Countryside Veterinary Clinic
715-246-5606
24/7 Emergency Services
715-246-2619
www.countrysidevet-nr.com
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Q. My 7-year-old Pomeranian doesn’t like to be messed with very much. Cujo won’t let me brush his teeth, or trim his nails or clean his ears. I took him to the groomer and they asked that I not bring him back. Whenever we go to the veterinary clinic for his shots it takes 3 people to hold him down. What can I do?
You may have guessed that this question is fictitious – a little bit of exaggeration on my part but in reality we see dogs and cats every day that are very fearful about coming to the clinic. When they come to the veterinary clinic and have a bad experience – that makes it even worse the next time they come. We work really hard with puppies and kittens to socialize them when they are in the clinic and make their early visits as fun as possible to try to prevent this but some dogs are very fearful. We’ve developed what we call a fear free initiative at Countryside Veterinary Clinic as a way of trying to help animals that are very fearful and have had bad experiences previously when they come in. This can involve several things but often it involves some type of anxiety medication. We now have anxiety meds that we can dispense to our fearful clients that the owners can start the day before their appointment. While not always working completely, this will often reduce their anxiety to the point where things go better. If even more help is needed we also have sedation protocols in place that we can administer to help your dog have a more stress free vet visit. This allows not only the pet to be less anxious but often allows the staff to do a more thorough examination and more thorough procedures. If your dog is very fearful and becomes quite fearful just by walking into the clinic, we recommend sedating this pet in the car prior to entering the clinic at all. It’s much more effective to medicate these pets before they become fearful than to let them become extremely fearful and then try to alleviate that anxiety with medications. If you have pets that you think could benefit from anxiety meds or sedation for their veterinary appointments please contact us in advance and we can discuss the situation and develop a program that will assist you and your pet in having a much less fearful visit.
