Separation Anxiety Dogs at the Vets

Just recently I took my dog Percy in for elective dental treatment for a clean and side note

I'm pretty obsessed with my dog's dental hygiene so I brush their teeth regularly every single

day and you should too because dental health just like our dental health, dental health

is really important for dogs, but just like us cleaning alone, brushing teeth alone isn't

enough, sometimes they need a bit of a clean too and so that's what I decided to do.

Now while he's long recovered from his separation anxiety and you know we can go about our lives

and do our thing, he's always going to be a dog who has had separation anxiety and that

means I'm wary of situations that might impact that, that might cause him to have a wobble

and vet visits, especially involving those with treatment where a dog stays can be scary

for any animal, any dog, let alone a dog who's had separation anxiety and when you've got,

you don't need me to tell you this, but when you've got a dog with separation anxiety you

just realise that the simple things or things that everybody else with a dog takes for granted

like vet visits go to a whole other level of complicated, but luckily with vet visits

there are definitely ways that we can alleviate some of that stress and that's what this episode

is all about.

First of all we're going to take a step back and understand why our dogs with separation

anxiety struggle at the vets.

Hello and welcome to the Be Right Back Separation Anxiety Podcast.

Hi I'm Julie Naismith, dog trainer, author and full on separation anxiety geek.

I've helped thousands of dogs overcome separation anxiety with my books, my online programs,

my trainer certification and my separation anxiety training app and this podcast is all

about sharing my tips and tricks to help you teach your dog how to be happy at home alone

too.

Well let's just remind ourselves of what's going on with dogs with separation anxiety

and what they're worried about.

Well the thing that dogs with separation anxiety fear the most is being alone, right we know

that, but alongside that many of the dogs who have separation anxiety really hate being

crated.

Why do they hate being crated?

Well it could be that they had a really bad early experience, they were left, they hated

being alone and they happen to be in their crate too, so forever they've associated being

crated with being left for longer than they could cope with.

But also it might well be that the crate just creates an extra layer of isolation for these

dogs.

But for whatever reason many many dogs, most dogs with separation anxiety hate being in

crates too.

So think about a vet visit, particularly a vet stay, we've got a perfect storm of both

of these factors of being alone and being crated.

Dogs for example are occasionally left alone at the back as they say as they wait for treatment.

They might be waiting to have tests or to recover from treatments and it's very common

practice to create dogs as they come round from anaesthetic and it makes sense because

for lots of dogs there's a safety requirement and we're going to come on to later in this

episode what we can do in that situation.

But is it a big deal if your dog with separation anxiety has a wobble at the vet?

And the answer is yes absolutely, if your dog has separation anxiety we want to make

sure that a stay at the vets doesn't make them worse.

We don't want them going in having a fear-inducing over threshold experience and then coming

back to you worse than when they went in.

And I've seen it happen too often, lots of dogs do return from vet visits with a significant

regression and we want to avoid that and it's not down to the vet practice, it's nothing

that they've done, a lot of times it's just that we haven't had a really good conversation

with them about what our dog needs.

So what can you do to make vet visits less stressful?

Percy's dental treatment was a success, not only were his teeth sparkling when he came

back but he didn't suffer any regression in his anxiety.

Now I'm lucky enough that I get to work with a really wonderful vet practice who understand

the needs of a dog with separation anxiety.

And through that and through working with my clients and helping my clients through

the same situation, here are six things that I've learned that you need to do that really

are going to make a vet visit work for your dog.

First of all talk to your vet, if your vet doesn't already know that your dog has separation

anxiety tell them, not only can they then provide general advice about how to treat

separation anxiety and by the way if you haven't had this conversation with your vet already

do so regardless of whether your dog is going in for vet treatment, your vet needs to know

about your dog's separation anxiety.

When your vet knows about that they can work with you, perhaps provide some general advice

about separation anxiety but also work with their team to limit the amount of isolation

and creating that your dog is going to experience during the vet's day.

Okay so when you have that conversation the second thing I want you to do is to talk about

breaking down treatment and recuperation in two steps.

One of the main reasons that your dog is going to be isolated is that things like blood tests,

taking samples, having x-rays done and so on can be done more efficiently if the hospital

can take the dog and perform those procedures according to their schedule so they fit dogs

in as and when and that makes total sense from an efficiency perspective but it does

mean that some dogs will spend a lot of time on their own.

If the treatment is elective or non-urgent then ask your vet clinic if the procedures

can be split into smaller one-off appointments.

What do I mean by that?

Well if your dog has to have blood tests ahead of going in for a spay neuter ask them if

the blood test can be done the day before, it doesn't always have to be done on the same

day in the same process and another option is to see if the clinic can condense the procedures

into a shorter window and therefore do them all together while you wait maybe in reception

ready to take your dog home ASAP so if that blood test has to be done the same day as

the treatment ask if it can be done just before.

Third, ask about anxiety medications for your dog's visit.

Giving your dog a short acting anti-anxiety medication is going to go a long way to help

alleviate some of the panic and that's going to lead to a smoother vet visit and treatment

process.

The anxiety medications, short acting ones that your vet will give will typically be

for home use so you would give them ahead of the vet visit and they're usually oral

medication.

You would be told by your vet to time the dose ahead of the appointment and what you

need to do if this is the route that you're going down is you need to test out that timing

and test out the effect of that medication way ahead of the vet visit so don't be trying

this medication for the first time on the day that you're taking your pet in.

You want to be doing it earlier so you can test it out see how it affects your dog.

And by the way these are the types of medications that are often prescribed to people who have

you know fear of flying or fear of a dentist.

My hand is going up here, I need help when I go to the dentist because I'm phobic and

so having something that helps me feel less anxious about going to the dentist has been

a game changer.

In fact I'm now way better at going to the dentist because I've been having help with

anxiety medications that I've taken a couple of hours before I go.

Now some vets depending on the dog, depending on the procedure will also do some sedation

in the clinic but we're not talking about that here we're talking about things that

you would do at home, medications that you would give to your dog before a visit.

Your vet then might consider, and it's worth asking, sedating your pet before the anesthetic

actually happens.

If we're talking about a treatment that's going to happen under anesthetic some vets

will happily and willingly sedate your dog beforehand and why does that help?

Because your dog's not in a panic before the anesthetic goes in and it can definitely help

with panicky dogs and I'm led to believe this is way above my pay grade, I don't know how

anesthetic works but what vets tell me and what I've heard other clients say is that

when a dog is a really panicky dog it can be difficult, it can be harder for the anesthetic

to take effect.

So if we can get them calm when they go in and if we can help them stay calm before the

anesthetic goes in the anesthetic works better.

So ask if you can stay by the way, when you take your pet in, when you take your dog to

the vets for a treatment, ask if you can stay with your dog for as long as possible before

you hand your dog over.

So if your dog is going to be sedated prior to anesthetic, ask to stay until your dog

is completely out of it and your dog is then taken off to have the anesthetic administered.

So many vets are very accommodating of this, definitely ask because if you don't ask you

don't know.

The fourth thing I want you to do is ask the question, is my dog going to be left alone

at any point?

Because we know that's the crunch, your dog being left alone in a strange place is a likely

source for panic.

So ask about that, ask is my dog going to be alone and if so what kind of state?

Will they be sedated, will they be under anesthetic, will they be coming round from anesthetic?

That's what we need to know.

If the answer is yes, your dog will be alone for an hour here or an hour there, then just

see if it's possible for somebody to be hanging out with your dog.

Even a vet tech writing up case notes nearby is going to be a help.

Number five, ask about the crate, see if your vet can avoid using a crate.

Obviously crating is important for safety reasons depending on the condition and depending

on what's happening to your dog, particularly in a setting where your dog isn't going to

get one-to-one monitoring.

Your dog's not at home, it's not like you are there to keep an eye on your dog every

single minute.

So for safety reasons, vet clinics will often require that dogs are crated post-treatment.

But ask, ask if that's a requirement and kind of linked back to number four, if your dog

is going to be crated, is it when they're completely out of it?

Well that's fine because if your dog's recovering from anesthetic and he's crated, your dog

probably isn't going to even realise that he's crated.

So ask about the situation and circumstances in which your dog is going to be crated and

again try to minimise the amount of scary crating time that your dog is going to have.

Ask about, can my dog not be crated?

You never know, it's worth asking, maybe your vet will be open to that.

Tell them how much your dog hates being in a crate.

Vets very often want dogs to be crated so that the dog is safe and isn't, you know,

jumping around, risking ripping out stitches.

Well dogs can jump around and freak out in crates, so your vet doesn't want that happening

to your dog.

If a crate is going to actually make your dog more full of life, more likely to be agitated

and bounce all over the place, then the crate is not a safe place for your dog to be.

So do ask about the crate.

And the final thing, ask how quickly you can take your dog home.

Some vets rather will happily prioritise discharging an anxious patient.

If they know that your dog is the one that's going to freak out in the practice, they don't

want that.

They don't want dogs freaking out, potentially making things worse for the dog.

So ask about that because they may be able to shuffle their discharge procedure.

They may let you take your dog home a bit groggier than other dogs would go home.

So it's worth asking.

Obviously they're not going to let your dog go home with you until it's safe to do so,

but it might be a bit quicker than if you hadn't asked about the timing of your dog

coming home.

So definitely, definitely go through this one.

What you don't want is your dog waiting till the end of the day unnecessarily just because

you didn't have a conversation about when's the soonest I can bring my dog home.

So those six things to think about are what to do when your dog is going through a non-urgent,

or maybe urgent, but elective process, not an emergency.

So what about emergencies?

Well of course if it's an emergency, you're going to forget most of these practices because

getting your dog in for treatment in an emergency, that's your priority.

That's going to take precedence over your dog's anxiety in that moment.

But there are still things you could ask about on the post-treatment process.

So yes, if it's an emergency, if your dog's swallowed a sock yet been there, your dog

is going to go in.

You're just going to deal with the emergency.

But for recovery, you can still ask about that.

You can still ask when's the soonest he can come home?

Does he have to be crated?

Is he going to be alone?

So you can still talk about the post-treatment transition.

Finally, I want to end on reiterating that we're not talking about prioritizing physical

health over mental health, or mental health over physical health.

Both are essential for our dogs.

And a growing number of vets are beginning to really understand the impact of a fear-filled

vet visit.

And they don't want that.

Vets who really get the fear-free principle commit to doing what they can to make your

dog's visit more bearable.

So if you're having conversations with your vet about fear-free visits and maybe not getting

the responses that you want, definitely look for vets who are bought into the principle

of fear-free veterinary treatment.

Because if a dog becomes so frightened of going to the vet that you stop taking them,

then their physical health is going to be at risk.

So it's not either or.

And I don't want you to be put off taking your dog to the vet because you're worried

about your dog regressing.

So finding a vet who really understands, and there are so many of them out there, is going

to be the key to this.

Because there are definitely things you can do to make it a better process and a better

outcome all around.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Be Right Back Separation Anxiety Podcast.

If you want to find out more about how I can help you further, head over to julienaysmith.com.

Meanwhile, if you enjoyed listening today, I would love it if you would head over to

wherever you listen to your podcasts and consider rating my show.

Thanks so much.

Good luck with that training and bye for now.

Bye.