November Blues

As the days get shorter and sunlight is just a rare guest, many people get into November blues, a type of depression caused by lack of light. Again and again you can watch it in dogs as well. They are then not as playful as usual, rather idiotic to apathetic, they seem depressed and withdraw. Dog owners who address this phenomenon in their environment, reap in the best case, a compassionate smile and the rebuke: "A dog does not have any depression depression, do not make you ridiculous".

Lack of light reduces the "perceived" well-being

The expert, however, does not find that ridiculous. Priv. Dr. Doz. Michael Leschnik from the Department of Small Animals of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna: "Light is an important stimulator in all animals on the earth's surface - light sets us a day-night rhythm and inhibits the release of melatonin in the brain. This hormone has a direct influence on the 'felt' well-being - certainly also in dogs. " Apart from the influence of light on the mood, dogs often show symptoms similar to those of human depression in other situations: the four-legged friends are quieter than usual, without motivation, uninterested and often have no appetite. They are then hardly animate for walking or playing games. "Whether this is the mental illness depression, which is relatively well defined in humans, can be difficult to say in an animal", Leschnik. "Although animal psychology research has made great progress in recent years, the findings on depressive states are still limited," emphasizes the German neurologist and psychiatrist Prof. Dr. med. med. Volker Faust from the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Psychosoziale Gesundheit in an essay on mental disorders in animals.

Burn out coupled with depression

The symptoms mentioned may indeed be signs of a "true" depression, which is related in the dog as well as in humans with the neurotransmitter metabolism and the imbalance of messenger substances in the brain. But it could also be "only" a depressive detuning caused by a concrete event (loss of the owner, change of location, etc.). In addition, other causes such as stress, pain, organic diseases lead to this behavior. "We should not forget the influence of the environment and the people on the dog!" Warns. Leschnik. Thus overstrained dogs can easily become stressed, and sometimes even slip into burnout. "The man drives the dog by wrong behavior, unfair methods of education, too high expectations in overburdens and stress and thus in the end often in a burn out, which is known to be associated with depression," writes the vet Mag. Angelika Hirschenhuber in her recently published Book "Burnout the dog". "What the dog needs from the human being is empathy and respect, praise, as well as a break to find out from this stressful situation".

Mourning and early mother loss

However, the most common cause of a low mood in our four-legged friends is the sadness. "Grief is an already well-behaved behavior in animals. However, dogs do not only show the depressive symptoms mentioned in the owner's death, but often their absence alone can trigger this behavior, "Dr. Leschnik. Prof. Faust explains: "In terms of the nature and extent of the mourning behavior, this reaction of the dogs is sometimes reminiscent of severe reactive depression. Often, the animals no longer obey anyone, even become wild. More often it comes to a psychomotor inhibition, that is, the four-legged are apathetic to apathy. "Almost classic is the (in some cases fatal) refusal of food." Apes react similarly after the loss of a partner or friendly conspecifics. In the case of the Siberian hamster, after the separation from the partner, obesity was predominantly observed in addition to psychomotor inhibition and a tendency towards isolation. So these animals literally feed themselves on a "bummer bacon". The serious consequences of partner loss in gray geese have been known since Konrad Lorenz. As the most serious mental, psychosocial and even physical impairment in an animal life Prof. Faust sees the early loss of mother. This affects mammals such as dogs or monkeys, but also birds. As with human children, who used to grow up in orphanages and foundations without love and social bonding, orphaned baby animals often later experience so-called anaclitic depression. In most cases, an additional stress triggers the depressive illness.

How can we help the four-legged friend?

But back to our Wuff, who lies impassively on the carpet and wants to know nothing of his environment: What can masters and mistresses do to help their four-legged friends? Dr. Leschnik: "The dog must first of all be thoroughly examined for organic causes of this behavior. An analysis of the animal's eating habits and physical and psychological utilization is also important, as well as the questioning of life circumstances, which may have changed. Of course, underlying diseases must be treated promptly. Then it is important to optimize the living conditions of the four-legged friend and to get him out of a stress situation. In some cases, this may even mean that another place for this dog is better than the current one - even if many people do not want to hear it that way. "As with humans, veterinary medicine also uses antidepressant medication when needed well-defined behavioral problems and less at a mood caused by external circumstances. If a lack of light is to blame, you should take the dog as often as possible in daylight and take advantage of every ray of sunshine. St. John's wort, the herbal alternative for mild human depression, can also be used in dogs. However, there are no secured studies. It should be noted that the effect only appears after a few weeks of treatment. In any case, you should take the behavioral problem of your roommate seriously, even if the animal depression is not clearly proven to stringent scientific criteria. How did Konrad Lorenz say? "We do not know and we can not know what subjectively in a goose standing around with all the objective symptoms of human mourning. But we can not help feeling that their suffering is brotherly to ours. "