A new study has revealed the 25 definitive signs that show if your beloved pet cat is in pain.
Researchers have determined key behaviours for all feline owners to look out for if they fear their furry friend could be under the weather.
Which is handy as cats are not able to tell us themselves.
Published in the journal PLOS One, entitled Behavioural Signs of Pain in Cats: An Expert Consensus, the team behind the study recruited 19 experts to take part.
They narrowed down an initial list of 91 behaviours to 25 through four rounds of elimination.
Some of the tell-tale signs include a decrease in appetite, playing less, difficulty jumping and licking a particular body part.
Corresponding author Daniel Mills told the Daily Mail: “Both owners and veterinarians are clearly able to recognise many behavioural changes in cats which relate to pain.
“However, owners may not always recognize the clinical relevance of what they see,
“For example, they may view the changes as an inevitable part of natural ageing and not report them to the vet as a concern, or at least not until the behaviours become quite severe."
The Professor of Veterinary Behavioural Medicine at the University of Lincoln's School of Life Sciences added: “We hope that having an agreed list of more objective criteria, which relates to specific signs of pain, could improve the ability of both owners and vets to recognize it.”
Each indictor was also assessed for how frequently it would appear if a cat was in pain, and whether it manifests in high or low levels of pain.
They discovered five behaviours were rarely present in low level pain but prominent in acute levels - avoiding bright areas, growling, change in feeding behaviour, closed eyes and groaning.
But for two of the signs – straining to urinate and tail flitching – there was no consensus on whether this relates to intense or mild pain.
Some of the behaviours which were eliminated include hissing, spitting, purring, trying to scratch people and sleeping less.
The 25 signs:
1. Absence of grooming
2. Reluctant to move
3. Abnormal gait
4. Difficulty to jump
5. Licking a particular body region
6. Withdraw/hiding
7. Lameness
8. Avoiding bright areas
9. Appetite decrease
10. Lameness
11. Less rubbing toward people
12. Abnormal gait
13. Groaning
14. Eyes closed
15. Shifting of weight
16. Reaction to palpitation
17. Lower head posture
18. Blepharospasm (involuntary forcible blinking)
19. Change in form of feeding behaviour
20. Playing less
21. Growling
22. Temperament
23. Hunched up posture
24. Straining to urinate
25. Tail flitching
