The time of year is approaching when Catalan dogs and animals have the worst time due to the fear caused by firecrackers… San Juan. Many of our animals suffer stress, fear and even panic due to the loud noise of the firecrackers. In Animal Salut we take advantage of this month’s blog post to give you some advice so that your dogs and animals can spend this time a little quieter and with less fear.
The idea is to make a treatment that encompasses several aspects and reduce the feeling of fear and increase the sense of normalcy for our dogs and animals.
Here we explain it to you with a little more detail:
1.The first and most important thing we advise you is to prevent fear; you don’t have to wait until the last day (when the noise of the firecrackers has started and the dogs or animals are already scared to death) to start acting, it is good to go to our veterinary center, or make a consultation with our veterinarian at home, with time to be able to follow the guidelines we will give you.
2.Get the dogs or animals to have a “safe zone” previously established, with their toys and sweets. It is an area of the house where the animals and dogs feel safe and protected, so we deceive the fear, preferably a small and dark area. If they prefer to be under the bed, leave them alone on those days. It also helps to put a diffuser with maternal pheromones in this area at least a week before.
3.Keep calm and transmit tranquility and normality to our dogs. We should not scold them or be especially affectionate with them, we must treat them normally without enhancing their fear.
You can contact our centre or our home vet service, who will study your particular case and recommend the most appropriate medication to reduce your dog’s fear.
4.Create other types of noise that distract from the main firecracker such as television or radio with quiet music. The idea is that there should be normal sounds to transmit safety to dogs and animals and keep fear away.
5.We can offer a long-lasting prize such as a cartilage bone, a nerve or a kong with which you are entertained for a long time. It will only work if the dogs are calm, if we have managed to make them pay no attention to the source of noise and have not suffered fear yet.
6.Administering natural medication, starting a few days before, helps them get used to the sounds of firecrackers and not suffer so much fear; with this type of medication dogs and animals are more open to changes and adaptations. One option would be pheromones as mentioned above and another option would be herbal compounds (called tranquilizer supplements).
7.The classic San Juan pill. With all the above methods the fear will be greatly reduced but even so, there are dogs that still need stronger help as their fear is more marked. For these dogs we can give a chemical supplement, always under the veterinary supervision of our center or our veterinary home service, which will study each case and recommend the most appropriate medication.
With all these measures we can help our animals and dogs to pass this time of noise and firecrackers with comfort and without fear.
Ask us about these measures in our veterinary centre or with our veterinarian service at home!
