Music calms beasts, says a popular expression that has a lot of truth. Music therapy is an excellent discipline that uses melodies and sounds to facilitate communication and body expression, and there are more and more scientific studies supporting its use in conventional medicine. For example, music has been seen to help improve motor and cognitive functions in patients who are recovering from a stroke , and it is also a powerful painkiller that reduces anxiety prior to a surgical operation or any other medical procedure.
Can these principles apply to the case of our pets? Animals also suffer stress and anxiety when they go to the veterinarian’s office, in fact they suffer even more, since they do not have the human capacity to understand that this bad time is for a good cause (improving their health).
A team of scientists from Louisiana State University (USA) has developed a nice experiment to see what kind of music cats prefer, or at least which one makes them feel more comfortable. A previous study had already found that cats under the effects of general anesthesia respond physiologically to music and also seem more relaxed when it comes to classical music compared to pop or heavy metal.
In this work, the researchers have gone further: It is known that musical pieces that have a register that is within the human vocal range, in general, we like more, so they wondered if this would be applicable to cats.
To do this, they put various types of music to twenty cats for twenty minutes while the animals underwent a veterinary examination and recorded various indicators of cat stress: behavior and body posture, as well as reactions when the veterinarian handled them. On the other hand, blood samples were taken to measure the proportions of neutrophils versus lymphocytes as an indicator of physiological stress.
On the soundtrack, the options were: absence of music, classical music or special music for cats, which includes purrs and other sounds similar to those emitted by these animals, as well as frequencies included in the feline vocal range, which is eight octaves higher the human.
Compared to classical music or the absence of music, cats were less stressed in the consultation when they listened to special music for them. The effect was not reflected in the neutrophil / lymphocyte ratio, although the researchers think this may be because twenty minutes is not enough to trigger this response at a physiological level.
Taken together, the results of the study, which is published in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery , suggest that the broadcast of this type of cat music could make the unavoidable visits to the hospital much easier for both cats and their owners. veterinary.
Referencia: Hampton A, Ford A, Cox RE III, et al. Effects of music on behavior and physiological stress response of domestic cats in a veterinary clinic. J Feline Med Surg 2020; 22: 122-128.
