Can cats experience physical reactions to stress such as vomiting?
By: Dr. Jon Rappaport

Our question this week was:

Dr. Jon, can animals such as cats have physical reactions to stress like humans can? (ie- vomiting)

Patti Brown

Answer

Hi – thanks for your email. Some pets can have physical signs of stress. This is especially true in high-stress situations or pets with high-stress personalities. You can see some feral cats for example pant and exhibit very stressful behavior when captured. Also, some dogs with separation anxiety will have elevated heart rates and can either be destructive to the environment or self-destructive (e.g. lick an area on their paws raw).

An article that might be helpful to you is Separation Anxiety in Cats or Is Your Cat Suffering From Anxiety.

Best of luck!

Dr. Jon

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