Fear-Free Pet Visits!

One of the more recent emphases being advocated by “America’s Veterinarian”, Dr. Marty Becker, and the veterinary profession, is the “fear free” experience of taking your pet to the veterinarian.

Hippocrates said it this way: “Cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always.”

Our veterinary oath obligates us to, “the prevention and relief of animal suffering.”

Many people are hesitant to bring their pets to the veterinary clinic because of the perceived stressful experience for them and their pet.

Animal Behaviorist, Dr. Karen Overall, states that fear is the most damaging thing a social species can experience. So what is the solution – to create fear free visits that happen inside a fear-free practice.

A Fear-Free Practice actually starts at home with fear-free pets. Well-behaved animals at home are, of course, much more likely to behave well when their owners bring them to the veterinary clinic. Training pets are like raising children, the more time we spend early on teaching and rewarding them for acceptable behavior, the more this will promote the peace and harmony of the human-animal bond.

Here are six ways Karen Overall says people can help their pets
live in peace and harmony:

1. Teach people how to pet their dogs and cats. Make it a rule to only give their pets attention when they are calm, and use gentle, soft strokes to pet. For dogs, focus on petting the chest, side of the neck, or the side of the body – areas the pet relaxes into.
2. Encourage pet owners to commit to consistent training and rewards (treats, praise, play, petting). Never allow one family member to “rough play” with the dog & allow mouthing, but not allow this with other household members. This is very confusing to the dog as to what behavior is acceptable.
3. Desensitize your pet to the transportation crate by having it out all the time at home and putting tasty treats or toys in the crate so your pet feels very comfortable in it.
4. Number four is about timing and consistency. The reward structure should be clearly defined and appropriately reinforced at all times. Pet owners need to understand that when teaching a new behavior we teach best best by rewarding at every instance of appropriate behavior and that our pets will retain what they have learned best by rewarding them intermittently.
5. Human and pet expectations. Make sure you are rewarding the pet with what is intrinsically rewarding to them, not what you think they should like. Think of food as currency. You have to understand exactly what currency will make a pet’s eyes light up. (Freeze dried liver, turkey hotdog, deli turkey, salmon, Gerber’s Graduate Meat Stick, Honey Nut Cheerios, Peanut Butter Captain Crunch. Cats thrive on tuna, easy cheese or canned cheese, Feline Greenies, and baby food. 
6. Establish “leadership” vs dominance with your dog. Leadership helps the human family gain influence over their dog simply by controlling all resources to use as motivators to reward dogs for appropriate behavior

Procedures that we are using in our veterinary clinic
to help pets to have a more pleasant experience:

• We are using pheromones (chemical substances that are produced and secreted by animals that influences their behavior and gives them a sense of well-being) in the exam & treatment rooms.

• Putting the treat into treatment.

• We recommend that owners do not feed their pets before coming to the clinic so their pets will be hungry and be much more likely to respond to treats which will distract them. We want them to think of their visit like a trip to the Dairy Queen with lots of good things to eat and can’t wait to come back.

• If necessary, pet sedation protocols are started before the pet owner leaves home to help the pet to be relaxed and happy.

The bottom line: the more calm and relaxed the pet when coming to the veterinary clinic, the more enjoyable and productive experience for all concerned.

Stay tuned for more developments and procedures
to enhance the “Fear Free Experience”!

Cats!

 It is no secret that I am a cat lover. Don't get me wrong, dogs are great, too, but there is a special place in my heart for the furry felines (and the not so furry, for that matter...I'm looking at you sphinxy)! I could go on to say that if they happen to be orange this only ups the ante. The staff here for the most part knows that if there is an orange cat in the facility I am to be notified right away. The technicians have gone out of their way to come out of an exam room to plop an orange cat in my lap, especially when they know I am having a particularly stressful day. I owe my love for cats to my own orange cat, Oliver. I adopted him my first year of vet school, and he has been with me ever since. He was my shadow all throughout vet school; keeping me company while I spent countless hours studying, even if only to sleep on his bed next to my desk till all hours of the night and early morning...and in true cat fashion to often sleep ON my desk or ON my books, keyboard, lap, back of my desk chair, etc. (cat people, you know what I am talking about)! 

Now that I am part of the family at Pine Bluff Animal Hospital, I have been working on educating myself about a cat-friendly practice. There are 86 million owned cats in the US and 78 million owned dogs yet there are twice as many cats than dogs that never see a vet. 39% of people say they would only bring their cat to the vet if the cat was sick. It is just as important that a cat sees us at least yearly for health checks and preventative care such as vaccines, fecal tests, etc. Senior cats, cats that go outdoors, have exposure to outdoor cats, or already have chronic diseases such as Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV or feline AIDS) and/or Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV) are among the many that should visit the vet even more frequently than just the basic yearly health checks. Just because a cat is healthy as perceived by their owner does not mean it does not need to see a vet. We see sick AND healthy pets and checking in with our fantastic felines once a year can increase the likelihood that we will catch an early disease state while it is still manageable.

Some of the hallmarks of a cat-friendly practice are found in the waiting room and traced all the way to the very back of the hospital where pets are boarded. Staff that is knowledgeable about the least stressful restraint and handling techniques and understand the little idiosyncrasies of cats can make all the difference in our feline visits. We've already made some small changes at our hospitals and will be working towards more in the coming months. My ultimate goal is to increase our feline visits by making them as minimally stressful on our owners AND their special cats. In the meantime, I encourage you to bring your cat in if it hasn't been seen by a vet in awhile (or ever). And if it is orange...be prepared :)