Behavioural Signs and Neurological Disorders in Dogs and Cats

The boundary between neurological and behavioural disorders often is not clear, and they often coexist. As a matter of fact, many neurological conditions lead to behavioural changes, which can be the only sign and the first sign complained by the owners. Sometimes it is not possible to reach a diagnosis based only on neurology or on behavioural medicine. Finally, some behavioural problems can facilitate the onset or worsening of neurological conditions. A synergy between neurology and behavioural medicine would be beneficial for both of them, in the diagnostic procedure and in the treatment. Veterinarians of such disciplines should collaborate as much as possible

The prevention of undesirable behaviors in cats: Effectiveness of veterinary behaviorists' advice given to kitten owners

Cats can form a strong relationship toward the owner and seem to accept the advantages of living within a human family. However, cats can show behavioral problems, which are supposed to be largely due to owners' lack of knowledge or misunderstanding of feline behavior and needs. Therefore, the first period after adoption may be crucial in the development of a good cohabitation and relationship with the owner. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a standardized set of behavioral advices provided to kitten owners in preventing the main undesirable behaviors in the domestic cat. Ninety-one cats divided into 2 groups were involved. Owners of the experimental group have been involved in the study in 2 steps. The first step was at the first veterinary visit of their pets, when kittens were 2.8 ± 0.8 months old, and owners were provided with advice aimed to prevent behavioral problems. As a second step, they were interviewed 10 months later. Owners of the control group were met and interviewed only once, during the first vaccination recall visit. Results show that a significantly higher percentage of owners belonging to the control group (43.5% vs. 15.6%; χ2 = 7.214; P = 0.007) complained about one or more undesirable behaviors of their cat. Cats in the experimental group were more often reported to climb on some or specifically allowed furniture, while a greater number of cats in the control group climbed on every kind of furniture (χ2 = 5.820; P = 0.016) and climbed on the curtains sometimes or frequently (χ2 = 3.940; P = 0.047). Excessive vocalizations were also displayed more in the control group (21.7% vs. 4.4%; χ2 = 4.529; P = 0.033). Cats in the experimental group preferred seeking physical contact when the owners went back home, whereas cats belonging to the control group usually sought contact while owners were lying in the bed or on the sofa (χ2 = 11.651; P = 0.011), possibly disturbing them. Moreover, a higher proportion of experimental group cats did not show a negative response to handling of any part of the body (82.2% vs. 58.7%; χ2 = 6.52; P = 0.010). The results of the present study support the hypothesis that providing owners with advice regarding their own behavior toward the cat and the appropriate education of their kitten leads to better informed owners and to fewer behaviors perceived as undesirable in cats

refinement of laboratory animal welfare

In order to achieve an effective refinement of animal welfare, it is necessary to intervene on all phases of the experimental process: animal housing, experiment, rehoming of animals that have undergone experimentation, with an active intervention by researchers and veterinary surgeons. It is crucial to know the ethology of the hosted animal species, in order to house animals in a physical and social environment that is as similar as possible to the environment in which that species live in natural conditions. A particular care must be devoted to experimental phase in which animal welfare is at greatest risk: a careful control by the veterinarian is necessary to identify the slightest signs of pain in the animal, intervening with an adequate analgesic therapy. At the end of the experimental phase, once the state of good health has been recovered, animals can be rehomed

Ordinanza sirchia sui cani potenzialmente pericolosi: valutazione degli effetti nella città di Firenze

RIASSUNTO L’aggressività canina risulta essere un tema largamente dibattuto, soprattutto quando vede coinvolto l’uomo come parte lesionata. Il problema delle morsicature canine rivolte all’uomo deve essere affrontato ed analizzato in modo scientifico, al fine di permettere l’individuazione dei fattori di rischio. Lo scopo di questo lavoro è stato quello di valutare l’influenza dell’Ordinanza Sirchia del 9 settembre 2003 intitolata “Tutela dell’incolumità pubblica dal rischio di aggressioni da parte di cani potenzialmente pericolosi” sull’andamento delle morsicature canine rivolte all’uomo nella città di Firenze. Per questo studio sono stati raccolti 556 casi di morsicature verificatesi nel periodo compreso tra settembre 2002 ed agosto 2005, desunti dalle certificazioni dei referti medici dei vari D.E.A. di Firenze, dalle denunce effettuate all’ufficio dell’anagrafe canina e dalle schede di osservazione per la profilassi della rabbia. I dati sono stati inseriti in un database ed esaminati statisticamente grazie al test del 2. La presente ricerca ha dimostrato che la suddetta Ordinanza non ha provocato, nel campione preso in esame, significativi cambiamenti sull’andamento delle morsicature canine né a breve né a lungo termine. Infatti, anche se è stata evidenziata una diminuzione numerica di queste nel periodo successivo all’ordinanza (210 vs 172 morsicature), una tendenza alla diminuzione era già in atto dal 1986. Inoltre le caratteristiche dei proprietari, dei lesionati e degli animali coinvolti nelle morsicature sono rimaste invariate. I risultati del presente studio sembrerebbero dunque indicare che provvedimenti legislativi a carattere restrittivo in materia di cani potenzialmente pericolosi non si rivelano efficaci nel contenimento di tale fenomeno. Sirchia. SUMMARY Canine aggressiveness is a very discussed topic, especially when a person is the damaged part. The problem of canine bites towards human beings must be tackled and analyzed scientifically, in order to allow the identifying of risk factors. The aim of this research was to assess the effects of the Sirchia’s Ordinance of the 9th September 2003 called “Protection of the public safety against the risk of aggressions by potentially dangerous dogs” on the trend of canine bites towards people in the city of Florence. For this research 556 cases of bites, occurred from September 2002 to August 2005, have been gathered. They drew from the certifications of medical reports in different D.E.A. of Florence, from the denunciation done at registry office for dogs and from the observational reports for the prophylaxis of the rabies. Data have been inserted in a database and statistically examined with the 2 test. This research demonstrated that the above-mentioned ordinance has caused no significant changes on the trend of canine bites in the taken sample nor in the short-term neither in the long-term. In fact, even if a numerical decrease has been observed in the period following the ordinance (210 vs 172 bites), a trend of reduction was already in progress since 1986. Moreover characteristics of owners, injureds and animals involved in the events of bites remained unvaried. Therefore, results seem to show that restrictive legislative measures in point of potentially dangerous dogs are not effective for the control of such phenomenon

Pinch-induced behavioural inhibition (clipthesia) as a restraint method for cats during veterinary examinations: preliminary results on cat susceptibility and welfare.

Cats are often subjected to minimally painful or forced procedures during routine clinical practice, which can be poorly tolerated, leading veterinary surgeons to need to offer physical restraint, usually aided by an assistant. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness and ultimate welfare implications of using clipthesia as a method of restraint during veterinary examination. This was carried out in a real clinical setting and compared to manual scruffing. Twenty-seven cats were restrained, during a veterinary examination, using two stationery clips placed on the skin along the cervical dorsal midline, whilst a group of 13 cats were restrained through gentle manual scruffing. Susceptibility to clipthesia (ie a positive clip score) was observed in 81.5% of cats, while a complete response was found in 40.7% of subjects. The presence or absence of a disease/condition did not affect the susceptibility. Heart rate and the number of cats showing mydriasis (pupillary dilation) was statistically higher during manual scruffing, whilst plasma cortisol did not differ between the two groups. The more responsive the cats were to clipthesia, the more they displayed kneading and purring. These preliminary findings suggest that clipthesia is not more stressful than manual scruffing in restraining cats during a veterinary examination. However, not all cats were found to be susceptible to this method of restraint. Further research is needed to clarify whether clipthesia should be implementated as a matter of course in veterinary practice from the point of view of welfare and safety

Quantitative Behavioral Analysis and Qualitative Classification of Attachment Styles in Domestic Dogs: Are Dogs with a Secure and an Insecure-Avoidant Attachment Different?

Since several modified Strange Situation Procedures (SSP) have been used to investigate dog-to-owner attachment, in this study two different samples of dog-owner dyads underwent two modified versions of the SSP. Dogs’ attachment style to the owner was assessed based on a novel adaptation of the attachment pattern classification used for infant-caregivers. Dogs’ behavioral data were collected using continuous sampling and, in the second protocol, also with a scoring system for greeting and social play. In both studies, secure and avoidant dogs’ behavior was compared using the Mann Whitney test, while differences within each group across episodes were analyzed using the Wilcoxon paired sample test. The classification seemed to be effective at identifying both avoidant and secure attachment patterns in dogs. As expected, differences in key attachment behaviors, such as proximity/contact seeking toward the caregiver, between secure and avoidant dogs were more evident in the final episodes of the test. Differently from secure dogs, avoidant dogs did not show an increase in proximity/contact seeking behavior with the caregiver in any of the procedures. Further studies with larger samples are needed to support the effectiveness of this classification and investigate on the remaining attachment styles

The assessment of dog welfare in the waiting room of a veterinary clinic

Veterinary visits are known to be stressful for many dogs. The aim of this study was to assess dog welfare in the waiting room of the veterinary clinic through a multi-modal, non-invasive approach. Forty-five dogs were each videoed for 3 min in the waiting room of a veterinary clinic where they went for a scheduled visit. The welfare of each dog was assessed using a thorough video analysis and two overall evaluations (low, medium and high stress); one performed by a veterinary behaviourist and one by the dog's owner. Two-thirds of dogs spent more than 20% of the time displaying at least one indicator of stress, and 53.3% showed four or more behavioural signs of stress. Assessments of stress by the behaviourist indicated that level of stress in the waiting room was high in 28.9% of cases. The agreement between owners' and behaviourist's overall evaluations was quite low. The behaviourist's evaluations were strongly correlated with the time spent by dogs showing signs of stress and moderately correlated with the number of displayed signs, whilst owners' evaluations were not closely correlated to those factors. Dogs rated as highly stressed by the behaviourist were more prone to display resistance (halting, refusing to budge) when moving from the waiting room to the consultation room. The results of this pilot study support the idea that the welfare of dogs in the veterinary waiting room is often impaired, and that owners are unable to accurately assess stress in their dogs in such situations

Serotonin and Tryptophan Serum Concentrations in Shelter Dogs Showing Different Behavioural Responses to a Potentially Stressful Procedure

In mammals, serotonin (5-HT) levels depend on the availability of tryptophan (TRP). Low 5-HT concentrations have been linked to behavioural disorders in dogs. This study aimed at investigating possible differences in dogs’ serum TRP and 5-HT concentrations according to their behavioural response to a potentially stressful procedure. Thirty-nine physically healthy shelter dogs, 15 females and 24 males, mean age = 5.6 years, were categorized by a certified veterinary behaviourist according to their behavioural response to medical examination and blood collection, in: relaxation, stress signals, tension without growling, tension with growling, escape attempts, and aggression attempts. Extraction and quantification of 5-HT and TRP were performed using a HLPC method. Data were statistically analysed, applying Chi-square and Spearman tests. Results showed no significant difference in TRP (χ2 = 2.084, p = 0.555) nor 5-HT (χ2 = 0.972, p = 0.808) serum concentrations among different categories of dogs; however, some categories were underrepresented (relaxation = 20.5%, stress signals = 30.8%, tension without growling = 43.6%, tension with growling = 5.1%, escape attempts = 0%, aggression attempts = 0%). No correlation between serum TRP and 5-HT concentrations was found (ρ = 0.086, p = 0.602). Serum 5-HT levels do not seem to be associated with dogs’ behavioural response to a stressful situation nor with serum TRP concentrations. The relationship between serum TRP and 5-HT concentrations and behaviour needs further research

Attitude toward non-human animals and their welfare: do behaviorists differ from other veterinarians?

Veterinarians are an important source of information about animal care for owners. They provide general advice about topics important to an animal’s well-being, such as appropriate training, exercise and nutrition. Veterinary behaviorists, when dealing with undesired or abnormal behaviors, also perform an assessment of pet welfare and an evaluation of owners’ behavior and attitudes. It is likely that these assessments are affected by the attitude toward animals and toward animal welfare of the behaviorists. The aim of this study was to investigate whether veterinary behaviorists have a different attitude toward animals and animal welfare compared to other veterinarians. An online questionnaire, also including the 20-item Animal Attitude Scale, was completed by a convenience sample of 540 Italian veterinarians dealing with companion animals: 140 were behaviorists, 22 were starting to work in the field of behavioral medicine, and 378 were not involved in the field. Veterinary behaviorists showed a more positive attitude toward non-human animals and their welfare, which seems to be more related to the interest in behavioral medicine than to its practice. Moreover, behaviorists attached more importance to the psychological aspects of pet welfare that they perceived as less protected in their feline and canine patients. These findings suggest that being involved in one discipline or another of veterinary medicine do matter in the attitude toward non-human animals and their welfare

Stress in aggressive dogs towards people: behavioral analysis during consultation

L’aggressività canina, soprattutto quella rivolta alle persone, è uno dei più gravi problemi comportamentali riferiti ai comportamentalisti. Lo scopo di questo studio è stato quello di analizzare il comportamento di cani aggressivi verso le persone durante la consulenza clinica e di confrontarlo con quello di cani affetti da altre problematiche comportamentali. Per il presente studio sono stati analizzati 26 casi clinici, divisi in due gruppi. Un gruppo di cani aggressivi (AG), costituito da 13 cani aggressivi nei confronti delle persone, ed un gruppo di cani non aggressivi (NAG), formato da 13 soggetti con altri problemi comportamentali. Il gruppo AG è stato ulteriormente diviso in altri due sottogruppi: il gruppo dei cani aggressivi verso persone estranee (AGS; n=6) ed un gruppo di cani aggressivi verso persone familiari (AGF; n=7). Tutti i cani sono stati sottoposti a consulenza comportamentale che è stata videoregistrata per essere in seguito analizzata in modo da misurare la durata (in secondi) dei comportamenti sociali e non sociali. Di ogni videoregistrazione sono stati esaminati 3 periodi per un totale di 30 minuti: T1 da 0 a 10 minuti, T2 da 25 a 35 minuti e T3 da 50 a 60 minuti. Confrontando i comportamenti emessi nei tre periodi considerati, una differenza statisticamente significativa è stata rinvenuta solo per il comportamento esplorativo: in entrambi i gruppi, AG e NAG, questo comportamento è stato manifestato maggiormente in T1 che in T2 e T3. Una differenza statisticamente significativa è emersa tra i gruppi per quanto riguarda la quantità totale dei comportamenti di stress (SB) durante i 3 periodi, con i cani del gruppo AG che mostravano un maggior livello di stress rispetto a NAG. Un’altra differenza statisticamente significativa è quella rinvenuta a carico di due comportamenti sociali: la ricerca delle attenzioni del proprietario (AG vs NAG, U=45,55; p=0,044) ed annusare il proprietario (AG vs NAG; U=42,5; p=0,029). In confronto a NAG, i cani del gruppo AGS hanno mostrato una più prolungata ricerca delle attenzioni del proprietario (U=9,500; p=0,003), l’annusare il proprietario (U=13.000; p=0.011) e la prossimità al proprietario (U=9,000; p=0,009). I cani del gruppo AGF hanno inoltre mostrato un livello più alto di comportamenti di stress (U=21,000; p=0,052), una maggior durata dell’autogrooming (U=20,000; p=0,046) e di ricerca di attenzioni dal proprietario (U=23,500; p=0,032) in confronto al gruppo NAG. In conclusione, un’attenta osservazione del comportamento dei cani durante la consulenza può fornire un addizionale utile supporto nel processo diagnostico e conseguentemente nella valutazione del rischio e nella prescrizione della terapia. Inoltre, questi risultati suggeriscono che i cani aggressivi verso le persone dovrebbero essere trattati non solo per la loro pericolosità ma anche per l’impatto che lo stress e gli aspetti emozionali del problema possono avere sul benessere dell’animale. È perciò importante che questo problema sia affrontato con un trattamento rapido ed efficace, farmacologico e/o comportamentale, e con un’intensa collaborazione tra comportamentalisti ed istruttori cinofili.Canine aggression, especially directed toward people, is one of the most severe behavioral problem referred to specialist clinics. The aim of this study was to analyze the behavior of aggressive dogs toward people in the clinic and to compare it with the behavior of dogs affected by other behavioral disorders. For the present study 26 cases were analyzed, divided into 2 groups: the aggression group (AG) consisted of 13 dogs with aggression toward people and the non-aggression group (NAG) included 13 subjects with behavioral problems other than aggression toward people. The AG group was further divided into dogs that were aggressive toward strangers (AGS; n=6), and dogs that were aggressive toward familiar people (AGF; n=7). All dogs were subjected to a behavioral consultation; the first consultation of each dog was videoed and then analyzed to measure the duration (in seconds) of social and non-social behaviors. Three focal periods of each video, totaling thirty minutes, were examined: T1 recorded minutes 0 to 10, T2 from 25’ to 35’, and T3 from 50’ to 60’. Comparing these three periods, a statistically significant difference was found only for exploratory behavior; for both AG (χ2=14.00; p=0.001) and NAG (χ2=10.51; p=0.005), exploratory behavior was higher during T1 than during T2 and T3. A statistically significant difference was found between groups for the total amount of stress behavior (SB) during the three periods, with AG showing higher amounts than NAG (U=39.5; p=0.019). Statistically significant differences were found for the total amount of two social behaviors: attention seeking from the owner (AG vs NAG, U=45.55; p=0.044) and sniffing the owner (AG vs NAG; U=42.5; p=0.029). Compared with the NAG group, the AGS dogs displayed significantly longer durations of: attention-seeking from the owner (U=9.500; p=0.003), sniffing the owner (U=13.000; p=0.011), and primary proximity to the owner (U=9.000; p=0.009). AGF dogs showed a higher level of behavioral signs of stress (U=21.000; p=0.052), a longer duration of autogrooming (U=20.000; p=0.046), and a higher attention-seeking from the owner (U=23.500; p=0.032), compared to NAG. Interesting results emerged when comparing dogs that were aggressive toward strangers or toward familiar people. These findings suggest that through the systematic analysis of dog behavior during a consultation it is possible to observe different patterns of dogs’ behavior according to the kind of diagnosis. Namely, during the behavioral consultations, dogs that are aggressive towards strangers showed more seeking behaviors towards the owners, whilst dogs that were aggressive towards family members showed more signs of stress. In conclusion, a careful observation of the behavior of dogs during a consultation could provide additional valuable support in the diagnostic process, and consequently in the risk assessment and in prescribing the therapy to dogs aggressive towards people. Moreover these results suggest that the aggressive dogs toward people should be treated not only for their dangerousness, but also for the impact that underlying stress and emotional aspects of the problem might have on the welfare of the dog, and highlighting how urgent its treatment should be. It is therefore important that this problem is treated with rapid and effective treatment, both pharmacological and/or behavioral, and with an extensive collaboration between veterinary behaviorists and dog trainer