'Whisker stress', also referred to as 'whisker fatigue', is not a disease, nor is it caused by one. This was unclear for a long time. However, it is now known that excessive contact with everyday objects, especially food and water bowls that are not suitable for cats, can lead to serious whisker fatigue.
Unfortunately, due to the owners' ignorance, many cats eat and drink from such bowls.
All food bowls have a rim/side wall to prevent cats from constantly pushing dry food or chunks of meat and gravy over the bowl and onto the floor. However, in most cases, this rim/side wall is too high and steep, even vertical, or even tilted inward. This causes cats to constantly bump their whiskers while eating.
However, if the cat's whiskers are constantly touching the sides of the bowl when eating and drinking, this overstrains its sensitive receptors or its synapses are even overstimulated by the constant stimulation. This can lead to whisker stress in any cat, but especially in those that are given bowls that are far too small for the length of their whiskers and have a rim/side wall that is far too high – in any case, it is very unpleasant for the cat.
It hasn't yet been scientifically determined whether whisker stress is merely an extremely unpleasant sensation due to sensory overload, or whether particularly sensitive cats might even experience pain. Since pain receptors are also activated in cats when their nervous systems are continuously overstressed, it's quite reasonable to assume that this is precisely the possibility.
It can be said that many cats eat from bowls that are completely unsuitable for them.
