Thunderstorm Phobia in Cats
www.petplace.com/
I found this pet site recently with all sorts of stuff on it. A lot of you probably already know most of this, but there are some interesting articles.
Here’s one for the cat lovers:
Thunderstorm Phobia in Cats by:_Dr. Nicholas Dodman
Thunderstorm phobia in cats is rare. Few species – including humans – are happy to endure the sounds of a rip-roaring thunderstorm, complete with darkened skies, lightning and crashing thunder. Some become extremely fearful to the point where they show a full-blown phobia.
Dogs and cattle (besides some people) can show this phobia. Other creatures, like cats, are probably far from comfortable, but most don’t become phobic – although there are exceptions.
Before considering the specifics of thunderstorm phobia in cats, it is worth emphasizing that fear is a normal response to a fear-inducing situation or circumstance. Phobias are extreme and seemingly irrational fears in which the response has been magnified to the point of dysfunction. It is reasonable and biologically sensible to be a little uneasy during a lightning storm - to avoid open spaces and seek cover. But when an animal gets completely distraught at the first roll of thunder and may harm itself in attempts to avoid the perceived mortal threat, now we are talking about phobia. Cattle that become spooked and stampede off a cliff or dogs that hurl themselves from third story windows make the case.
So where do cats fit into this and why? The answer to the first part of the question is that many cats, quite sensibly, tend to become nervous during storms and may remove themselves from the fray by hiding under a bed or in a cupboard. This self-preservation response qualifies as a fear. Unlike dogs, however, cats tend not to advance to the phobic stage, perhaps because their strategy of avoidance works. They hide; the storm passes; they emerge unscathed.
Dogs often start out sensibly, too. Dogs that eventually become phobic often show fear in the first year or two of life, but this fear is mild to moderate. They may pace anxiously and seek their owner’s company for protection. But then they may have a sudden augmentation of their fear a few years later for no apparent reason. I hypothesize that the reason for this augmentation may be that injury is added to the insult of the storm, specifically, that they may receive a painful static electric shock during a particularly severe overhead storm. This aversive event confirms and magnifies their suspicions of the malevolence and danger implicit in storms. Some confirmation of this is provided by the fact that large thick-coated dogs are most commonly affected by severe thunderstorm phobia.
Cats and small dogs may be somewhat immune to such shocks. Cats usually prefer to hide rather than pace, so trouble is minimized. Some dogs eventually learn to stay in one safe place during storms, too, but often not until it is too late.
Full-blown thunderstorm phobia is really uncommon in cats, but it does sometimes occur under unusual circumstances. One cat became storm phobic because she received an electric jolt from a nearby telephone jack (the result of a secondary lightning strike) while on a countertop. During future storms, the cat hunkered down, hair coat raised, tail bushy and hissed and spit. This would not be a good time to pick the cat up to comfort it for fear of redirected aggression.
Signs of Thunderstorm Fear/Phobia in Cats
* _ Usually mild - large pupils, hiding, anti-social..
* _ Rarely severe - feline affective defense response. Large pupils, hair coat raised, tail bushy, body hunkered down and tense, hissing and spitting.
Treatment
* _ Probably the best treatment is avoidance. If the cat can be brought to an area of the house, like a finished basement, that is relatively sound and light proof the problem can be averted and contained.
* _ Counterconditioning. What this means is encouraging the cat to do something pleasurable and distracting during the storm so that it associates storms with fun times instead of fear. Using food to train the cat to respond to some voice cues (Come here! Sit! Jump up!) is best but stress may make food unappetizing to your cat. To circumvent this obstacle to training it can sometimes be arranged that the cat is hungry prior to the storm arriving (the weather channel is helpful here) and, in addition, only delicious, practically irresistible food treats should be used.
* _ Desensitization. A tedious and not particularly successful technique of treatment for storm phobia in which the cat is exposed to progressively increasing volumes of high quality pre-recorded storm sounds. It is usually conducted with simultaneous counterconditioning.
* _ Anxiety-reducing pharmacological treatment. Drugs that have been used to assuage fears in cats include: Clomicalm (clomipramine), Prozac (fluoxetine), Buspar (buspirone), and Inderal (propranolol). An over-the-counter hormone treatment, melatonin, has also been used with some success to treat noise phobias in dogs. As usual, consult your local veterinarian before employing any of these treatments.
Conclusion
Though many cats are fearful during storms, thunderstorm phobia in cats is rare. A computer search of the scientific literature (Medline) produced no results when the key words thunderstorm phobia, noise phobia, and cats, were cross-referenced. So, while it is unlikely that you will find your cat pacing and howling during a storm or trying to break out when left alone, you may well notice that it just isn't around. If you search for it you may find it under the bed, anxiously licking its nose. Does this mean it's frightened? Absolutely! But is it phobic? Not necessarily. Although you can simply leave scared cats alone, it is more humane to condition them out of their fear using delicious food treats. The way to a cat's heart is through its stomach and that maxim applies just as well when its knees are shaking as it does at other times.
john
