Is Your Pet Stressed? Japanese Company Finds Way to Measure Stress in Animals

According to a Japanese company and Japanese University, a pet secretes more sweat at the paws when they are stressed. This same company has produced a small pad for measuring those secretions to tell if your dog or cat is stressed out.

The Japanese company, Medical Life Care Giken has made stress measurers for humans for years. Chances are good that you have seen, or used one of them before. Currently, there is a large pet boom in Japan, and scientists are scrambling to come up with great inventions for new pet owners.

The pin-sized pad can be applied to the center pad of an animals paw. The color of the pad changes depending on how stressed the animal is at the time. It is not known if the pad can be used multiple times, or just once.

Toyama University in Japan has been researching stress levels of animals for years. It discovered a few years ago that animals secrete more sweat when they are stressed. This University shared their findings with Medical Life Care Giken, and the patch was discovered.

As the current pet boom reaches higher levels in Japan, more and more Japanese are becoming prone to pampering their pets. There are animal massage parlors popping up all over Japan. Many owners also will take their animals for acupuncture treatments on a regular basis.

In recent years, it has been discovered that many animal health problems can be related to stress. Just like in humans, cats and dogs can suffer heart and breathing problems if they are exposed to high stress levels on a regular basis.

Currently, there are only plans to sell these pads in Japan. The plan is to release them later this year. It will be very surprising if they stay across the ocean.

The company, Medical Care Life Giken is part of the Giken Corporation. The company's philosophy is to ensure a healthy environment for people at all times. Founded back in 1966, it has been a leader in the creation and sale of medical equipment in the Orient.

The current projects of the company have expanded to other areas, such as pets, to help ensure that a person has less stress throughout their entire day. It is believed that a person that leads more of a stress free life will have less health problems.

Many Japanese have become more and more stressed about their pets over the last few years, and many in the medical community in Japan believe that this will eventually lead to more health problems for the country.