Cats mask illness effectively and subtle behavioral changes are often the first indicators of health problems. Owner awareness of what constitutes normal behavior enables earlier detection.
The ability of cats to mask illness creates a welfare problem as conditions may progress significantly before owners recognize signs requiring veterinary attention. The behavioral changes that accompany illness in cats are often subtle: a normally gregarious cat becomes quieter, a usually tidy cat shows patchy grooming, a cat that normally greets owners at the door stops coming to the kitchen for feeding. These changes represent early warning signals that observant owners can detect before obvious clinical signs develop. Regular daily interaction with cats provides the behavioral baseline against which changes can be detected. Teaching owners what constitutes normal behavior for their individual cat is an important veterinary welfare contribution.