Cat Compulsive Disorders

Compulsive disorders in cats are not among the most common.  For a variety of reasons, some of them similar to those that afflict people, cats and other animals can develop behaviors that we categorize as compulsive. The main cause of compulsive behaviors in cats is stress, especially when cats feel highly conflicted by two opposing courses of action. One compulsive behavior is what we call “wool-sucking” or wool-chewing – sucking or chewing on non-food items including not just wool but cotton, synthetics, paper, and even more surprising materials.

More commonly, cats may groom excessively or pull out their own fur, which is called overgrooming. Or they may attack their own tails or paw at their own faces (as part of “Rolling Skin Syndrome,” or feline hyperesthesia). Some compulsive behaviors appear to be passed on from parent to kitten. Other behaviors may develop because a cat was weaned too early, or because he’s now experiencing anxiety, frustration, separation anxiety, or cognitive conflict.

This is especially true if such conflicts or frustrations recur frequently or persist over an extended period of time, such as when a cat who has separation anxiety is left alone every day with nothing to occupy or entertain him and no companionship, human, feline, or otherwise.

What do I mean by “cognitive conflict”? Your cat is conflicted when she feels the urge to perform two opposing behaviors, such as an urge to greet you and an urge to avoid you for fear of punishment. Or when she wants to run away from another cat and she wants to confront him. Similarly, if you call a dog and he wants to come but can’t tell if you’re angry, his brain may short-circuit and his response may be to start spinning around.

A cat gets frustrated for the same reasons you do. He wants to do or have something and he can’t. Maybe he’s indoors, looking out a window, and he wants to attack the cat walking across his territory. Maybe he wants to play, hunt, stalk, kill, eat, but he has nothing to play with or no food. All animals have their characteristic ways of responding to boredom, frustration, and stress. In zoo environments, wolves, foxes, and polar bears may repetitively pace, crib, and self-mutilate, while giraffes sway and big cats pace. Gus, the famously neurotic polar bear at the Central Park Zoo, compulsively swims back and forth.  Horses may chew repeatedly or weave as they walk, and pigs will bite their bars. Cats with separation anxiety may grow upset when their owners leave home, and if left alone for too long may over-groom themselves.

Compulsive behaviors in cats, including overgrooming and wool-sucking, are based on behaviors that are already a part of the cat’s natural repertoire, but that have become abnormal because they’re performed repetitively, out of context, with no apparent goal, and sometimes in ways that are destructive, not just to the environment they live in (yours!) but to the cats themselves. If you allow the stressor to continue, the compulsive behavior may be triggered by not only low amounts of the original stressor, but by totally unrelated stressors. Once the behavior becomes habituated, the cat may repeat it even when no stress is present, because compulsive behaviors can become self-rewarding, insofar as doing them makes the cat feel good.

In short, one cat may develop compulsive behaviors because she's been weaned too early, another because she's anxious, and another because of a genetic propensity for, say, chewing on non-food items.

Some compulsive behaviors may be harmful to your cat, and others may damage your property. Watching or listening to still others – lick, lick, pause. lick, lick, pause – may simply feel to you like Chinese water torture. Most cat owners and even most vets are at a loss as to how to intervene effectively to remedy compulsive behaviors. The most common compulsive behaviors are overgrooming and wool-sucking. These are some of the most difficult behavior issues to diagnose and treat, because they can be or act like addictions.

We have worked with many clients whose cats had various forms of compulsiveness, and with great success.  We invite you to book your consultation today in order to give your cat, and you, relief!