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.