Thursday, October 30, 2008

Treating Depression in your Cat


How to help your cat if it suffers from depression.
Best way of course is to avoid it - and how do you do that?
  1. Routine vet exams - can prevent depression caused by medical condition
  2. Keep to a daily schedule - meals, quality play time, grooming sessions all at the same time each day
  3. Provide stress relievers such as scratching posts, cat trees, perches, toys, etc
  4. Always keep a clean litter box
  5. Establish a quiet safe place for your cat to be alone
  6. Regular interactive playtime for 20 minutes twice a day
  7. Be an immediate peace keeper if there is conflict between pets
You have tried them all, and nothing seems to help, so now what?
You may have to engage the help of an animal behavior counselor to work with you and your cat to find the root cause of the problem and come up with suggestions to help the situation. The last resort would be working with your vet and putting your cat on some type of antidepressant medication.

Most depression can be totally avoided but it means you must have a behavioral baseline to compare your cat to what is 'normal' for it. Then once you see subtle changes you can modify behavior or the situation to prevent your cat from becoming depressed.

If you think a new cat tree is a possible solution be sure to take a look at our many stress relievers.

1 comment:

Seth S. Smith said...

Thanks for sharing such information. It really helped me to cure my cat of depression.