Monday, October 15, 2012

Pets and Pregnancy

When ever someone gets pregnant the first things out of our mouths are:

How are you feeling?
Is he excited?
Are you excited?

Or something along those lines, but what about their pet?

It's weird to think about, "why would I ask about their pet?" It's a pet!



But they are affected. They may "just be a pet" but they know something is going on. They notice the small changes and can even sense the hormone change. It's pretty cool to research. I'm only going to talk about cats and dogs.


Cats:

I know the first thing you think of is Toxoplasmosis. Don't touch the litter box and you're fine, you have a husband for that reason, right?

Cats will respond one or all of three ways:

1. They don't care

They know somethings going on but they're just kinda "ok, as long as I'm fed and my litter box is cleaned I don't care." This is typical of older cats

2. They get mad

"You mean I'll have to share the attention!?" They'll typically stop playing with you, this is the most common sign. Some time's they will be come aggressive. Lets face it, they're cats they think they run the show.
 
3. They get protective

"Something is going on..." Some cats will become clingy, lay on the stomach, hiss if someone gets to close.

So Thomas...



Thomas has gone back and forth between being mad and protective. It's funny, and tricky. In the beginning, (and still sometimes) he will not play with me. I'll whip out the favorite toys and he will just stare at me. In the beginning I was a target I'd crawl into bed, he'd follow and start attacking my hands, (he's never broken the skin or anything.)
But lately he's been a momma's boy. He follows me every where, if I'm home chances are Thomas is in a 12ft radius of me. He'll lay on my stomach sometimes just wanting to be petted. But as soon as someone he doesn't know (and sometimes knows) comes in, he's gone. So his alliance is only so deep. 

Dogs:

My favorite dog, Errol, up the street, who might have clue something different. With Jenna in the background

 (Photo Credit. S. Schwartz


Dogs 9/10 times become protective of the female. Sometimes they won't even let the husband near her. You may notice you're dog barks more, they're letting other dogs know "back off!" They too can become very clingy, wait by doors for you to come out, all of a sudden he has no interest in you're husband. It's not uncommon for them to try to be a physically barrier between mom and other people.
1/10 The dog acts out, becomes mad at the soon to be mom.


Errol getting comfy


If you're expecting and you're animal takes a turn for the worse, talk to you're vet and see what little behavior tricks you can do.

It's also never to early to start prepping you're four legged friend for you're new addition. If the routine is going to change (walk times moved around, feeding schedules, etc) start progressively making those changes so they'll be ready.

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