Pet Sense (Archives)
Behavior Concerns:
Pets have an instinct to hide their pain. In the wild, showing any sign of weakness could cause the animal to become a target for death. Nature’s “survival of the fittest” makes hiding pain a good idea in the wild, but the same tactic can actually threaten a family pet’s survival if it makes the pet behave aggressively or inappropriately. Aggression is often a dog’s attempt to protect the vulnerable area from further pain, and the signs of illness in cats can be very subtle and are often disguised as behavior problems.
It takes detective work to find the physical cause for a change in your pet’s behavior. This detection starts with always suspecting a physical cause at the root of any behavior in your pet that you don’t understand, particularly if it’s a change from previous behavior.
Let’s say your dog has an ear infection and your child hurts the ear by petting it. The dog reacts and the child backs off. The next time—or the 10th time—the child approaches to pet that dog on the head, the dog may act before the child touches the head. To your eye, there was no cause for the aggression. But in actuality, there was. Treating the ear infection quickly could have prevented the aggression and the formation of this behavior of keeping anyone away from the dog’s painful ears. The longer the behavior problem continues before diagnosis and treatment, the more time it will take to modify that behavior.
Dogs may also react aggressively to protect injured knee ligaments, shoulders, luxating patellas (slipping kneecaps), hip dysplasia (one or both hips not seated properly in hip sockets) and a host of other problems you may not know your dog even has. A change in behavior, such as self-protective aggression, may be your only clue of a dog that is injured or ill.
Cats are a little more clear about telegraphing pain: a cat in pain has his ears flat back against his head and his body rolled into a defensive posture low against the ground with claws up and ready. This cat is saying, “Don’t come near me!” You need to let your cat calm down alone in a quiet room before you attempt to handle him, and then you should get this cat to his veterinarian.
Housetraining changes get people’s attention quickly, and can be affected by many physical causes, such as urinary tract infections or prostate problems. Intestinal parasites are also a common upset to a pet’s intestinal tract, which can result in house soiling. If your pet starts urinating on a bed, the explanation is that he experiences pain when urinating and now seeks the soft, comforting surface of the bed when urinating, in hopes of it not hurting as much. Orthopedic problems can cause pets to postpone relieving themselves because it hurts too much to get into position. Later, the pet has an accident. You wouldn’t expect that a medication to relieve the pet’s pain could correct a housetraining problem, but exactly that can often happen. Pets that urinate in odd places can actually indicate a medical problem instead of the behavioral problem that is the first conclusion. Cats are famous for going to the bathroom in strange places to get their owner’s attention when they are feeling unwell. They aren’t doing this out of spite – they’re trying to tell you something in the one sure-fire way they know to get attention!
Changes in eyesight and hearing can happen at any age, and are common in old age. A pet startled by a touch that he didn’t know was coming may react protectively or fearfully. Once you know the cause, you can help the pet use other senses. You can verbally greet the blind pet before making physical contact, and make sure the deaf pet sees you before you touch him.
Talk to your veterinarian before attempting to change your pet’s behavior, because your efforts will likely fail if you’re working with a sick pet. This advice is doubly true if your pet’s behavior change is sudden - he’s likely sick, especially if you can’t pinpoint any environmental changes as a reason for the behavior change, such as a new person or pet in the home. Be a detective when your dog shows a concerning change in behavior and take the clues to your veterinarian so you can work together to try to figure out what’s happening.
