Sharp rise in number of pets suffering mental health issues including anxiety and depression

Pet insurance firms have seen soaring claims for tackling psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorders [File photo]

Common problems for dogs include jumping up at people, while cats scratch and many rabbits repeatedly bite the bars of their run or hutch.

Dog owner Lesley Church-Burrows, 65, from Epping Forest, Essex, last month sent Marlie, her Great Dane, for two neurological sessions costing £275 each after believing the pampered pet had developed agoraphobia – a fear of leaving a safe space.

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The three-year-old, who sleeps on a memory foam mattress and lives off chicken from Marks Spencer, was diagnosed with a possible anxiety-induced obsessive-compulsive disorder. 

She said: ‘People ask me how a dog can have anxiety and tell me the idea is as daft as a box of frogs.’

Children who grow up with a family dog can see their risk of developing schizophrenia later in life drop up to 55 per cent, a US study has found. 

Having a pet cat, however, offers little benefit.

rising number of dogs, cats and even rabbits are being treated for mental health problems. Pet insurance firms have seen soaring claims for tackling psychiatric disorders [File photo]