Medical Causes of Behavioral Signs
Medical Condition | Behavioral Signs |
|---|---|
Illness or disease | Altered personality, lethargy, listlessness, withdrawal, anorexia, decrease in grooming, altered social relationships, altered response to stimuli |
Neurological | |
Central (affecting forebrain, limbic/temporal, and hypothalamic), rapid-eye movement sleep disorders | Altered awareness and response to stimuli, loss of learned behaviors, house soiling, disorientation, confusion, altered activity levels, temporal disorientation, vocalization, change in temperament (fear, anxiety, aggression), altered appetite, altered sleep cycles, interrupted sleep (aggression/waking/activity) |
Peripheral (neuropathy) | Self-mutilation, irritability, aggression, circling, hyperesthesia |
Focal seizures/temporal lobe seizures | Repetitive behaviors, self-trauma, chomping, staring, altered temperament (eg, intermittent states of fear or aggression), tremors, shaking, interrupted sleep |
Sensory dysfunction | Altered response to stimuli, confusion, disorientation, altered sleep cycles, irritability, aggression, vocalization, house soiling |
Metabolic/Endocrine | |
Feline hyperthyroidism | Irritability, aggression, urine marking, increased activity, night waking |
Canine hypothyroidism | Lethargy, decreased response to stimuli, irritability, aggression |
Panting, night waking, house soiling, irritability, polyphagia, anxiety | |
House soiling, night waking | |
Functional ovarian and testicular tumors | Androgen-induced behaviors: males—aggression, roaming, marking, sexual attraction, mounting; females—nesting or possessive aggression of objects |
Hepatic encephalopathy; renal encephalopathy | Clinical signs associated with affected organ, anxiety, irritability, aggression, altered sleep, house soiling, mental dullness, decreased activity, restlessness, increased sleep, confusion |
Anemia or electrolyte imbalances | Pica |
Pain | Altered response to stimuli, decreased activity, restlessness/inability to settle, vocalization, house soiling, aggression, irritability, self-trauma, waking at night |
GI | Licking, polyphagia, pica, coprophagia, house soiling (fecal), wind sucking, tongue rolling, unsettled sleep, restlessness |
Urogenital | House soiling (urine), polydipsia, waking at night |
Dermatological | Psychogenic alopecia (cats), acral lick dermatitis (dogs), nail biting, hyperesthesia, other self-trauma |