The aims of this study were to identify if newly hospitalised cats would both use a hide, and show a reduction in stress levels when one was provided. Healthy cats attending a clinic for elective neutering were randomly allocated to either the Hide group (n = 15) or the No Hide group (n = 15). Temperature, heart and respiration rates were recorded on admission and after 20 minutes hospitalisation. Cats were cat stress scored (q 2 minutes) and their location with the kennel scored (q 30 seconds) over this 20 minute period. Cats provided with a hide spent more time in the kennel location containing the hide (P < 0.001), and used this enrichment primarily to hide inside (P < 0.001). Compared to the baseline measurement, only Hide cats showed a small reduction in heart (P < 0.001) and respiration (P < 0.001) rates after 20 minutes. Cat stress score decreased in both groups of cats, but was significantly lower in Hide cats than No Hide cats after 20 minutes (P = 0.002). It is concluded that Hides are utilised and result in rapidly identifiable but small reductions in indices of stress in the newly hospitalised cat; thus, should be considered for use with this inpatient demographic.

The aim of this study was to identify whether towels over a cage or a box provided within a cage were better at reducing stress in the newly hospitalised cat. Forty-five cats were used, randomly allocated to one of three treatment groups: 1. Control, 2. Hide, 3. Screen. Temperature, heart rate (HR) and respiration rate (RR) were taken on admit and after 20 minutes. Cats were behaviourally scored for stress (CSS) on admit, and every minute for 20 minutes within their cage. Control cats showed no reduction in HR or RR, but CSS did decline compared with the baseline (P = 0.002). Compared to the Control, a significant decrease in HR and RR was observed for both Hide (HR, P = 0.002; RR, P < 0.001) and Screen cats (HR, P = 0.001; RR, P < 0.001). HR decrease was similar between Hide and Screen cats but RR rate decrease was slightly more for Screen cats (P = 0.049). CSS also declined for both Hide cats (P <0.001) and Screen cats (P <0.001), with Hide cats showing a tendency to reduce CSS more than Screen cats (P = 0.054), and Screen cats a tendency to reduce CSS more than the Control condition (P = 0.090). The CSS of Hide cats declined significantly more than Control cats (P = 0.003) Differences between baseline CSS scores made interpretation difficult. Therefore, it is concluded that this study provided very limited, but positive, evidence that both enrichments may rapidly result in detectable reductions in feline stress levels. However, there is insufficient evidence to determine which enrichment method (if either) is better than the other.