A little stress goes a long, long way
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Or how caring about one another causes problems
Stress can be mysterious. How can you be sure if your pet – or, in fact, a person – is suffering from great anxiety?
After my big boy Pan-Pan died a few weeks ago, I watched all the other cats carefully, especially one-eyed Angel, who had been his best friend.
Angel has been showing stress, spending her nights calling for him. She still searches for him, but she seems to have started a routine. She alternates her searches with eating, napping and taking care of me.
Normally, after a friend dies, some of the other cats suffer infections or inflammations because of stress, but so far, Angel’s health seems good.
It thus comes as a surprise to me when the two soi boys suddenly come down with extremely high temperatures. Thep and Thong have always felt slightly warmer than what is usual for a cat, but when I take them to the vet’s for their annual vaccinations, we measure their temperatures.
Thep is two or three degrees higher than normal, but Thong’s temperature is over six degrees higher, up to 106 degrees Fahrenheit.
Instead of having their vaccinations, the boys get antibiotic jabs. Thep is allowed to go home, but Thong must stay in the hospital for observation.
By itself, a high temperature is not so dangerous, especially since the boys are eating and sleeping normally, but the fever might be a symptom of some illness much more harmful, one that hasn’t shown itself yet.
So Thep comes home. As soon as I open his carrier, he’s out on the soi. When he returns for his evening meal, he doesn’t eat but looks for Thong. He cries, he yells, but Thong, still at the clinic, doesn’t answer. Thep knows something is wrong. He runs out to the soi. All night, I can hear him calling for Thong.
By the next morning, he’s completely distressed. He comes into the house, calls for Thong, then leaves without having breakfast. In the evening, he spends not more than five minutes inside, when he runs out on the soi again, searching for Thong.
It’s clear that Thong must come home. His temperature, though still slightly high, has dropped, but he’s stopped eating too.
As soon as I bring him home the next day, he immediately heads for his food bowl. Then he starts looking for Thep, but Thep is outside, looking for him.
Suddenly, Thep appears. What a meeting! The two touch noses, then dance together, their long tails waving about happily. Finally, they collapse, taking a long cat nap together.
For me, the mystery is why they got sick. Neither one was particularly close to Pan. They wouldn’t miss him as much as Angel does. A cat-expert friend smiles when I tell her.
“Oh, Laurie,” she says. “They weren’t stressed about Pan. They became stressed when they sensed your stress.”
