Ref: Feline Advisory Board - are living longer and longer lives. To make contact, call the, free phone number: 0800 096 6606Ī co-ordinator will give you details of the nearest Telephone Befriender. The Helpline is open daily 8.30am to 5.30pm with an answer phone outside these hours. The Helpline is run by two charities, The Blue Cross and The Society for Companion Animal Studies. The Pet Bereavement Support Service is a confidential telephone helpline that offers such support through a national network of trained volunteer Telephone Befrienders. Sometimes it helps to share your feelings with someone who knows from personal experience just how distressing the loss of a pet can be. Helping your cat to overcome grief can be especially difficult if you are having trouble coming to terms with the loss of your cat yourself. Unresolved behavioral problems can be referred onto animal behaviorists. Whenever dramatic changes in behavior occur, the cat should always be checked by a vet for any underlying physical problem. It can therefore be helpful to bring the body of a euthanized cat home rather than have it cremated at the vet's. Like many species, time spent sniffing and nuzzling the dead body of their companion may be a necessary part of the grieving process. A new cat at this time simply provides an extra source of stress. While your remaining cat may be missing a long term companion, she is unlikely to welcome a stranger when she is still unsettled about the loss.
Don't attempt to replace a lost cat immediately. This will give a positive feel to any changes in the house that the cat senses. Spend more time with the cat grooming, stroking and playing. If the cat does not eat for three days seek veterinary advice. Don't be tempted to change diets to stimulate appetite as this may cause digestive upsets. Sit with your cat during meal times to provide reassurance. Encourage eating by warming food slightly or putting water or meat juice or it. A cat that goes off its food for several days is in danger of a potentially fatal liver disease called hepatic lipidosis.
Changes in feeding times or even simply moving furniture around can cause further stress. Minimizing change gives the cat time to come to terms with the loss of a companion cat. There are a number of things you can do to help a grieving cat to overcome the loss. But encouragingly, in the 160 households surveyed, all pets that lost a companion were behaving normally within six months. While there has been no major research on the subject of feline bereavement, a survey by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals found that cats ate less, slept more and became more vocal after the death of a companion cat. A few cats undergo personality or behavioral changes when a companion is lost. Others may stop eating and lose interest in their surroundings, simply sitting and staring they seem to become depressed. Some cats seem completely unaffected and, indeed, a few may even seem to be positively happy when their housemate disappears. There is really no way to predict how a cat is likely to behave when a companion is lost. The owner's distress at the loss of a pet may also be communicated to the cat, adding to the confusion it may be feeling. While no-one will ever know if a cat understands death, they certainly know that a fellow housemate is missing and that something has changed in the house. Even cats that constantly fight can grieve the loss of a feuding partner.
When animals are closely bonded they are more likely to be upset by the loss of their companion. But cats do exhibit behavioral changes after the loss of another cat and sometimes these can be difficult to understand. Little attention is paid to the subject of grieving in cats, largely because they are often seen as independent animals that retain much of their 'wild' nature.
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