Do You Hear What I Hear? Noise Aversion Beyond Thunder and Fireworks
Noise aversion isn’t only about thunder and fireworks. Many of your patients are suffering daily from noise aversion to everyday environmental events.
What can the veterinary professional do? In this webinar, sponsored by Zoetis, board certified veterinary behaviorist and Fear Free Executive Council member Dr. Lisa Radosta discusses a variety of treatments that can help patients with noise aversion live happier lives.
Care of Hospitalized and Boarding Patients
Dr. Rachel Abrams
Join Fear Free Practice Certification Manager Dr. Rachel Abrams for an overview of the path to practice certification and a discussion about preventing and alleviating FAS in your hospitalized and boarding patients.
Fear Free Design Ideas
The built environment affects the mental and physical well being of people and animals. What can you in your Fear Free Certified hospital to further foster a low-stress and healthy environment? In this webinar we will give you tips and tools for implementing Fear Free design into your spaces.
What’s that you smell?
We know that dogs’ and cats’ sense of smell if far superior to ours. What can we do to to optimize their olfactory experience? In this webinar, Fear Free Practice Certification Manager Dr. Rachel Abrams will take a closer look at Optional Facilities Standard 4.8 “Cleaning protocols to improve olfactory experience for pet are in place.”
All webinars in this series open with a brief overview of the path to practice certification and conclude with a live Q&A session.
Fear Free: Evolving to the Hospitalized, Emergent, and Sick Patient, sponsored by Zoetis
Dr. Tamara Grubb, PhD
In this webinar, board certified veterinary anesthesiologist Dr. Tamara Grubb, PhD, discusses the interconnectedness of pain with fear, anxiety, and stress, and examines therapeutic and diagnostic strategies for both. Topics covered include the relationship between FAS and pain, diagnosing and treating both pain and FAS, reducing FAS in the hospitalized patient, and FAS and pain in the emergency setting. The relationship of pain with fear, anxiety, and stress (FAS) – a relationship that works both ways – is crucial for veterinary professionals who seek to treat their patients’ physical and emotional health. How can the veterinary professional best understand, diagnose, and treat both pain and FAS?
Case Management of Fear, Anxiety, Stress, and Pain, sponsored by Zoetis
Ralph C Harvey, DVM, MS, Diplomate ACVAA, UTCVM
Pain adversely affects the fearful, anxious, and stressed patient. These clinical issues are tightly interrelated, and we best manage them together. In this webinar, Dr. Ralph C. Harvey, a specialist certified by the American College of Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia, presents clinical cases demonstrating effective management of this deleterious continuum so as to enhance favorable outcomes for patients, clients, veterinary personnel, and practices.
Vaccinations for the Mind: Positive Puppy Socialization
Monique Feyrecilde, CVT, VTS (Behavior)
Puppies should explore the world and the people with whom they share it. When clients bring home a puppy, they have a golden opportunity to protect their newest family member from fear and anxiety later in life. By making a positive puppy transition and socialization plan, owners can help puppies have a smooth and happy puppyhood, adolescence, and adulthood. In this Fear Free webinar, sponsored by Ceva, Monique Feyrecilde, CVT, VTS (Behavior) covers techniques, products, and client education to get puppies started off on the right paw; how early detection and intervention can help shy puppies blossom; and more. Sponsored by Ceva.
In this one-hour module, client service representatives will learn how to quickly assist pets entering with FAS, educate clients about Fear Free in person and on the phone, guide them in preparing their pets for future visits, provide resources and referrals, organize community outreach activities, and create protocols for the whole team to follow.
This module is open to all professionals that are already signed up for the certification program.
“Veterinarians should routinely ask clients about their pets’ responses to storms,” says Pamela Perry, DVM, a behavior resident at Cornell University College of Medicine in Ithaca, New York.
Ask clients what happens during a thunderstorm. Does the cat hide? The dog tremble? Those mild fears can worsen over several thunderstorm seasons. Waiting to treat them can make the problem that much more difficult to manage. Be preemptive and recommend treatment promptly, while signs are still at the subtle stage.
“They might be coming in for something totally unrelated to storm phobia, but they mention that the dog is fearful during storms or that their other dog at home has storm phobia,” says veterinary behaviorist Lore Haug, who practices in Sugar Land, Texas. “I’m like, ‘You need to get on top of that right away.’”
Suggestions can be as simple as suggesting setting up a safe room or getting the pet a snug-fitting wearable that may have a calming effect.
Know how to advise clients on setting up a safe room. It can be a small guest bath or closet with no windows, a basement, or something as simple as a crate with a cover thrown over it. Their pet may choose his own safe space, such as inside the bathtub. Wherever it is, it should be ready and available at any time.
Clients should encourage pets to go there by placing a stuffed Kong or treat-filled puzzle toy in the room daily so the animal knows that good things happen in that room. Remind clients never to close the pet in the room or crate, which can create a feeling of being trapped. If owners know a storm is expected during a time they won’t be home, they should prepare the room by putting a long-lasting treat or favorite toy in it, turning on a white noise machine or other noise blocker, and plugging in a pheromone diffuser.
Be familiar with product options for pets fearful of storms. Calming clothing includes Thundershirts, Storm Defender Capes, Anxiety Wraps, Mutt Muffs, and Calming Caps. Depending on the product, they fit snugly on the body, providing soothing pressure; reduce storm-related static charges; or limit the pet’s exposure to scary storm-related sights and sounds such as lightning and thunder. Recommend drowning out storm sounds with white noise machines, the whirr of a box fan, or relaxing music such as Through A Dog’s Ear or Through A Cat’s Ear. Certain nutraceuticals and pet foods contain soothing ingredients such as l-theanine, caseins, L-tryptophan, and B vitamins and are marketed for pets with storm-related fears.
“Resources like that are easy for owners to implement and don’t require a huge behavior modification program,” Dr. Haug says.
Finally, be familiar with the client’s lifestyle and environment. If medication is needed, that information will help you determine the best choice for that particular animal.
“Make a choice about the effect you want to have happen, what medication fits with that, and how it can work in the owner’s lifestyle,” says veterinary behaviorist Lisa Radosta, who practices in West Palm Beach, Florida.
For instance, some owners are in and out but have a flexible schedule that allows them to premedicate a pet if a storm is in the forecast. For that owner, Radosta says, “I’m going to send her home with Sileo because that works fast and she’s generally going to be home to administer it.” For owners who are gone all day, she might suggest long-lasting clonazepam or gabapentin.
“Make a choice,” she says. “Don’t just throw a drug at it because you like it.”
This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.
The Fear Free Veterinary Certification Program Level 3 teaches veterinary healthcare professionals Advanced animal handling techniques, and Feline & canine development.