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PETS | Behaviour and training
http://www.petsmagazine.com.au
to her anxious urination habits, but resuming her
medication always helps her regain her equilibrium,
reports Jessie. “If I see the behaviour again I start
medicating her. For me, fi nding a good vet was
certainly critical to her — and my — recovery,”
Jessie says.Be er behaviour
When medication is prescribed, it is designed to
be used in conjunction with environment and
behavior-modifi cation strategies. “Medications
limit fear and anxiety and are an important fi rst
step in the process of managing mental health
disease. It is hard to train animals when their mind
is stressed, fearful and anxious,” Dr Leigh explains.
“Behaviour modifi cation is very important.
The behaviour changes needed will depend
on the type of anxiety. Essentially we look at
providing a peaceful, fear-free environment with
lots of rewards for good behaviour and avoidinginadvertent reward of destructive, anxious
behaviour.” This could involve anything from
providing safe places for cats to hide, eat and
toilet to being careful not to use strong-smelling
cleaning products at home, as pungent odours
can upset a cat’s sensitive sense of smell.
Little things like ensuring litter trays are kept
impeccably clean, and that there is always one
more litter tray than the number of cats in the
household, can also make a big diff erence.
It’s also important to remember that many cats
aren’t fond of lots of human aff ection. “Hugging
and holding tight, or patting your cat is just
unbearable for some. Cats prefer their space and
long light strokes,” she says. “You may be stressing
your cat with love.”
And never punish or yell at a cat that exhibits
signs of anxiety as this will only make the problem
worse. “Punishment has no place — it just makes
your cat scared of you.”Acupuncture for catsAcupuncture for cats
As well as appropriate medication and
behaviour-modifi cation strategies, an
increasing number of cat owners are
turning to complementary therapies such
as acupuncture to ease their pets’ anxiety.
Dr Jennifer Hutchinson, a small animal vet
and animal acupuncturist at Melbourne’s
Karingal Vet Hospital, explains how it works.
Acupuncture is the insertion of fi ne needles
into specifi c points in the body to achieve
homeostasis, or balance. These points are
located along meridians, or channels, and when
stimulated can cause physiological changes in
the body. Acupuncture has been used in China
for over 4000 years, and the theory and points
have all been transcribed for use in animals.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) believes
that disease is an imbalance of energy in the
body. Acupuncture aims to bring the energy
back into balance, thereby assisting the body
in healing disease.
We use very fi ne acupuncture needles in
a combination of points, which vary for each
individual case. For those animals that don’ttolerate needles, we are fortunate enough at
our clinic to have a laser therapy machine that
we can use to do pulse laser on the acupuncture
points, which works just as eff ectively.
Acupuncture has proven to be extremely
benefi cial in the treatment of emotional and
psychological problems in human clinical
practice. Similarly, we often see rapid and
dramatic responses to treating behavioural
issues in animals. Normally we perform weekly
treatments for six to eight weeks, and then go
to a maintenance phase. Some animals will
respond after the fi rst treatment and others we
don’t see a response until the third or fourth.
More people are using alternative therapies
themselves and seeing how it can help them,
so are more receptive to it as an option for
treating their pets. I also treat quite a few
patients that have not responded to western
medicine, so the owners are looking for a
diff erent treatment modality to improve their
pet’s quality of life. These animals are not just
pets, they are much-loved family members,
and their dedicated owners are willing to look
beyond ‘normal veterinary care’ and seek out
alternative options.”PLF071_pg062-064_Feline Anxiety.indd 64PLF071_pg062-064_Feline Anxiety.indd 64 8/23/2017 11:39:47 AM8/23/2017 11:39:47 AM