Feline Fear of Inanimate Stimuli

Introduction

Key Points

Identify all stimuli that elicit fear. Reduce exposure to fear-eliciting stimuli, especially in the home. Allow the cat to avoid situations where it may be exposed to fear-eliciting stimuli, and provide it with one or more safe and readily-accessible places to escape to. These should contain food, water, resting places and latrines. The cat must not be restrained or coerced to remain in the presence of fear-eliciting stimuli. Stop attempts to soothe the cat by giving it attention as this may reward fearful behaviour.

The prevalence of fear of inanimate objects and stimuli in cats is unknown. Cats that have a fear of loud noises, such as fireworks or thunder, may hide in a variety of places, some of which are outside the home so that their behaviour goes unobserved. At home, cats may hide or become inhibited when frightened by loud noises, and do not show the overt signs of distress observed in dogs (pacing, whining, etc). Clients often misinterpret this apparent passivity as a lack of fear, especially when the cat engages in self-maintenance behaviour, such as grooming, that are associated with being relaxed of settled. Increased grooming can be a form of displacement activity or an attempt at self-appeasement that is an indicator of stress.

Fear of inanimate visual stimuli may develop as a result of associations with noise stimuli e.g. light flashes that resemble lightning before the sound of thunder. A minority of cats, usually coming from an inappropriate rearing environment, do suffer from specific fears and phobias of visual stimuli. Cases include fear of flapping or flying objects such as kites and polythene bags. Cats will also show increased fear of visual stimuli that startle the cat while it is in the presence of another stimulus that it fears, or when it is in an unfamiliar environment. This can create negative associations with almost any kind of stimulus, so that it evokes fear in the future.

Fear responses of cats can be quite context specific. They may react fearfully to otherwise familiar stimuli when they are encountered in an unfamiliar context, or when the cat encounters the stimulus when it is outside of its own familiar territorial boundaries. This may be because a significant part of the cat’s emotional self-control is based on its ability to rapidly engage avoidance behaviour and also to discriminate the level of threat likely in a given environment according to the scent marks that have previously been left there.

Prevention

• Good rearing practice is essential, with exposure to a wide range of normal domestic sounds and activities during the period before 7 weeks of age.
• Exposure to sound stimuli may be provided using recordings. Kittens should not be habituated to traffic sounds.
• Novel or potentially fear-evoking stimuli should be introduced carefully so that fear is not increased.
• Use of F3 pheromone diffusers help to enable cats to adjust to a new environment after re-homing. This reduces the risk of the development of specific fear problems.
• Do not pick kittens that are the progeny of aggressive or fearful parents.
• Avoid choosing kittens that have been reared in impoverished or barren environments.

Diagnosis

Observing the cat’s typical avoidance behaviour and body language in the presence of the stimulus is paramount to diagnosis. With animate objects, it is usually obvious what the cat is reacting to, but with inanimate objects or sounds it may not be so clear cut, unless the client has closely observed the cat. Fear of inanimate objects or sounds may be an underlying factor in other behavioural problems so it is important to take a detailed history. Given that cats tend to become inhibited in situations where they cannot mount a proper escape response, the owner may not be aware of low-level fear reactions. Direct observation or video recording of the cat’s behaviour is necessary. Identify the full range of stimulus types and variations of which the cat is fearful of. These may be grouped into general categories as an indication of other potential stimulus types that may evoke fear. If more than one stimulus evokes fear, the stimuli should be listed in order of the level of reaction they create, based on the owner’s experience (do not set up challenge tests).

Treatment

The treatment process is complicated by the cat’s unique reliance on its environment for security and safety. Before beginning specific behavioural therapy for the fear problem, it is important to make sure that the cat’s home environment closely satisfies the cat’s needs. The cat’s domestic environment should be optimised so that it can perform normal avoidance and hiding behaviour. Increasing the range and availability of resources such as feeding places, rest sites and latrines will reduce the cat’s general level of arousal and anxiety. Social and other problems should be treated before commencing fear related treatment. It absolutely vital that sounds or other stimuli must be presented systematically while the cat is relaxed, so that fear is never elicited. Otherwise, the cat may associate the context of its own core territory with memories of fear. This undermines the cat’s general security and could cause it to refuse to enter the home. It is also important to exclude children and other animals from the environment during training. This reduces any possibility that a cat may use aggression to regain access to an escape route, or learn negative associations with the presence of those individuals.

The basis of treatment of fear of inanimate objects is to use desensitisation and counterconditioning to alter the emotional response to the stimulus. Training should be done in an environment where the cat feels safe. F3 diffusers (Feliway)can help to accomplish this, in conjunction with environmental enrichment. The treatment may be augmented with pharmacological therapy if appropriate. C

Desensitisation

During desensitisation, the stimulus is repeatedly presented below the threshold that evokes fear. The intensity of the stimulus is gradually raised over a number of sessions until the animal is fully habituated to it. Begin desensitisation with low-ranking stimuli that evoke the least amount of fear and which conveniently lend themselves to behavioural therapy. This allows the client to build up experience of the behaviour modification methods with minimal risk of making them worse through flooding. Sounds are played at low volume, visual stimuli are presented at a distance or behind a partial screen. Once the cat becomes fully habituated to one level of intensity, the stimulus is then made a little more intense. Gradually the intensity is raised over a number of sessions until it reaches a realistic intensity.

Counterconditioning

The stimulus is presented in association with something that the cat unconditionally enjoys (play, food etc.). After repeated presentations the previously fear-eliciting stimulus begins to elicit the same emotional state as the pleasant event now associated with it. For example, the sound of dogs barking might be played at low volume, starting just before the cat is enticed into a game. Over successive training sessions, the sound level is gradually increased until it reaches realistic levels.

Choice of reward is an essential component for success in counterconditioning. The ‘reward’ used must be something that the cat unconditionally enjoys. The previously fear-eliciting stimulus is presented at an intensity at which the ‘reward’ is more pleasurable than the fearful stimulus is aversive. Otherwise the cat may become fearful of eating or play because these have come to be associated with an unpleasant emotional state. Clients should experiment with a wide range of toys and food before beginning counterconditioning. For cats, play is often a better counterconditioning stimulus because it produces an immediate emotional response. Most cats are rather circumspect regarding food treats and it may be hard to use meals for counterconditioning when many cats share a household and need to be fed ad-lib. It is also important to remember that cats habituate to toys very rapidly, which means that counterconditioning exercises that use play must be kept brief (less than 5-10 minutes) to maintain interest and the toys used at each session must be varied. Effectively, part of the counterconditioning stimulus is the novelty of the toy and the play. If toys are swapped during play, then the sessions may be extended beyond 5-10 minutes but they must end before the cat becomes bored.

Training sessions of this kind should be undertaken when the cat is already voluntarily in the environment where training is to take place. Cats should not be carried to the place where training is to take place, because any accidental negative associations made in that situation may also affect the cat’s attitude toward handling, resulting in fear of or aggression toward the owner.

Pheromonatherapy

The F3 pheromone fraction (Feliway) can be used to increase the familiarity and security of the home environment which will indirectly alter the cat’s reaction to stimuli. Individual spots of F3 might be sprayed onto static environmental stimuli of which the cat is otherwise mildly fearful.

Pharmacological Therapy

Treatment of specific fears of inanimate objects may be augmented with psychoactive drug therapy, although no drug is specifically licensed for this use in the cat. Extreme care must be taken in using these drugs when the cat also has a number of other fear or aggression problems involving people or other animals, because anxiolytic psychoactive drugs carry a risk of producing disinhibition. Selegiline is the first choice for specific fears, as it is licensed for the treatment of this condition in the dog. It can be used in cats if the client’s informed consent is obtained. The onset of efficacy may be 4-6 weeks or more, and it is important to warn owners not to try to progress too quickly with behavioural therapy during the induction period with this drug, as the cat’s increase in confidence and reduction in apprehension are relatively fragile until the drug is in full effect. Attempts to take advantage of the cat’s growing confidence during the induction period can backfire, with the cat becoming even more uncertain of human contact. This is temporary but very disheartening for owners when it happens. Selegiline is most appropriate for fearful cats that also show a high degree of inhibition of normal behaviour, such as:

• Reduced self-maintenance behaviour (grooming, eating)
• Failure to utilise resources
• Perpetual hiding and avoidance
• Frequent freezing behaviour in even mildly fear-eliciting situations

Apart from increasing exploratory behaviour and confidence and reducing apprehension, selegiline also increases the rewarding nature of reinforcers and improves cognitive function so that it may be of benefit in improving responses to counterconditioning procedures.

Serotonergic drugs like clomipramine or fluoxetine are more suited to cases in which the cat shows chronic and generalised signs of anxiety in an environment that is generally devoid of specific fear-eliciting stimuli. These are cats that anticipate harm although no threat is actually present. They may be appropriate if there are signs of excessive self-appeasement or displacement behaviour such as overgrooming.

Deciding when to use psychoactive medication for fears of inanimate objects or sounds
Possible indications:

• Widely-generalised fears and phobias, especially when the range of fear-eliciting stimuli is expanding
• Longstanding cases where many fear-related associations have already formed
• When welfare has been impacted: cats with significantly inhibited patterns of behaviour
• Cats with cognitive impairment, such as due to senile dementia

Prognosis

For stimuli that may be presented according to a strict plan of desensitisation and counterconditioning the prognosis is good. The prognosis is guarded if the stimulus is regularly encountered at fear-eliciting intensity during behavioural therapy, because memory-blocking drugs are very limited in their use in the cat. Drugs that reduce apprehension, such as selegiline, may be useful in these cases and can also speed up therapy in intensely fearful individuals. Drug therapy is also useful for individuals that have a wide range of fears, with a pattern of generalisation.