Do You Have Anxiety About Your Pet’s Health?

We’ve all experienced anxiety at some point. Once we welcome an animal into our lives and begin to love them, anxiety can spread to how we feel about them, too. 

I’ve been there myself. I’ve Googled just about everything: “why dog spots on tongue,” “why dog panting,” “normal for dog to drink lots of water?” I’ve worried about leaving them with family (what if something happens and they miss it?). I worry about leaving them alone in my own home (what if they fall off the bed or the couch, or if the house burns down?). 

The difficulty is separating concern from panicked obsession, especially when this could cause a dog harm or pain. To help us process these feelings, we sought out the advice of Dana Varble, chief veterinary officer for NAVC, Bethany Hsia, veterinarian and co-founder of CodaPet, Debra Kissen, a psychologist and the CEO and founder of Light on Anxiety CBT Treatment Centers, and Ayesha Ludhani, psychologist and founder at Ludhani Psychological Services.

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Don’t dismiss your own concerns if you think something is off

You know your dog best, and if you feel like something is off, it’s crucial to have them checked by a veterinarian. Varble, a vet, says her role in the exam room is not to judge the degree of anxiety a pet parent may be experiencing, but to be an advocate for their animal and rule out any possible health issues. “I’ve very rarely had to pull back [pet parents],” Varble says, “and I do it with caution.” 

A veterinarian can help you determine the state of your pet’s health through examinations or relevant testing. “Sometimes we run those tests, and we don’t find anything,” she says, “And then that’s good for all of us, right?” Even a diagnostic test (for example, a blood test) that shows everything is normal can be incredibly informative. “That way you can rule out certain things,
like liver disease or kidney disease, or diabetes, and it means we have another piece of data if something does change in the future,” she says.

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Why our pets are especially vulnerable to our health anxiety

Psychologist Kissen points out what I imagine most pet parents already know deeply: One reason you might feel anxiety about your dog’s health is because you love them very much. “If you feel your pet is an extension of yourself, and your sense of wellbeing is tied to your pet,” she says, “that probably would make your own health anxiety trickle onto your pet more.” 

Pets are also primed to become the focus of health anxiety because they can’t tell us exactly what they’re feeling. They depend on us to notice and interpret changes. “When it is someone you love, especially a pet who cannot explain what they are feeling, that uncertainty can feel intolerable,” psychologist Ludhani says. From a cognitive-behavioral perspective, she explains, this creates “the perfect storm where the brain is already prepared to detect threat. The uncertainty feels dangerous, and responsibility feels absolute.” Over time, the nervous system can learn that constant monitoring is necessary for safety. “It is about a nervous system that has learned that constant monitoring equals care,” Ludhani says.

That heightened vigilance can sometimes affect your pet, too. “Dogs are very sensitive to the emotional state of their people and frequently take on their nervous energy without understanding what exactly it stems from,” veterinarian Hsia says. This can show up as “pacing, whining, and an inability to settle” — behaviors that may look like signs of pain or illness but are actually stress responses. The result can be a feedback loop: A guardian’s anxiety influences the pet’s behavior, which then reinforces the fear that something is medically wrong.

What health anxiety looks like in pet care

Health anxiety often shows up in pet care as heightened vigilance that can’t be reassured. “Pet parents with health anxiety are usually intensely attentive to small changes in their pet’s behavior,” Ludhani says. That can mean closely tracking appetite, breathing, energy levels, or bowel movements, and quickly interpreting minor or temporary shifts as signs of something serious. “Having a pet that skips a meal, sleeps more than usual, or acts a little off can quickly spiral into fears about serious illness,” she says.

Hsia sees this play out in exam rooms in a slightly different way. Many concerns, she notes, stem from uncertainty or lack of context. Pet parents may worry about behaviors they don’t recognize, such as puppies eating dirt, which can seem alarming but are often developmentally typical. When pet parents don’t know what’s normal, anxiety can rush in to fill the gaps. Hsia says these worries are “usually rooted more in lack of knowledge than generalized health anxiety.” 

How health anxiety differs from Munchausen by proxy (aka Factitious disorder)

Although Munchausen by proxy and Factitious disorder involve intense focus on another person or pet’s health, the motivations are very different. “Factitious disorder imposed on another…can involve intentionally making up, exaggerating, or causing illness in the pet,” Ludhani says. “But the behavior is considered a form of abuse and is very different from health anxiety.” In contrast, health anxiety is not about causing harm — it’s about a pet parent’s worry and hyper-vigilance. Hsia adds that anxious pet parents are simply trying to make sure their pet is healthy, not manipulate or control outcomes.

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How to tell the difference between being careful and being anxious

Being careful is about responding to information. Being anxious is about reacting to uncertainty. “When in doubt, guardians should always feel comfortable bringing their concerns to their vet,” Hsia says, noting that the only way to know for sure if something is medically wrong is through an exam and, in some cases, diagnostic testing. Over time, an ongoing relationship with a vet can clarify what truly warrants concern and what falls within normal variation.

Health anxiety tends to occur not just based on what you notice, but also in how it affects you. “Some signs might be noticing whether the constant observing of your pet is taking up a lot of mental energy, if it disrupts your sleep or daily routines, or if it causes you to repeatedly visit the vet despite their reassurance that nothing is wrong,” Ludhani says. 

Kissen notes that it’s also about frequency. How many moments out of the day is your anxiety showing up? How much distress is it causing? And how much of an impact does it have on your daily ability to function? “It’s really about a spectrum of a little bit to a lot,” she says, noting that disordered anxiety can take you away from being able to simply enjoy life with your pet. 

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Strategies for managing health anxiety as a pet parent

“Whether you have health anxiety or just normal concerns,” Varble says, “usually a discussion is enough to alleviate or get some reassurance that things are going in the right direction.” In some cases, she likes to lay out a plan with her patients — set parameters, check-ins, criteria. “This really helps alleviate the unknowns and the uncertainty.” Even if the plan is not to do anything in that moment, she says, it helps make clear why you might check back in the future. 

Varble also notes that you should let your veterinarian know if you’re experiencing a lot of anxiety. They can reassure you or even alter the situation, if necessary. (For example, you can wait in another room if you feel anxiety around needles, and your pet is getting a shot.) 

Ludhani recommends gently easing back on monitoring. “I would encourage you to slowly ease away from health-checking rather than trying to get rid of it immediately,” she says, suggesting pet parents move from constant observation to intentional check-ins once a day. Naming what’s happening internally can help, too. Instead of grappling with anxious thoughts, Ludhani suggests recognizing them for what they are: “This is the catastrophic story again.”

Another way to remain calm is to practice mindfulness. “People think about mindfulness as relaxation,” Kissen says. “But it’s more like going to the brain gym. How do you notice when your monkey mind has taken over, and how do you redirect it back to the current moment?” She notes that these overwhelming moments are going to occur, but the key is noticing and redirecting them. 

Education is likewise a key buffer against anxiety. Hsia gives the example of helping pet parents understand what terms like “lethargy” or “anorexia” actually look like, versus normal variations in a pet’s behavior. This can empower them to make calmer decisions. “If I can give the guardian helpful information and tools to address their concerns,” she says, “they’ll be able to determine the difference and come back when there is a true issue.”