How stress manifests in your cat.

Sometimes your cat may experience a change from being a calm and collected cat, to being "all of a sudden" a nervous and reactive one. It doesn't take a cat psychologist to tell you that your cat is probably feeling anxious or stressed.

Cat's cannot communicate directly if they are under stress, and so it is down to you to detect when they are not themselves. Early signs can be less movement, even immobile. Whichever case, the cat's deal with stress in different ways and you will have to identify abnormal behaviour as early as possible to get to the root cause

Here are some of the reasons and clues as to why your cat may become stressed:

• Unable to use the toilet due to dirty litter box.
• Lack of their own territory.
• Skin problems leading to excessive grooming or self mutilation.
• Lack of mobility
• Unusual Aggression
• Lots of vocalisation
• Lack of appetite

Many of these symptoms can be signs of illness and so it is important to get your cat looked at by the vet to see whether anything serious needs immediate attention. Like humans, early treatment is best.