Article by Diana Gorin

Raise your hand if your pet is stressed to be at the vet! I think many of us have dealt with vet anxiety before.. but what if I told you there are ways to help their stress?

Insert: Happy Visit

What is a Happy Visit?

A Happy Visit is simply a time where a dog can come to the animal hospital and get to know the staff, through tons of treats, cuddles, and gentle talk. Happy Visits are completely free (and perhaps our favorite treatment we offer!)

We want our patients to know that we are their friend, and build positive associations with our practice. The more they understand that we are on their side, the more they will trust us… even if we have to put them in an uncomfortable position for treatments. 

If you have a particularly anxious pet, we recommend happy visits (and starting them young!) to start building those positive associations. You can call us to schedule one!

Why offer Happy Visits, and for FREE? 

The answer is simple: it’s what is best for our patients and we love our patients. In our continued pursuit of “Taking Care of Your Babies,” our goal is to ensure that our patients feel as safe as possible when going to see the vet. We cannot provide the highest standard of care that we strive for if our patients are terrified of being here. 

Therefore- Free Happy Visits! It’s also a great time for us to get to know our patients even better, and see how they improve over time.

There are many other ways to combat stress in our patients through fear free practices, and we want to be the soldiers on the front lines.

What are Fear Free Practices?

At APCC our staff is trained on fear free practices, and we have multiple fear free certified doctors!

“Fear Free has become one of the single most transformative initiatives in the history of companion animal practice, providing unparalleled education on emotional wellbeing, enrichment, and the reduction of fear, anxiety, and stress in pets and improving the experience of every human and pet involved.” – from Fear Free

Some of the Fear Free practices we do include: 

Get on their Level and Go Slow

• • • Imagine walking into a strange place, without your mom or dad, and being lifted by strangers onto a high surface to have treatments done to you! That’s why as much as we can, we get on the same level as our patients, doing our treatments on the floor with them. We approach them slowly, offering treats if they need so they can first see us a friend.

Fear free restraint

• There is an art to holding a dog for treatments, and it’s one that we work every day to perfect. Wrestling matches are not going to build trust between the patient and care provider, so we will get on their level, use distraction methods, and hold them in a way so they can feel safe, and not thrash around to further stress themselves out. You can see our personal favorite method in this video! 
• We also use The Doggie Lift for toe nail trims if the patient needs it. Toe nail trims can make even the goodest dog anxious. The Doggie Lift allows for minimal restraint for the patient while doing treatments. Plus, it makes for adorable pictures.

Distraction

• Distraction in every form! From head tapping (which is exactly what it sounds like), providing so many treats, and constant gentle talk, we find we can provide treatments more effectively if they are too distracted to notice the blood draw or vaccine.

Basket Muzzles

• Occasionally for the safety of our staff and the patient, a patient will require a muzzle. We prefer basket muzzles because it allows them the opportunity to still pant, and receive treats. 

Pheromone spray for our kitties

• A.K.A. Feliway Spray! Feliway Spray has pheromones that mimic a mama cat. Studies have shown that it has a calming effect for some cats and can reduce anxiety. We will commonly put blankets that have been sprayed with feliway with our patient to help calm them. 

Anti anxiety meds

• If all of our fear free practices are still not helping the nerves of our patient, we will recommend they come back another day with anti anxiety meds. We have truly seen anti anxiety meds work wonders for our patients. Think of being a human with flight anxiety, you’re so stressed about getting on the flight even though you KNOW it’s safer than a car. An airport margarita will do wonders to calm your nerves. That’s kind of how these anti anxiety meds work. The patient is much more relaxed with their little “doggy margarita” and allow us to treat them. 

And many more!

We are so happy with the positive effects since implementing fear free practices at our hospital and with the results of our happy visits.

Call us at 949-768-1313 if you have more questions or would like to book a happy visit! 

One bonus tip for cat parents: We know that it can be really hard to get them in their carrier and to the vet. We recommend always having their carrier out in a shared space, so the cat can become familiar with the carrier and maybe even go in it on their own. We also recommend taking them on short car trips with you – this could be to get coffee, fill up on gas, etc., but by taking them on trips that don’t result in the vet, they won’t automatically run when they see the carrier or get really spicy in the car! 

What Makes us the Best for your Pets?

• Pet Boarding
• Grooming
• Laboratory Facilities

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