Is it possible for animals to suffer from mental illnesses that resemble our own? In Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, M.D. and Kathryn Bowers’s book, Zoobiquity, they seem to ask this question and answered them. Zoobiquity is the connection between human and animal health. Throughout their research they have noted that animals share several characteristics with humans, these characteristics include the physiological and the psychological. Many debates rise whenever we find similarities between the human psyche and the animal psyche since our understanding of the human mind is extremely complex compared to an animals. Nevertheless, Zoobiquity draws many cases of animals that share our neurological disorders. Moreover, the research done was running in parallel with research conducted on human patients, and so the understanding of such diseases can be explained in human analogies without losing the description of the disease. This research draws the similarities between disorders such as; eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, …show more content…
Narcolepsy is an excessive uncontrollable daytime sleepiness associated with lack of energy. While Cataplexy, on the other hand, is a sudden muscle weakness without losing consciousness, where animals would be able to follow movement with its eyes only while the body is paralyzed. Both of these sleep disorders are commonly found in dogs that may have inherited it. Other time it can be triggered when the dog is excited by a stimulus. Also it can be aroused when petting or with loud noises. Narcolepsy and Cataplexy are conditions that are not curable but are controllable, through maintenance and observation. In the case of cats, they can experience a sleeping disorder known as Hyperthyroidism. It is a result of the overproduction of thyroid hormones, which eventually results in cardiac disease and blood pressure