Menu:
Signs of Distress
Anxiety, fear, frustration and depression are the common emotional problems faced by dogs. Behavioural, physical and physiological changes that occur in them are the most important parameters to decide if and when a dog is in distress.
Physiological indicators of distress include:
- An increased supply of oxygen to the muscles (erratic changes in respiration rate, heart rate and blood pressure increase).
- Conversion of stored energy, indicated by an increase in cortisol (hormone involved inresponse to stress).
Behavioural indicators of distress vary depending on the emotional state.
Signs of fear and anxiety are usually short term, whereas frustration and depression increase over time.
- Anxiety: The dog will stop normal behaviours and try to either attract attention or avoid it. You may find its pupils dilated. Some may go into a panic mode, crying and barking, destroying things, such as plants, books, pillows, even to the extent of defecating on the floor.
- Fear:: Your dog may fight, bite, try to escape or freeze by huddling in some remote corner.
- Frustration: The dog will make attempt at repetitive functionless behaviour such as pacing, circling, jumping up the walls etc.
- Depression: The dog becomes listless, lethargic, stops eating, and drink only minimal amounts of water, stops playing, and even loses drastic amounts of weight. In other words, totally unresponsive to environment. Losing a playmate is a common cause of depression.
- Obsessive compulsive disorder: Dogs who are stressed, anxious, or bored. This behaviour is projected through destruction of items, and uncontrollable aggression. Obsessive digging, continuous biting at their own feet, barking at nothing, attacking inanimate objects, all are symptoms of OCD.
Some common signs of physical distress:
Pain is frequently the symptom of physical distress and the cause of moodiness and irritability in a pet. It is important that you locate the source of discomfort as early as possible.
- Dog choking or pawing at the mouth, possibly some foreign particle stuck in throat or mouth .
- Ears hot on touching, maybe having fever.
- The dog is whining, crouching accompanied by heavy breathing. Possible cause maybe intense abdominal pain.
- If your dog is squatting frequently but not urinating, check out for possible kidney or bladder infection.
- Skin inside ears is bright pink. Bad odour from ears. ear infection.
If your dog is giving out signals of distress, try noticing them and solve the problem soon, before it matures into something grave and irreversible.