Stress affects your pet’s health in many ways. Stress affects the health of your pet’s cardiovascular, digestive, and immune systems. It can cause a pet to pluck out his feathers or lick out his fur.
It can cause your pet to chew up your expensive shoes, and claw and spray your furniture. Chewing, clawing, over-grooming, overly aggressive behavior, spraying, and even an overly excited greeting can be signs that your pet is stressed.It is stressful, even for domestic animals, to conform to behavior rules and environments imposed by human beings. It is helpful to remember that the behavior rules and expectations you have for your pet may be unnatural behavior for that animal.
There are many situations that can affect your pet’s level of stress and consequently his health. These situations may include a trip to the vet, an overnight stay at a kennel, being left at home alone for long periods, traveling in the car, the presence of other animals, changes of schedule, visitors who don’t like pets, certain forms of punishment and strange animals in the vicinity.
If you know the causes of stress in your pets’ life, you can keep him healthier and happier, and it may help you unravel certain health and behavioral mysteries that you have never been able to understand before. When you understand the behaviors and physical symptoms that indicate when your pet is under too much stress you will be able to take steps to relieve his stress.
Many stress-related health problems and behaviors can be reduced or eliminated through adequate exercise, proper diet and nutrition, a calm and predictable home environment and adequate companionship. You can learn more about these topics on other pages of this web site