Making vet visits less stressful for fearful, anxious and reactive pets.

Did you know owners are more likely to seek prompt veterinary attention when required if they have ways of making vet visits less stressful.

The purpose of this article is to raise awareness and breakdown some stigmas around fearful, anxious and reactive dogs and cats in a bid to help make vet visits less stressful and safer for you, your pets and our staff.

Muzzles
Muzzles are an extremely useful tool that your dog will quickly learn to love. Getting your dog out and about and helping them to feel comfortable in the presence of others is much more important than what headgear they wear.

Muzzles are for everyone’s safety, including your dog’s. In situations where you can’t control everything that happens around you, it’s best to protect them. You also never know how your dog may react in painful situations or medical emergencies, so muzzle training will allow us to safely give pain relief and treatment without adding the extra stress of muzzling for the first time.

Let’s de-stigmatize the muzzle and train dogs of all shapes and sizes to love their muzzle.

Visit our muzzle training guide HERE 

Happy visits for anxious pets

Happy visits are often recommended for pets that have any sort of fear or anxiety going to the vet clinic. During these visits, it is important to take baby steps, repeatedly, without actually having a procedure done.

The aim is to build up your pet’s comfort visiting the clinic over time, until they happily come into a consult room for an examination or procedure.

An example of progressive visits

  • Walking up to the door, or walking into the entrance of the shop, staying for a couple of minutes before leaving
  • Walking to the front counter and staying there for a few minutes
  • Going to the front counter and getting your pet on the scales
  • Walking into the clinic and sitting in the waiting area for a few minutes
  • During visits finding treats or being given/tossed treats by one of our team who doesn’t approach you or your pet
  • Treats being given directly

Happy visits are a great tool but for some, it will only be one piece of the puzzle when working towards long-term behaviour change and a pet’s comfort at the vet clinic. Training at home, nurse training consults, medications and other steps may also be required.

Happy visits can also be a great preventative practice for puppies and kittens.

Happy visits are a free service that can make vet clinic visits less stressful and safer for your pet, yourself and the veterinary team. If you think this may benefit your pet, please talk to a vet or nurse about your pet’s needs, or just pop in anytime during working hours.

Premedication for anxious, scared and reactive cats and dogs

Visits to the vet clinic can be made smoother and less stressful for anxious, reactive or aggressive pets if they are given a medication prior to visiting. 

This can make it less stressful and safer for you the owner and clinic staff. Giving medication at home prior may stop the need for sedation, reduce the dose of sedation required or allow sedation to be safer and smoother. Relaxed animals are easier to examine and treat which can mean better outcomes and quicker visits.

For non-emergency visits we can provide medications to be given at home to help manage anxious or aggressive behaviours while at the vet clinic. A common protocol is an easy to administer medication that owners give to their pet the night before and 1-2 hours before coming to the clinic.

If you think your pet would benefit from medications before clinic visit, please discuss with our team prior to any appointments. We are also happy to help with longer term strategies that can remove or minimize the need for medications to help with nerves.

Problem Behaviours: What are they and what can you do?

If you have noticed your dog has issues with certain situations, like visiting the vet, visitors to your home, being around strangers and other animals, being left home alone, aggression or any other behavioural concerns there are solutions.

First, you need to identify your dog has an issue. Occasionally the early signs of fear and anxiety are subtle and not recognized. When dogs are stressed or nervous they may show signs that include:

  • Yawning
  • Freezing
  • Licking lips
  • Avoiding eye contact
  • Tail tucked under

Noticing the early signs allows you to intervene or remove the dog from the situation. If the stressor/s are something that can’t always be avoided, then you should look for more long-term solutions. A fearful dog may escalate to more obvious warning signs like growling or may jump straight to biting. Although we may feel sorry for the fearful dog, the potential consequences of the bite are just as bad. Being overly anxious and fearful is not an ideal way to be for your pet and despite all your best love and care, giving them a more relaxed and happy life requires help.

Other concerning behavioural signs

  • Guarding resources like food or toys
  • Growling when you try to get them off the couch
  • Getting very stressed if left alone

It is important to try to deal with behavioural issues early because as time goes by they can often get worse. This commonly happens as pups mature into adults. Puppy preschool is useful to learn how to prevent issues.

If your pets behaviour has gotten worse, it is sensible to rule out medical issues. Pain from a bad tooth or sore joints and some medical diseases can affect behaviour. This is more common in middle aged and older pets. Grumpy old dogs can become friendly again once a painful problem has been addressed.

Co-operative care is a step-by-step re-training to get your pet used to things like examinations and nail clips. This is something you can do at home, in clinic or ideally both. 

For more difficult or dangerous behavioural issues there are behavioural specialists who can get to the bottom of an issue and sort an appropriate treatment plan. A highly qualified and experienced Behaviour Veterinarian is Rachael Stratton of Tail Therapy. Consultations can be done remotely or with home visits. 

Changing a dog’s behaviour can require a time and effort but can be very rewarding. Sometimes significant or dangerous behavioural issues may not be practical for an owner to correct due to time, ability, resources, or for safety reasons and other options like rehoming may need to be considered.

For further information and advice please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the team.