Veterinary nurses can play an important role in helping to identify animals that might benefit from behavioural help and, potentially, behaviourally-active medication. They are likely to come across...
There are a number of different factors that need to be taken into consideration when choosing the most appropriate short-acting behavourally-active drugs for an individual animal. These are outlined...
While behaviourally-active drugs comprise several different classes of medication, they can be divided into two main types: short-acting drugs that can be given as needed (Box 1), and drugs that need...
‘A philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.’ .
An understanding of the natural lifestyle of rabbits makes it easy to see why the traditional way of keeping rabbits impacts on their welfare. What an owner considers to be a behaviour problem may...
Having evolved as a territorial species that predated on rodents, but that was also predated on by larger carnivores (Bradshaw et al, 2012), the cat is effectively, constantly, asking itself ‘Am I...
It is not the intention of this article to explain the ethology of the dog, but some good books are available (Horwitz and Mills, 2009; Hedges, 2014), and these will assist staff in developing an...
Annually, more pets are euthanased, abandoned or rehomed for behavioural reasons than as a result of medical problems (Overall, 2013); and the majority of these animals are under 3 years of age. This...
Elderly cats are susceptible to developing a number of different health problems that can adversely affect their welfare and may also result in behaviour changes. The most common medical conditions...
There are a number of pre- and post-natal environmental effects that can affect the kitten's capacity to develop emotional resilience to both the social and physical aspects of a domestic environment.
The earliest evidence of our domestic cat's original ancestor comes from 11 million years ago (Bradshaw et al, 2012) and from this evolved a range of species including the ‘wild cat’. Of these it is...
Most animals seen in veterinary practice are substantially smaller than the professionals caring for them. While true for dogs and cats, it is even more so for the small mammals that are only a few...
The physical environment should provide opportunities for maintenance of homeostasis and for the range of normal behaviours to be shown. Similarly the presence (or absence) of other chelonians may...
Stress is an emotional and physiological response to change in an animal's environment (Mills et al, 2013). Such change is brought about by the presence of a ‘stressor’ which can be a stimulus that is...
The importance of companion rabbits for comfort, safety and to alleviate boredom cannot be underestimated. As prey species, an extra set of eyes on the lookout for predators can literally mean the...