OCD Raccoon

Anxious Face

I tend to anthropomorphize, but it is well documented that animals exhibit OCD and anxiety similar to humans (To read more about this from professionals, you can see this described by National Geographic in 2013 and The New York Times in 2014).  

I have previously described how my own dog, Gus, battles anxiety. However, last week I actually witnessed an animal performing compulsions like someone in the throes of OCD.

My family and I were in Nassau at Blue Lagoon Island.  We crossed an item off of my bucket list and met a sea lion.  After our sea lion encounter was over, we walked around the island and that was when we saw a very special native: A Raccoon.

This Bahamian was in a cage.  We approached hoping not to scare him, and he started performing a very interesting behavior.   He was on a platform and was repeatedly walking from one end to the other.  When he got to the end, he would touch it with his hand and go back to the other side.  He would then touch that side and go back to the first.  He did this over and over and over again.

My heart broke for this little guy.  He was all alone and exhibiting this behavior that made no sense - something that I myself have done to cope with stress.  Even though I did not know what was going on in his mind, I knew that he was not at peace.

Animals are so like us: It is beautiful when we can connect with their joy and tragic when we can relate to their pain.  Our similarities can also help us help each other.  Tel Aviv University did research in 2009 on animal OCD behavior and captivity, and what they found revealed another way to approach OCD treatment for humans.  In a similar way, I'm sure Fluoxetine was originally created to help humans, but now it is the pill my dog is on for his anxiety (You can read more about fluoxetine - trademark name Prozac - in this article on the National Center for Biomedical Technology website).

I hope that the owners of this raccoon, whoever they are, ultimately speak with a behaviorist and try to investigate what is going on and how they can help him lead a better life.  Although animals do have similarities to us, they also have many different needs that should be respected.   

When you take on a role of animal owner, you also take on responsibility for that animal's health - both physical AND mental.  In addition to taking the time to thoroughly research the best way to care for the animals they own, owners also have to recognize when a problem is beyond their depth and they need to appeal to a professional with more education and experience.

Just like in the human world, we need to start taking mental health more seriously for animals as well.  They are more than just cute faces, they have full lives that we must respect and nurture.