Blog Archives

Building Bonds the Fear Free Way

By Kim Campbell Thornton
Nail trims are the bane of numerous pets and people. Owners don’t like doing them, and assistants and technicians don’t enjoy being “the bad guys” who have to do the dirty deed. Blood draws and even simple exams can bring bad feelings to the forefront, too. Fear Free to the rescue! Get inspired by fellow Fear Free Certified Professionals as they help pets stay cool, calm, and collected during care.

All About Eva

Eva, a spunky and energetic German Shorthaired Pointer, is a staff favorite for more than just her adorable, tongue-hanging-out smile, but there’s one thing Eva never liked: nail trims! Prior to the hospital’s transition to Fear Free in early 2017, it was a challenge to trim Eva’s nails, requiring three or four technicians to assist with restraint, plus a muzzle and calming cap. We started implementing Fear Free teachings right away with all of our patients, but one staff member has really gone above and beyond her commitment to Fear Free training to help Eva overcome her fear. Kayla McNeely volunteered to assist with Eva’s nail trims, and she can now perform Eva’s nail trims solo, standing, with minimal assistance from Eva’s mom, Sheila, who says, “Kayla’s patience and kindness have worked wonders with my girl.” Our hospital requires all staff members to go through Fear Free training to help ensure that all of our clients, patients, and staff have a pleasant experience during their exams. We have seen a tremendous difference in many patients at our hospital since our transition to Fear Free, but Kayla and Eva’s journey together is by far our most successful Fear Free adventure to date.

Beth Chinnick, CVT and practice manager, Compassion Animal Hospital, East Berlin, Pennsylvania

Ruba Loves Laps

One-year-old Ruba disliked having her feet touched and her nails trimmed. We trialed trazodone for six months for all nail trim visits. It started to work well, and we discovered she preferred sitting in Dr. DaCosta’s lap. Ruba now comes in for frequent nail trims with minimal restraint and no trazodone needed. We are so proud of her progress and the team’s dedication to using Fear Free techniques.

Brianna King, Clinic Manager, Watzin Veterinary Clinic, Waterdown, Ontario, Canada

Practice Makes Perfect

Mikey Bear used to require sedation before blood draws, but I showed his amazing humans how to hold his back leg for a blood draw and wet the vein while giving him treats to get him used to the feeling. They worked on this for a month, and when they came back, the blood draw was a snap. I discovered they had added another step to the homework and were poking the vein with a toothpick at home.

Jessica Jaffe, CVT, VCA Wakefield Animal Hospital, Wakefield, Massachusetts

Thinking Outside the Office

I was on primary care rotations at University of Wisconsin Teaching Hospital, and my first case of the day was a 150-pound Great Dane who had a history of being nervous during veterinary visits and in the presence of strangers. When I was notified that he and the owner had arrived, she went to the waiting room but was told that they were outside in the car. Even with sedation prior to the visit, he was too afraid to come out of the car. After speaking with the owner and assessing the situation, I decided that additional sedation and performing the exam in the car would spare him an immense amount of stress. We moved slowly, made intentional actions, and kept him comfortable. The smooth experience left the owner grateful. I firmly believe we took the pet out of petrified.

Bianca Ferlisi, veterinary student, University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine

From Terror to Trust

When I worked at a veterinary emergency clinic, one of the dogs in the hospital was so fearful that he would begin to thrash and hit his head in the ground if anyone touched his leash. I sat in front of his cage with my back to him so he could become accustomed to my scent. Then I started placing treats in his cage and turning my back again. Eventually, I opened the door and put a leash on him and sat next to the door. When he came out of the cage on his own, I was able to walk him with no tension on the leash. Gaining an animal’s trust is a beautiful thing.

Shelby L. Dan, veterinary assistant, Downtown Animal Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Kim Campbell Thornton is content manager for Fear Free Pets and is a Level 3 Fear Free Certified Professional. She has been writing about dogs, cats, wildlife, and marine life since 1985.

Crisis Communication: Tips for Calming Pet Owners

Maggie MartonA 2018 article published in Veterinary Sciences synopsized a dissertation examining the connection between owner loyalty to their pets’ veterinarians and their perception of the communication from the veterinarian and staff. The study found that good communication delivered all kinds of benefits, from customer loyalty to trust in the veterinarian to likelihood of following treatment instructions to perception of a greater value for services rendered.

But good communication can be difficult, and it can feel nearly impossible in times of crisis–when a pet is ill or injured, when an animal is dying, or when a client doesn’t understand or can’t afford care options, for instance. While many communication tools are available, one promising model for veterinarians to help calm pet owners is Nonviolent Communication (NVC).

What is NVC?

The goal of NVC is to communicate and express yourself clearly, then receive what you hear back without judgment. The communication model avoids language that promotes disconnection, such as blaming, comparing, judging, or doling out advice.

Leslie Ritter-Jenkins, a certified trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication, says NVC is being practiced in the human medical field and fits veterinary medicine well. “Because veterinarians, like many people in the medical world, are people of authority, we tend to give them a lot of power,” she says.

Being mindful of language used matters because people tend to either rebel or submit to perceived authority. This is critical in times of crisis because when a client is triggered–by fear, anger, grief, and so on–that lack of control makes communication more difficult. As the “authority” in the room, using NVC tools can establish trust and confidence between the veterinarian and client while avoiding or mitigating conflict.

It’s just one framework for clear communication, but its principles fit veterinary medicine because the foundation is built on one thing: compassion. In times of crisis, especially when life and death decisions must be made, a compassionate response can shift the tone of the conversation.

The NVC Process

According to the Center for Nonviolent Communication, the model consists of two sides: empathetically listening and honestly expressing. You can’t control what your client says–or hears–especially while facing stress or fear, but you can control your listening skills and your response. Here are the four steps to the NVC process to employ:

Observations: without judgment
Feelings: underlying emotions
Needs: universal and what makes us human (e.g. mutuality, respect, freedom, choice, partnership)
Requests: a clear, doable ask

Ritter-Jenkins points out that what a client poses as a feeling is more often a need, so the NVC skill involves drilling down to identify what’s really going on. She says, “If someone says, ‘I feel disrespected,’ their feeling isn’t disrespect. The feeling is probably hurt or scared. Their need is respect.”

Listen closely to the data your client provides either overtly or through your observations and consider whether there’s an emotion or need masked by the language. It’s a skill that takes time to hone. Practice sessions during staff meetings may be helpful.

How Can NVC Help in the Exam Room?

“All humans share the same feelings and needs. When we get out of right and wrong thinking, better or worse, appropriate or inappropriate, and we speak this language of feelings and needs, we have a language that connects us universally. When a vet can hear behind what the customer, the human customer, is saying and then use a sentence or two of empathy, it’s very efficient connecting with feelings and needs. You can get to the heart of things, what’s really happening with the customer, fast,” Ritter-Jenkins says.

She shares an example from her own life when she faced an end-of-life decision with one of her cats. Her cat suffered from an undiagnosed GI disorder. They tried various approaches, and she ultimately went to the vet for help because her cat wasn’t eating, he was losing weight, yet he was acting completely normal.

“She could hear in that data and say, ‘It sounds like you’re feeling torn because you know that there’s something physiologically wrong and the cat is likely in pain and suffering, and you’re torn because you’re seeing some normal behavior and you’re needing clarity about what’s going on.’ That would’ve been exactly right–an empathic guess,” she says. “Or she could have said, ‘It sounds like you’re feeling exasperated and want some clarity or want some support in this decision.’”

When faced with a potentially costly procedure, a devastating diagnosis, or an end-of-life decision, client reactions run the gamut, but people often shift swiftly into panic or crisis mode. Listen, then present the data, the science, while being clear that you’re not telling the client what to do. Jumping in with unsolicited advice, especially when a client is in crisis, creates a barrier to empathy, as does judging, storytelling, one-upping, and philosophizing.

One of the easiest ways to achieve this? A quick question.

Take some time during or toward the end of an appointment to ask, “Have your questions been answered? Do you have anything else that you’re concerned about that we haven’t covered?”

Practice NVC

The science supports this model of communication. “What happens is the vagus nerve that goes from our brain and feeds our heart, our lungs, and our digestive system, empathy calms that. When someone empathizes with us, our whole body relaxes. We have the beauty of this connection, and it’s not just emotional. It’s physiological,” Ritter-Jenkins says.

Earlier this year, VIN offered a course on empathy and reflective listening, which included the Nonviolent Communication text as recommended reading. The concept is gaining traction in veterinary medicine. On its website, the Center for Nonviolent Communication posts practice group meetups open to anyone wanting to learn and practice the skills. Or pick up a copy of the book, Nonviolent Communication, and practice with your staff.

Bottom line: It’s a worthwhile endeavor to communicate well with your clients, especially during times of crisis, and it might even help build your business by increasing customer loyalty. The NVC model provides a framework to achieve those goals.

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Maggie Marton is an award-winning pet writer based in the Indianapolis area. She covers dogs, cats, kids, and often the intersection of all three for print and online publications. Maggie is the author of Clicker Dog Training: The Better Path to a Well-Behaved Pup and the blogger behind OhMyDogBlog.com and TheZeroWastePet.com.

Why Behavior Evaluations in Shelters Can Be Misleading

Linda Lombardi

There was a time when formal shelter behavior evaluations for dogs seemed like an important breakthrough. But while an objective way to assess behavior seems like a great idea, it’s increasingly clear that these batteries of tests aren’t doing the job it was hoped they’d do.

In 2016, Gary Patronek, DVM, and Janis Bradley published a paper analyzing the literature on canine behavior evaluations, concluding that they were “no better than flipping a coin.”

This did not prompt immediate abandonment of these tests and there were some understandable questions about their conclusion. How was it possible for their review of the literature to conclude that these tests were not valid and predictive, when individual papers said that they were?

In a new paper they address those questions, delving into statistical issues, the difference between colloquial and technical uses of words like “valid,” “predictive,” and “reliable,” and the kind of evidence needed to justify using a test for real life–and sometimes life and death–decisions.

Testing the Tests

Standards exist for judging whether a test has real-world applicability. “This is not something we need to reinvent,” Bradley says. “There is robust human diagnostic test literature that tells us how to do this and what acceptable standards are, and behavior evaluations in dogs–at least the ones that we looked at, that were intended to have application to dogs in shelters–simply don’t meet any reasonable standard.”

One problem with research on predictive ability of behavior evaluations is that most of it has been done on owned dogs, not dogs in shelters.

“Epidemiologists will tell you there’s no such thing as saying a test is valid,” Bradley says. “All you can ever say is that we’ve demonstrated validity with this population, in this context, with this exact instrument. If you change any of those things–and likely all of those things are going to change in any application in a shelter–any claims you make for validity go completely out the window.”

Many shelters modify protocols, and it’s impossible to perform a test as consistently in the shelter environment as in a lab. Tiny details can change results. One study showed that factors like the evaluator’s height and how much they leaned over changed the outcome. “Try to imagine the world where you’d have the kind of consistency that would eliminate confounds like that in a shelter environment,” Bradley says. “It could never happen.”

The context is also different, and in an important way. The ability to identify aggression is of greatest concern in these evaluations, and results can vary by environment.

“The most common underlying motivations for aggression are fear and anxiety because aggression is distance-increasing behavior,” says veterinary behaviorist Wailani Sung, DVM, of the San Francisco SPCA. “Dogs in the shelter are already lower in tolerance because their overall stress level is so high. So they could test more negatively in a shelter environment versus in a home where they have more stable relationships and a more consistent environment.”

Another problem is that serious aggression is rare in dogs, and those dogs probably don’t get evaluated at shelters. “Most shelters eliminate the tail end of the bell curve without ever subjecting them to a behavior evaluation,” says Bradley. “If everyone’s afraid to go into the kennel with the dog, they’re not going to take it out and do a behavior evaluation.” For statistical reasons, it’s more difficult to design a reliable test for a rare behavior if there’s a concern about false positives. In this instance, false positives–a result that claims to show a dog is aggressive when he isn’t really–can result in unnecessary euthanasia.

“This entire enterprise to a certain extent appears to be based on an idea that there’s some elevated risk with regard to shelter dogs,” Bradley says. “There’s no evidence that this is the case.” Shelter dogs are no more or less likely to someday show aggression.

What’s the Alternative?

Although there’s a considerable body of research questioning the validity of behavior assessments, it takes time for that to trickle down to the real world. “There’s a huge discrepancy between the academic world that has been studying these things versus the practical world that’s out there on a day-to-day basis that still has the pressure of putting safe animals out into the world,” says Jeannine Berger, DVM, vice president of rescue and welfare at the San Francisco SPCA.

Change is hard, and this is a hard kind of change. “Sometimes you don’t want to be shown that what you’re doing is not helpful and may be harmful. That’s a bitter pill to swallow,” says Dr. Sung.

Dr. Berger says discussion about behavior assessments has increased since the ASPCA came out with a position statement last year referring to this literature. “People actually in the field are now starting to question if this is the right approach to making those decisions,” she says.

Amy Marder, VMD, who spent much of her career working on these types of assessments, now believes the best approach is for staff to observe dogs in day-to-day interactions and keep good records. This doesn’t have to involve more work or resources, since it happens during physical exams and walks, which need to be done anyway. “You can get a lot of information from doing routine procedures rather than a formal evaluation,” she says.

This is what San Francisco SPCA does. “We use the five freedoms model to assess welfare, and everyone is trained on that,” Berger says. “We are looking at, are they eating, are they drinking, are they comfortable in their environment, are they fear free and distress free, are they performing normal behaviors, are they free of illness and disease,” she says. “We use that to assess each animal every day, and anything out of the norm is reported and is addressed.”

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Linda Lombardi writes about the animals who share our planet and our homes for magazines including The Bark, websites including National Geographic and Mongabay.com, and for the Associated Press. Her most recent book, co-authored with Deirdre Franklin, is The Pit Bull Life: A Dog Lover’s Companion.

Kitten Socialization: Creating the Purrfect Feline Patient and Pet

Rachel Lees RVT, KPA CTP, VTS (Behavior)

As veterinary professionals, wouldn’t we all love ways to keep our clients and feline patients happy, healthy, and even make our jobs safer? Let’s scratch the surface of the basics of kitten socialization, the benefits of kitten socialization classes, and how we can start these courses in our own practices.

Who doesn’t love a sweet, fluffy, and cuddly kitten? But they don’t become that way on their own. Veterinary team members and owners have long recognized the importance of puppy socialization and training classes, and these same tactics can be used for kittens as well. That’s right! Socialization is just as important for kittens as it is for puppies. It’s important for humans, too. Here’s why.

Educating Owners and Staff

As veterinary professionals, we have only a certain amount of time to discuss these things with new kitten owners during appointments. An educated veterinary team is key to starting kittens off on the right track to enjoy handling, being placed in their carriers, and be more comfortable with husbandry care at home.

These things are beneficial for the veterinary team as well. Revenue increases because cats are more compliant about being brought to the veterinary hospital, and everyone is safer because fewer patients display fear, anxiety, or stress. Implementing and recommending these classes in a practice can also increase revenue as a new service and be a way to bond kittens and owners to the practice.

Socialization Timeline

Knowing and acknowledging the kitten socialization period is critical in setting up new owners and kittens for success. For kittens, the socialization period starts at 2 weeks and ends at 7 to 10 weeks. This is the time when kittens begin to become less reliant on the queen for survival and have increased interaction with social and environmental stimuli. It’s the most important sensitive period in feline development and can help to prime felines to live safely and comfortably in human households. Positive social experiences in kittenhood with other species and stimuli are hugely beneficial in creating behaviorally healthy adult cats.

You may be thinking that kittens do not come into the practice until after this developmental period has passed and you are correct! Kittens may not come into our practices until they are 8 to 10 weeks old. Kitten classes can still be beneficial because the socialization window does not slam shut. It closes slowly, so these classes can be beneficial for kittens up to 14 weeks of age.

Kitten Classes

Kitten Kindergarten or Kitten Kindy was brought to the forefront by veterinary behaviorist Kersti Seksel, VBSc (Hons), MRCVS, MA (Hons), FACVSc, DACVB, DECAWBM of Australia. The classes have the following goals:

Socialize kittens
Educate owners about normal feline behavior
Teach owners how to interact and play with their kittens
Train kittens to accept handling procedures
Identify any problem behaviors and provide up-to-date, humane, and scientific advice
Educate owners on all aspects of kitten development, pet care, and living with a cat in the family

I structure and run kitten classes as follows:

Interaction with other pet owners and felines of the same age range (with appropriate health and vaccination requirements)
Provide different surfaces, textures, objects, and sounds for the kittens to experience during exploratory time
Discuss and demonstrate carrier training using marker training
Review the following focus points to set the new kitten owners up for success:
- Litter Box Basics
- Socialization Period
  - Fear Free has a fantastic Kitten Socialization Bingo Worksheet in the Toolbox. I have used something similar in the past and given prizes for owners who get the “Bingo” or successfully socialize their kittens to many positive things from week to week.
- Scratching and playing
- Handling and administering medications

Courses can be offered weekly in a rotational style to get as many kittens into the class as possible, monthly as a kitten party, or in a weekly 3-week course. The possibilities are endless!

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Rachel Lees, a Level 3 Fear Free Certified Professional, is a veterinary technician specialist in behavior, a KPA certified training partner, and lead veterinary behavior technician at The Behavior Clinic in Olmsted Falls, Ohio. She loves helping people create and maintain a strong human-animal bond and has a special interest in kitten and puppy socialization and development.

Can Special Music for Cats Reduce Their Stress at the Clinic?

Linda Lombardi

We know that music can affect human mood, but we don’t usually think about whether cats or dogs care if we play Mozart or Metallica. We probably should: Studies have shown that classical music reduces stress in dogs, and a study of cats under anesthesia showed differences in respiratory rate and pupillary diameter in response to classical, pop, and heavy metal music, with the lowest values for classical music and the highest for heavy metal.

Can we use these effects to our advantage? A recent study in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery shows that music specially designed for cats has small but significant effects on cats undergoing a veterinary exam. It’s worth considering other aspects of the sound environment of your clinic as well.

Sounds Cats Like

Music for Cats by composer David Teie incorporates sounds intended to be familiar and comforting to cats, reminiscent of purring and suckling sounds, with frequencies similar to cat vocalization ranges. “However, he also layers in a melody of music that is pleasing to people as well,” says researcher Amanda Hampton of the School of Veterinary Medicine, Louisiana State University. “That part of the music, it seems that cats don’t really respond to, but that way we don’t get tired of it.”

Previous research in homes testing this music against silence and regular human classical music showed that cats seemed to prefer it. “They found that cats would approach the speakers playing cat music more, or go into postures that were more relaxed,” says Hampton.

Effects of Music

Building on this, Hampton and colleagues tested the effect of cat music during a veterinary exam. Twenty cats took part under all three conditions: cat music, classical music, and silence, with two weeks between tests. Cats were placed in an exam room for 10 minutes and then given a physical exam that included a blood draw. They were evaluated at three points with a standardized Cat Stress Score (CSS) based on body language and behavior–before the music began, during the exam, and after the exam–and with a Handling Score (HS) during the exam. Cats showed lower CSS and HS when listening to cat music compared to classical music and silence.

The blood drawn was also tested for neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as a measure of stress, but no differences were found. All cats had slightly elevated NLRs, which the authors suspect was an effect of the stress of travel to the clinic which had not had enough time to subside. “NLR goes up quickly but takes a little while to come back down, so what we could be seeing is the response they had to being put in the carrier or the car ride,” says Hampton.

How and When to Use Sound

Mikel Delgado, PhD, researcher at the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis, thinks that this study shows that cat music might be a useful additional tool, but cautions against making too much of it.

“They found that the cats who were listening to cat music were easier to handle and had lower stress scores, but my caveat is that the differences between the groups were fairly small,” she says. “It wasn’t like this is a game changer, like if you play cat music everything else is going to be easy.”

Delgado says music is no substitute for making sure you’re doing everything else you can to reduce the stress of the veterinary experience for cats.

“If you’re not already using Fear Free or low-stress handling techniques, music is not going to fix your handling methods for cats,” she says. “If you don’t have your hospital set up for other aspects of reducing stress, like minimizing the time cats have to sit in the lobby, providing towels to cover carriers if owners don’t bring their own, making sure they have a non-slip surface to lay on while they’re being examined, music is not going to overcome those things.”

If you’re already doing all of that right, adding music might help, but also take the opportunity to think more broadly.

“The implications really have to do with what humans do when they are working with cats,” Delgado says. “People might not realize that what they’re doing and the kinds of noises they’re making might have implications for their patients.”

Consider the whole sound environment before you consider adding any kind of music. “Here’s an experiment to do in your treatment room: they make all kinds of apps for your phone that tell you how loud your background noise is,” she says. “I think situational awareness could help a lot of practices improve their environment, because I think most of us are louder than we realize we are. People should consider, can they lower their voices? Can they do less banging and slamming?”

Shelters should think about these considerations as well. “Maybe people should use headphones if they want to listen to heavy metal music when they’re cleaning cages,” she says. If you have a loud PA system, think about whether you could use walkie-talkies or text messaging with phones on vibrate. “If you need Jim to come to the front desk, does everyone in the shelter need to hear that?” she says. “Try to refine your communication techniques to modify that ambient noise that animals that are already in a stressful environment are experiencing.”

If you’ve got all that under control and want to try cat music, some additional considerations are when and where to use it. The study had cats listen to the music for ten minutes before the exam, but further research is needed to know whether a shorter period will have the same effect. Be aware that there is as of yet no published research about how dogs react to it. And while the piece of cat music used in the study was specifically designed to be less repetitive and easier on human ears, like any music, not everyone will love it. “I actually find the music relaxing,” says Hampton. “But maybe you have it playing in a cat ward, or in the exam room while the cats are in there, but perhaps not throughout the whole hospital, so if you have a staff member who doesn’t like the music, they don’t have to listen to it all day.”

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Linda Lombardi writes about the animals that share our planet and our homes for magazines including The Bark, websites including National Geographic and Mongabay.com, and for the Associated Press. Her most recent book, co-authored with Deirdre Franklin, is The Pit Bull Life: A Dog Lover’s Companion.

A Kitten or Cat Care Clinic Provides Client Education Outside Office Hours

Deb Eldredge, DVM

A wonderful way to educate clients and potentially help out local pet adoption groups is to hold a kitten or cat care clinic. June is an ideal time for a kitten-themed clinic but any time of year will work. You might choose to do a couple of cat care clinics each year; consider one with a focus on senior cats, for instance.

A Job for a Cat Lover

Have a clinic employee who is considered one of your “cat people” in charge of this. If your clinic has a room big enough for a seminar, use that. I have used our local cooperative extension meeting room, usually available free of charge. As an alternative, a community college might have a free room available.

Most communities have local radio talk shows that are always looking for interesting people and events. Between that and posters at local shelters, pet stores, and your own clinic you should have plenty of free PR.

Gather Info and Freebies

Once you have a site, start collecting freebies to hand out. Our local pet store offered up bags and some treat samples. Go directly to companies; for example, Arm and Hammer donated small boxes of litter box deodorant. I have had samples of joint supplements, treats, food, catnip, and toys to put into the bags. You might be able to get starter kits to include as well, especially for kittens. The Pet Poison Helpline will donate magnets. If you got some donations of larger items you can make up baskets for a free door prize raffle for attendees.

Next, look for educational literature. Between AVMA, AAFP, Winn Feline Foundation, Cornell Feline Health Center, and AAHA, there is plenty of wonderful information for cat owners. You can also make copies of any handouts your own clinic has customized.

Involve Some Felines!

With June not only being Adopt a Cat Month/Adopt a Shelter Cat Month but also prime kitten time, I also recruited a couple of kittens from a local shelter. We bathed them, did FeLV and FIV testing, performed fecal checks, and provided their first vaccines. The kittens attended as demo animals for things like nail trims but also with the hope that they would charm their way into new homes. You could also have an adult cat or two present. If you aren’t comfortable using “unknown cats,” bring a clinic cat or employee cat who is good with crowds. I have used my own cats who were certified therapy cats as well as shelter cats and kittens.

Educate and Expand

Have a set list of topics to cover. Basic wellness care is a good starting point. If our clinic was concentrating on kittens I would bring up carrier training and behavior modification to prevent scratching or biting problems. Emphasize techniques to get kittens started on the Fear Free path. For senior cats you might want to discuss one or two of the most common senior cat problems such as kidney disease and arthritis.

Once you start doing “care clinics” you may find you have other topics to cover. Basic first aid is a good one or a nutrition basics seminar. These clinics can draw in new clients and also help your staff in the long run by educating people and answering their questions outside a busy work environment.

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Walking the Line: Preventing Lyme Disease for Fear Free Clinics

By David Hustead, DVM, M.P.H.Balancing the importance of necessary care with the emotional care of pets in the Fear Free clinic can be challenging. There are countless situations, from the dog hit by a car to an outbreak or emerging disease, where the timeliness of medical care seems to outweigh the need to take things slowly and minimize fear, anxiety, and stress (FAS) in the pet.

Consider Lyme disease. While we as well as our clients may be reluctant to add another injection to a dog’s prevention program, new information about Lyme disease’s risks, transmission, and prevalence provides a compelling reason to reconsider that reluctance. What information do we need to balance those risks with the benefit of prevention?

The risk of Lyme disease is increasing, changing, and spreading.

It’s important to understand that what we know about the risk of Lyme disease may be outdated. There is increasing evidence the risks of Lyme disease continue to expand for both people and dogs in the U.S. The CDC reports that vector-borne disease has more than doubled from 2004 to 2016. Of this, human Lyme disease accounts for 82 percent. Additionally, during this period, nine new vector-borne diseases were first observed in the U.S.¹

The risk to dogs is also increasing in areas not normally considered at-risk for Lyme disease. According to the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC), while the Northeastern states, upper Midwest, and Pacific Northwest still have the majority of canine Lyme cases, dogs exposed to Borrelia burgdorferi continue to be discovered outside of those areas. Their biggest areas of concern for increases in canine Lyme disease in 2019 include eastern Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and Kentucky, West Virginia, western Virginia and North Carolina. Northwestern Minnesota and some areas in Indiana are also expected to see higher than average seroprevalence in 2019.

Other longstanding beliefs about transmission may now be outdated. For instance, many of us think the risk of disease transmission from exposure to the Lyme disease tick vector I. scapularis is greatest in the spring, but the CDC says the risk of exposure to these ticks is really greatest throughout spring, summer, and fall. In addition, adult ticks can be active at any time of the year when the temperature is above freezing.³

Consider the critical role of the veterinarian.

It’s easy to see that Lyme disease prevention is a critical issue to raise with clients, and one that requires the expertise of a veterinarian. There is no replacing the combination of client education about the disease and exposure risk reduction and proper vector control, including systemic or topical insecticides and vaccination. But some Fear Free veterinarians are hesitant to add a Lyme vaccine to their protocols, thinking it means yet another needle stick and more vaccine volume administered. The good news for Fear Free Certified practitioners is that, for the majority of your patients, you can add a Lyme vaccine without adding needle sticks or more volume.

For example, dogs needing only a Lyme vaccine can receive Elanco’s TruCan™ Ultra Lyme. TruCan™ Ultra Lyme has only half the volume of most vaccines. While half the volume may not seem like a big deal to you, clients interested in Fear Free techniques will appreciate a reduced-volume vaccine. Let them know you have a Lyme vaccine that offers the same protection but with half the dose volume.

Elanco has options for dogs who need distemper and parvo protection as well as those at risk of Leptospiroris, another disease with changing risk. TruCan™ Lyme L-4 + TruCan™ DAPPi+Lyme L-4, and TruCan™ DAPPi+Lyme CL-4 all provide protection with one needle stick and the same vaccine volume as a 4-way Lepto-only vaccine.

TruCan, Elanco, and the diagonal bar logo are trademarks of Elanco or its affiliates.

References

1. ¹ Rosenberg, R. Et al. Vital Signs: Trends in Reported Vector Borne Disease Cases US and Territories 2004-2016. MMR Weekly 67 (17) May 4 2018.
  ² Yabsley, M. Despite the Availability of Preventative Measures—the Risk of Vector-Borne Disease Remains High in 2019. CAPC website accessed on 16 May 2019 at https://capcvet.org/articles/despite-the-availability-of-preventative-measures-the-risk-of-vector-borne-disease-remains-high./
2. ³ CDC accessed Geographic distribution of ticks that bite humans. Accessed at:https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/geographic_distribution.html

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17 Simple Ways to Reduce Stress in Shelter Cats

Katie Costello

Imagine that you are in a remote part of a foreign country and become so ill that you need to go to the hospital. People are coming at you and doing things you don’t understand. All of your senses are off: the way things smell, look, taste. Worse, you can’t understand anything said to you.

Yes, I am asking you to put yourself in the paw prints of shelter cats.

A Cat’s Senses

We all recognize that shelters are unnatural environments for animals, but understanding how cats perceive their environment can provide clues as to how to help them deal with their stress.

Kelly Bollen, MS, CABC, owner of Animal Alliances, LLC, describes in detail what cats perceive. For instance, think of how loud shelters are. Cats can hear up to 80 kilohertz; that is within ultrasonic range! By comparison, humans hear up to 20 kilohertz.

Cats have excellent vision and are sensitive to motion. They have 67 million scent receptors. Their vomeronasal organ pulls in pheromones signaling the emotions of cats around them. The pads of their feet are sensitive to touch and vibration. That means that in multiple ways cats are sensing all the other fearful and stressed cats in the shelter as well as other environmental stressors such as barking dogs, people walking up and down the halls, and radios blaring.

What Can We Do?

It should be our daily goal to decrease the fear that animals feel in our shelters. Drs. Kate Hurley and Julie Levy at the Million Cat Challenge, a joint project of the UC Davis and University of Florida shelter medicine programs, say that making sure each cat has the right amount of space is the most important thing a shelter can do to prevent stress and stress related diseases such as upper respiratory infections (URI): “Our research showed not meeting this space requirement was one of the biggest risk factors for respiratory disease in shelter cats.” That space requirement is:

Individually-housed cats each require a minimum of at least 8.5 square feet of clear floor (not vertical) space.
Cats in group housing need at least 18 square feet per cat, plus places to hide. And again: vertical space doesn’t count!

Laura K. Frazier, BA, RVT, and owner of www.advocatsconsulting.com as well as previous owner of Meow Town in Martinez, Georgia, shares some additional recommendations:

Vertical space (even if cats are in their own space/kennel).
Boxes for hiding, with the open part facing the rear of the cage.
Moveable curtains or panels for privacy.
Spray the space/kennel with Feliway before cats arrive or use a plug-in. If using spray, wait 15 to 20 minutes to allow the smell of alcohol to dissipate.
Provide opportunities for scratching by attaching mats to walls or placing climbing posts in kennels.
Offer social play with wand toys, especially if cats can’t be touched.
Play yoga music or buy one of the CDs with music composed for cats such as “Through A Cat’s Ear.”
Speak softly and move slowly. Try to eliminate noises such as banging doors, loud music, or radios on cages.
Hide treats throughout cages so cats can hunt.
Offer catnip.
Allow cats opportunities to walk around and explore outside their cages.
Allow cats to come out of carriers on their own instead of pulling them out. Place the open carrier in the cage so they can come out when they want.

From my own experience, I’ve found that hanging dried lavender from the cage can be calming. Keep cats in a room separate from dogs so they don’t have to see or hear them. Consider giving them Cat TV—videos of fish or birds flying. Better yet, place cages so they face a window. Offer a variety of toys, especially problem-solving toys that deliver treats.

You will find that just a few simple changes can improve a cat’s physical environment and mental health. The result is a happier, healthier, more adoptable cat.

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Study Shows Brief “Sleepover” Breaks from the Shelter Are Good for Dogs

Linda Lombardi

Even the best animal shelter can be a stressful place for dogs. Erica Feuerbacher studies how to improve their welfare and was intrigued by a program she learned about at Best Friends Animal Society in Utah. Volunteers could take dogs with them for an overnight sleepover, even volunteers on working vacations, who could bring them to their hotel. Feuerbacher and colleague Lisa Gunter thought they could answer some questions that were in the air about the program.

“Some people thought this was really useful,” she says. “The dogs got a break from the shelter, and they learned more about the dog when it was out and about.” Others were concerned that the program was stressful for dogs. Here’s what they found.

Test Tactics

They collected urine for analysis from a sample of dogs before, during, and after a sleepover. “We found that their urinary cortisol levels, a measure of stress, significantly dropped while they were on the sleepover,” Feuerbacher says. “They came back up when they returned to the shelter, but not above baseline levels, so they weren’t more stressed when they came back.”

This suggested that the sleepovers were good for the dogs, but would they have the same effect elsewhere? Best Friends is not a typical shelter; most of the dogs are long-term residents and many had been on sleepovers before. They repeated the study at four other shelters, from small limited-intake facilities to large municipal shelters. Urinary cortisol measurements for dogs getting two-night sleepovers revealed the same stress reduction effects.

Good Stress

Repeated sleepovers appear to have a positive effect. At BFAS, the number of sleepovers a dog had previously experienced was correlated with lower cortisol, suggesting that the experience at first involves a small amount of stress.

“Likely the results we saw were the decrease from stress in the shelter overlaid with some new stress from the new situation, but the decrease overrode the small increase,” she says. “With repeated exposure to this new experience—‘I go home with new people and hang out for a night’—the dogs show an even greater reduction.”

Dogs at the four shelters in the second study also wore activity monitors as a way to follow up on something the volunteers at Best Friends reported: that the dogs would check out the new place for 20 or 30 minutes and then sleep the rest of the time. The monitors showed that the dogs not only spent much of the time resting in the foster home, they seemed to be able to get more rest when they came back to the shelter.

“The longest bout of uninterrupted rest occurred at the foster home, which made sense, but we did see some carryover effects,” she says. Dogs got significantly more rest in the shelter after the sleepover. “We had lots of reports from staff saying ‘When the dogs came back from sleepover, they’re a different dog, they’re calm in the kennel, they’re showing better’ and our data supported those anecdotal observations.”

So while the cortisol measurements did come back up when the dogs returned to the shelter, the break appeared to improve their ability to be calm in the shelter environment. “I always compare it to a weekend,” says Feuerbacher. “I’m stressed on Friday at work, I relax on Saturday and Sunday, and yes on Monday I’m stressed again, but I’ve had rest and I’m probably better able to cope with it.”

Canine R&R

The fact that dogs spent most of their time away from the shelter resting might be a bit of a surprise, but a pleasant one, as it potentially makes a program easier to implement.

“Oftentimes we think about shelter dogs that they need to go out and do things, go on hikes, and get all this environmental enrichment, but it’s possible that the shelter environment is so stimulating already that what they really need is just some quiet time,” she says. “This opens up new opportunities for fosters who might say, ‘I don’t feel comfortable taking a new dog to Starbucks, but I can take this dog home and let him sleep at my house for a few hours.”

Success Story

One shelter that participated that was so pleased with the results of the sleepover that they continued the program after the experiment was over was the Humane Society of Western Montana in Missoula. Director of Programs Mariah Scheskie says staff sees a difference in the dogs that come back from a sleepover. “When they come back, not only are they calmer, the potential adopters looking through the kennels are more drawn to them because mostly they don’t pick the dog that’s jumping up and lunging at the glass.”

Now that the program is established, it’s easy to run. Volunteers know the procedures, what to take home with which dog and what the schedule is, so it doesn’t add work for shelter staff.

The finding that dogs mostly want to rest makes participation less intimidating. “Before having this information, people did think, ‘I have to take this dog and run them for 10 miles and do all these things, and that’s a lot of pressure,” she says. “But we’re saying no, just rent a movie and open a bottle of wine and stay home.”

One unexpected finding was large differences in baseline stress at different shelters that didn’t correlate with any obvious factors. This is something Feuerbacher thinks needs further study. “Yes, sleepovers help, but we really need to understand these differences between the shelters and how housing, handling, and husbandry practices are impacting those dogs,” she says.

In the meantime, short sleepover programs can offer benefits to dogs and a new way to volunteers to get involved. Scheskie has found that it makes shelter staff feel good as well. “The volunteer is going out, everyone’s yelling goodbye, the door closes, and everyone has this huge sigh of relief together,” she says. “I looked at my coworker the other day and said, ‘It’s amazing how good that feels. You just know they’re snuggling in the bed, they’re with a human, they’re having a great time.”

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Preparing Birds and Other Exotics for Fear Free Visits

Fear Free

For Dr. Alicia McLaughlin, a key component of Fear Free success with her exotic-animal patients is to encourage clients to prioritize preparation for visits. She educates them on measures they can take at home to increase their pet’s comfort with care and encourages Fear Free fun visits to the hospital. In this way, she lays a calm, positive foundation for animals during care. Pets with mild concerns experience increased comfort and cooperation as trust is established.

In an ideal world, McLaughlin would provide a Fear Free foundation for her patients from the start. When she’s able to do so, Dr. Laughlin starts by accustoming the animal slowly to aspects of care, pairing these experiences with treats. At the same time, she teaches clients proper treat delivery and handling guidelines so they can practice at home and help prepare their pet for future care. Patients with already established FAS at the vet also benefit from conditioning to increase their comfort with handling at the veterinary clinic.

A major benefit for her patients on wellness plans is scheduling at least two Fear Free fun visits a year to positively condition the animal to care. During these practice visits, the animals come in for the equivalent of a treat party, taking treats from members of the staff to increase their tolerance to new people. Nothing stressful or coercive takes place. Instead, the animal is slowly desensitized to aspects of the clinic and the staff may work on developing some tricks to have a foundation for working with the pet during future visits.

The takeaway? Never underestimate the power of having a good time! Fun, positive experiences at home and at the hospital are a powerful force in helping to decrease the fear, anxiety, and stress animals experience during care and increase their happy participation.

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

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