Do domestic cats sometimes defecate when they are scared such as when on the veterinarian’s consultation table? The answer quite definitely is yes. I have personal experience of this when I took my then three-legged black, male cat to the vet because of what transpired to be a tumour behind his eye. He was a great boy but on this occasion, he literally defecated right in front of our eyes on the veterinarian’s table. The veterinarian took it entirely in her stride and simply wiped his bottom as if nothing had happened.
But what had happened? We can answer that by reference to both people and cats. They have very similar anatomy and, in this instance, the same process takes place in my opinion.
We all know that when people become frightened, they can have an urge to poop. Sometimes they actually do poop when they’re terrified or they might urinate involuntarily.
It’s the same process for cats. My research indicates that the internal anal sphincter muscle is controlled by the cat’s autonomic nervous system. This is an automatic (involuntary) system which runs all the time and controls various muscles in the body including the heart. It’s why the heart beats and the chest expands and contracts to breathe.
When a cat or person is terrified, the brain which controls the autonomic nervous system suddenly and temporarily loses that control and this interrupts the way it works which in turn relaxes the internal anal sphincter muscle. It takes a positive effort to close that muscle. When that effort isn’t applied because of this interruption to normal brain function the muscle relaxes which allows poop to vacate the body.
A slightly different process takes place when a person has an urge to poop when they are frightened. At this time my research indicates that the amount of serotonin increases in the gut which can cause spasms to happen throughout the entire colon. These can cause unexpected bowel movements. Another reason is that the nerves in the digestive tract contract rapidly when a person is nervous resulting in an urge to poop. Another theory is that people can develop stress-induced irritable bowel syndrome (IBD) with a resulting urge to defecate.
The same fundamental process applies to urination. And it is the reason why when a cat dies, they might poop and urinate. The effort to close the sphincter muscles no longer exist and therefore they relax and the waste is eliminated from their bodies.
The same process also affects humans in terms of “being scared to death”. Sometimes people can become so frightened that they have a heart attack which kills them. The beating of the heart, as mentioned, is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. This is interrupted by stark fear which leads to a heart attack.
In fact, people can suffer from a condition called cardiophobia, a disorder characterised by repeated complaints of chest pain and heart palpitations because of fears of having a heart attack and dying.
Thailand
There appears to be a silly superstition in Thailand which leads people to believe that dying cats urinate around the house to be remembered. Some people believe that domestic cats do this so that their owners don’t forget them when they’ve passed across the Rainbow Bridge to a better world.
Of course, it is pure superstition and the newspapers say that feline behavioural experts have rejected this claim which apparently has been shared by thousands in Thailand. It appears to have circulated on social media particularly Facebook. In my experience, Thai people are particularly likely to be superstitious.
