the unwanted “sickness behaviors” that cats tend to exhibit such as refusing to eat and not using their litter box.

I often tell my clients that pets are a lot like people. They don’t like their routines disrupted. If you are going to change an animal’s routine, I always recommend that you explain how the change is going to impact their normal routine, what you would like for them to do while their routine is being disrupted and why is it going to be a good thing for them. I have found that simply explaining things to your pets will ease their anxiety about any changes that they will need to adjust to. Now, if only they would have paid me the grant money that was used for this study. Ha! Ha!

Find out more about this study by clicking here.

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