Veterinarians offer tips to keep pets safe and sane during festivities
Posted on Thursday, July 3, 2008
BENTON COUNTY - Independence Day celebrations are often thought incomplete without fireworks, but for Fido and Fluffy, the festivities can be a time of scary noises and danger.
"Be sure and keep your pets safe," said Marion Harris, a veterinarian at Gravette's Country View Animal Care Center. "It's certainly a time that injuries can happen."
Harris said to make sure there are no animals around - even out in the country - when shooting off fireworks.
"With the embers and (left over debris ), they can certainly get burned," he said.
Ria Rohman, a veterinary technician at All Pets Animal Hospital in Bentonville, added that it's a good idea to keep the phone number for your pet's veterinarian on hand. The Animal Emergency Clinic of Northwest Arkansas, at 1110 Mathias Drive in Springdale, will be fully staffed during the holiday weekend, starting 6 p.m. Thursday, through 7 a.m. Monday, according to information the clinic provided.
Even pets that are kept safe may be fearful of the bright lights and loud noises that are inherent with fireworks. There are a variety of steps that can be taken to keep the animals from being overly frightened.
If there's time before the holiday, it could be as simple as training sessions held outside. Ashley Cook, a veterinary technician at Osage Veterinary Clinic in Bentonville, said she has a dog that is "pretty scared of loud noises."
She takes the dog outside around where loud noises might be and has it follow basic commands and be rewarded so that the dog doesn't associate the loud noises with something negative, she said.
"Some (dogs ) are just never exposed to fireworks, so they have a fear," she said.
All the veterinary professionals contacted said it's best to keep frightened - or potentially frightened pets - away from the area where fireworks will be used.
"For my own dogs, I put them in the garage and shut it," said Angela Rose, a veterinarian at the Cat Clinic of Northwest Arkansas in Rogers.
For her cats, Rose puts the felines in a lower-level room that is as centrally located as possible in the house. The cats stay there during her neighborhood's big fireworks display.
"It's the farthest away from the street," she said. "I keep the door shut until most of it is over with."
A column provided by the Texas A & M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science also suggested leaving on music or a TV in the room where the pet is secured.
Some pet owners may not know how their pet will react to fireworks because the pet is new since the last Independence Day. Rose said a good rule of thumb is, if the pet is upset by loud noises, fireworks will be a problem.
"I tell (pet owners ) that if thunder or other loud noises scare (the pets ), then the fireworks will scare them, " she said.
There are several prescription medications that a vet can give pet owners for their furry friends that will sedate the pet during the loudest - and therefore most alarming - times.
Over-the-counter "soothers "are also available, Rohman said. Dog Appeasing Pheromone can be bought on what looks a lot like a flea collar for dogs, she said. DAP, which also comes in a diffuser and a spray, is a pheromone that mother dogs secrete in their milk that calms dogs. Feliway - a similar natural pheromone - is available for cats, she said.
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