Veterinary Wellness Blog

Travel, and Fireworks, and Storms, Oh My!

June 4, 2012

Summer may mean warmth, sunshine, and spending more time outdoors, but it can also bring more things that can cause anxiety in our pets. Things such as car rides or airplane flights for family vacations, fireworks, or thunderstorms may all cause our pet to become stressed.

Signs of anxiety can include:

• Hiding
• Drooling
• Shaking
• Barking, whining, howling or other vocalizations
• Licking excessively
• Urinating or defecating inappropriately
• Scratching/digging, chewing, or other destructive behavior

Pets can pick up on our anxiety as well, so even if you aren’t currently traveling, if you are stressing over travel plans, your pet may be more anxious. Also, pets can sense things such as change in atmospheric pressure and may know a storm is coming long before you do!  Lastly, our pet’s sense of hearing is much better than ours, so they may notice fireworks or thunder that we just cannot hear.

If your pet has anxiety in any of these situations, we can help. There is a medication we are using in dogs to help with situational anxiety. Also, if your pet is an overall anxious animal, there are medications we can use on a daily basis to help alleviate their anxiety. Calls us today to set up an appointment to discuss if this is right for your pet and your situation. Lastly, we may refer you to meet with Linda Brodzik, our behavioralist, to discuss anxiety or destructive behaviors more in depth after a consult with us. Together we can come up with a treatment plan that works well for you and your pet.