Is Your Pet Stressed? A Complete Guide to Recognizing Anxiety and How to Help Them Relax

Every pet owner wishes their cat or dog could talk so they’d knew what’s bothering the animal and what can be done to help them.

However, despite pets not being able to speak the same languages as us, they actually use a different one — and in most cases people just can’t read it through. This leads to owners overlooking their pets’ clear signs of discomfort and anxiety, but no worries — if you pay extra attention to your cat or dog’s emotional state, you’ll see those signs in the blink of an eye.

Why Can Pets Be Stressed?

There’s a specific list of situations that every pet owner knows will put their beloved cat or dog into a pretty stressful condition.

It includes visits to a vet, trips in a car or any other type of transport, moving to another house or the presence of another unknown pet. Each of these will significantly affect your pet’s mental state since the change of scenery is way too big to just ignore it.

As a result, there can be an increase in cortisol levels, heart rate and blood pressure, which eventually might weaken the pet’s immune system and cause weight changes.

As for the signals of your pet feeling discomfort or stress, in most cases those include yawning or frequent licking of the nose and lips, trembling or freezing, tucking their tale or lowering their body closer to the ground. The situation becomes alarming when involuntary urination and refusal to eat or drink takes place.

How to Help Your Pet Cope With Stress?

The most important thing you should remember here is that your pet must see you being calm and patient, which will signal your attempt to take the whole situation under control.

If at some point the pet becomes aggressive and starts growling, don’t approach them and let them calm down before an attack happens; also consider talking to them in a quiet voice, exclude any triggering noise that could potentially harm them.

Finally, let your pet adapt to the upcoming big change by taking them to a vet for introducing only or bringing them to your new house before moving in there completely. If none of these things helps your cat or dog, consult your vet and consider getting your pet sedatives.