Environmental and social stresses have been associated with these disorders and range from readily apparent (skin conditions including food allergy, atopy, or fleas the addition or loss of another cat intercat aggression the addition or loss of a human with attendant changes in attention) to indiscernible exogenous cues. Painful and dermatological causes MUST be ruled-out before even considering the possibility of a behavioural disorder. Or they might be grooming, start to twitch, and then exhibit more furious behaviours. Cats might twitch and then focus on a part of the body to lick or chew. Regardless of the degree of behavioural change, owners report that it is difficult to distract the cat from the behaviour. Not all cats exhibiting these behaviours self-mutilate, but those that do can exhibit a range of mutilation from excessive licking, to plucking (trichotillomania), barbering, biting, and chewing that lead to skin lesions. The behaviours demonstrated can include those mimicking estrus or biting at the tail, flank, anal or lumbar areas (sometimes with resultant barbering and self-mutilation) or skin rippling and muscle spasms/twitching (usually dorsally), often accompanied by vocalisation, running, jumping, hallucinations and self-directed aggression. Not all authors agree that these conditions are truly obsessive-compulsive disorders.įELINE HYPERESTHESIA, OVER-GROOMING, AND SELF-MUTILATIONįeline hyperesthesia syndrome has been variously called rolling skin disease, neuritis, twitchy cat disease, and atypical neurodermatitis. Some examples of obsessive-compulsive disorders in cats listed in the literature include over-grooming, barbering, feline hyperesthesia, self-mutilation, tail chasing, pica, wool and fabric chewing, and wool sucking. The abnormal behaviour gradually displaces normal behaviour and the actual behaviours change in qualitative features (intensity profile).īehaviours evinced as a result of feline “stress” or anxiety include changes in appetite (decrease or pica), changes in grooming, changes in elimination (spraying and non-spraying marking), changes in social interactions (rubbing, bunting, vocal communication), and changes in activity (degree and location). A competing stimulus may change or abort the behaviour but time spent in the activity gradually increases. Obsessive-compulsive behaviours interfere with the animal’s ability to function in its social environment. The role of stress (actual or perceived) has largely been ignored in veterinary medicine. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is probably responsible for some unknown proportion of companion animal behavioural conditions. Is the behaviour simply excessive or is it a manifestation of an obsessive-compulsive disorder? It is also possible that an excessive behaviour and an obsessive-compulsive behaviour are merely two points on a blurry continuum. Separate from the obsession issue is the issue of relative intensity. It appears that animals perceive concern and anxiety, thus it is possible that they can obsess. Considerable discussion occurs when the question “can animals obsess?” is raised. Stereotypies and obsessive-compulsive disorders are currently used interchangeably in the behavioural literature by some authors, whereas others refer to them as stereotypies, and finally, a few do not allude to either term. Several cat breeds show a higher risk of pica syndrome and cross-bred cats can produce such cats.In veterinary medicine, the term stereotypy has been used traditionally to define behaviours that are repetitive, constant, and appear to serve no obvious purpose. Your cat might be showing pica symptoms simply because it has gotten the genes of a pica cat. Extreme stress, lack of attention, separation anxiety, unregulated behavior, noise exposure, re-location, etc. Your cat may tend to chew on random things in a learned pattern just to satisfy their primal urges or meet their stimulation needs as they get bored easily. In such a case, cats tend to eat plants, litter, or anything that gives them good taste or smell. Insufficiency of the cat meal in delivering essential nutrients to the cat can lead it to search for them in other items that can even be non-edible and this behavior turns into becoming the pica disorder later. have been usually associated with pica in cats. Health conditions like diabetes, brain tumors, anemia, feline immunodeficiency virus, leukemia, etc. Medical problemsĪny medical issue with the cat can be the primary reason behind the pica syndrome getting triggered and then continuing into becoming a disorder. It is difficult to pinpoint the source of the mental short-circuiting that happens in the pica cats but several factors have been pointed out by different pet experts.
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