Fireworks | Dog & Cat Anxiety

by Drs. M.L. Kruiper, ISAP Ambassador of the Netherlands

New Year’s Eve is just around the corner. A scary event for many cats and dogs. A little fright every now and then only strengthens the soul, but what is if your poor pet is absolutely terrified and cannot stop trembling and panting?

A recurring theme, applicable to almost every stressful situation, disease and other problem.
We, as responsible pet owners, have to carefully weigh the pros and cons in deciding how we go about this.

Medication or no medication?

If medicine helps your pet to ‘survive the fireworks’, medicine appear to be a plausible solution. Especially if your beloved pet hides somewhere or stops eating for several days. For example, fasting can be fatal for cats! If you choose to use medicine always carefully read the instructions. Especially the risks and side effects part! Several chemical remedies are dangerous and can even lead to increased (psychological) trauma. For example: Sedative medicine containing acepromazine (e.g. Vetranquil) may be prescribed by some vets, or bought online.

Be aware, this anaesthetic drug lowers the level of consciousness.

In other words: your dog /cat is still scared, but cannot do anything. What makes it worse is that besides being a sedative this type of medicine acts as a (sound) amplifier. So besides being sedated, the firework blasts are now extremely-mega-super loud. As you can imagine the result is counterproductive, an increased trauma!

How about training?

Make your pet firework-proof. In other words train your pet! Think of fireworks CD’s, DVD’s and eventually field training. A good training schedule, if necessary combined with alternative medicine should do the trick.

In our holistic animal practice “Dierpraktijk Beest” we use 100%biological products.
Such as Bach Flower remedies and Homeopathy, especially selected for each individual (physical, psychological and emotional).

As this newsletter appears at the very  end of 2015 this is not going to do the trick for this New Years.
It would be more like a New Year’s resolution.

 

However, if you start now… that’s half the battle…

 

Kruiper, Drs. M. L. (2015) Fireworks | Dog & Cat Anxiety. International Society for Animal Professionals. 2015 (2), 12-13.

 

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