Anxiety is one of the most underdiagnosed conditions in domestic cats, causing chronic suffering that often manifests as medical problems, house soiling, aggression, or withdrawal rather than obvious distress signals.
Feline anxiety imposes chronic suffering often invisible to owners who interpret anxious behaviours as personality traits or medical problems unrelated to emotional state. Cats that hide excessively, overgroom to alopecia, eliminate outside the litter box, or become aggressive when touched may be expressing anxiety rather than "bad behaviour." Welfare-conscious veterinary care includes routine behavioural screening, environmental modification as first-line treatment (resource provision, predictable routine, safe spaces), behavioural therapy using positive reinforcement, and pharmacological intervention when environmental measures are insufficient. Medicating anxiety without environmental enrichment produces suboptimal outcomes. Owner education — particularly around reading feline stress signals — is the highest-leverage intervention available.