Animals are unable to verbally communicate with us which can be frustrating as animal parents at times, especially when our fur babies are not themselves. However, if we take the time and are willing to pay attention, their behaviours can tell us a lot about our animal’s mental and emotional health. There are some behaviours that can give as some clues that they may be struggling, these include:
- Listlesness
- Separation Anxiety
- Aggression
- A Lack Of Interest In Exercise, Games Or Interaction
- Hostility
- Excessive Barking (In Dogs)
- Repetitive Behaviours
- Any Other Behavioural Anomalies
Keep in mind that some animals will not show any of these types of behaviours, yet they will be suffering from poor mental health. We need to take into account that there may be living factors that could contribute to their troubles, which is why assessing their environment is important. Some example would include:
- A Frequently Noisy Living Environment
- A Lack Of Human or Animal Contact Or Interaction
- Insufficient Amount Of Food Or Water
- Lack Of Mental Stimulation
- Being Left Alone For Long Periods Of Time
- An Unsanitary Living Environment
- Moving To A New Home
- Arrival Of A New Animal Or Human In Their Home
- Loss Of An Animal or Human Companion
When treating an animal using a holistic approach to their mental health concerns, we need a deeper look into things rather than simply making up a herbal program. Clearly, we need to address the contributing environmental concerns which we mentioned above to make actual changes as well. Herbs will help support a depleted, unbalanced nervous system and in the long run will help them to adapt to stressors with greater ease.
Anxiety
There are two types of anxiety, acute anxiety and chronic anxiety.
Acute Anxiety: is when an animal reacts to a stressful situation such as a car ride, fireworks, a stranger in the home. It is circumstantial and dissipates once the trigger has passed.
Chronic Anxiety is more of a long term situation where it is constant, even when they are in a safe space. You may have just noticed their external symptoms of distress, however, they could have been dealing with this internally for a much longer period of time.
So it is important that we are not mistaking chronic anxiety with acute anxiety, only noticing the symptoms once they have come to the surface during a stressful situation. An animal with a calm personality may not show any signs of nervousness, but instead they have digestive upset or a depleted immune system. You must become an expert investigator of your animal and be able to connect the dots.
Acute Anxiety
It is best to work with remedies that are quick and easy to administer since they probably won’t stop to eat or drink in these moments of unease. A tincture or glycerine drops into their mouth or rub on their lips or paws so they can lick it off is your best option. Useful herbs for acute anxiety include:
- Valerian
- Oat Seed
- Oat Straw
- Passion Flower
- Catnip
- Vervain
Chronic Anxiety
Lifestyle and dietary changes are essential in supporting your animal’s mental health, making sure that they are not deficient which is linked to chronic anxiety. A long-term herbal program is recommended, using herbs for the nervous system and some herbs mentioned above can help with heightened anxiety as it occurs. The herbs recommended for chronic anxiety include:
- Oat seed
- Valerian
- Vervain
- St John’s Wort
- Passion Flower And Skull Cap in combination
For cats and dogs, offer them at meal time and if there isn’t a meal time for horses, offer the remedy mixed into a shallow volume of water in a water bucket, or add drops of tincture or glycerite to a horse treat.
It is not a bad idea to add some nutritive herbs to their mental health program for chronic anxiety, as mentioned above, nutritional deficiencies can be a contributing factor. In fact, these alone could help alleviate anxiety in your animal after several weeks of use. Adding powdered nutritive herbs to their food is a simple treatment plan. The following nutritive herbs are:
- Alfalfa
- Flax
- Oat Straw
- Nettles
- Raspberry Leaf
- Red Clover
The stress and tension herbal program can be also be helpful with chronic anxiety, as prolonged stress and tension can contribute to this issue.
Separation Anxiety
The absence of an animal’s owner causes great distress in animals that suffer from separation anxiety. This can lead to destructive and abnormal behaviour in the animal such as:
- Prolonged Barking
- Toileting Accidents
- Low Mood
- Behaviour Issues
- Damaging The Home
This can be misdiagnosed as chronic anxiety, this can be tricky as animals are very good at hiding their distress. 80% of dogs experience some form of separation anxiety when their parent has left the home.
- Giving them a good meal before leaving can be helpful, as reducing blood sugar levels can help with the anxiousness.
- Playing normal house hold noises on loop can calm them, such as the radio or television.
- Stimulating toys to prevent boredom.
- A piece of clothing or a blanket that you have used can be placed on the animal’s bed.
Herbs that will help with anxiety will be of great benefit as well to prevent their stress hormones from increasing, allowing them to remain calm. These include:
- Skull Cap And Passion Flower in combination
- Valerian
These herbs may need to be given several times a day, on the days the animal will be left alone. It is probably easier to be given via tincture or glycerine. You can also leave an infusion of oat straw for them to drink in addition to their water bowl. Many animal parents find that Bach Rescue Remedy helps their animal with separation anxiety and worth giving a try. However, if your animal is left alone frequently, in addition the remedies above you should also work long-term with the herbal program for stress and tension. Check out the blog here.
Consult with a holistic veterinarian or holistic practitioner to direct you in the right direction. If you feel you are in the dark and uncertain, herbalist have the expertise and wisdom to direct you to top quality herbal products for your animal. Do not use any remedies if you are not certain which and how to use them, it is best to work with a practitioner.
Check out our blog on animal stress and tension
If you are interested holistic services from Maria for your animal feel free to learn more here.
