🐶 𝗣𝗨𝗣𝗣𝗜𝗘𝗦! 🐶
The lovely Luna came in today for her pregnancy scan and she was such a good girl for it - she’s a very proud mama!
Her babies were a little camera shy, but you can just catch a glimpse of 2 little heads. We can’t wait to see them grow! 🥰
🐱𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗦𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 🐱(Pt. 2)
It’s not just our pooches we can help, our cats sometimes need help and support too! Desensitisation in cats is very similar to dogs, and again works well as long as we identify and respect any signs that they’ve reached their limit.
Poppy recently had a procedure which meant she had to have a cannula placed in her leg. Much like many cats, she is happy to have lots of fuss and pets but can get upset when being held for procedures. Cannula placement involves a fair bit of handling for the safety of the patient and the vet or nurse who is placing it, but for the majority of cats (and dogs) this isn’t too stressful at all.
In the video below, Poppy is having the clipped patch of fur rubbed and touched to mimic the cleaning and touching during cannula placement. Her leg is being held extended as it would do, and her inner elbow is being touched in a way that mimics how she would be held by the person holding for the procedure. Her preferred reward is a good chin rub, so if she looked at all unhappy, she got a chin rub until she was relaxed again.
Many pets are uncomfortable with the sound of hair clippers, which are essential for cannula placement and blood sampling. Much like with many scary sounds, we can get our pets used to it by simply starting with playing the sound quietly and rewarding calm behaviour. This again should start in very short bursts and work up the time over a minimum of a few weeks, but depends on your pets reaction.
🐶 𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗦𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 🐶 (Pt. 1)
With yellow dog day yesterday, our posts this week will be advising how we can all help to support and prepare our nervous dogs and cats for vet visits.
As much as we’d love to hear that all of our patients love to visit us, we know that it can be scary for some for many reasons. For a lot of our worried pets this can be due to being handled in unfamiliar ways - examining eyes, ears, teeth, touching feet, etc.
In the video below, Indie is demonstrating how a desensitisation session can be very relaxing, but also highlights how we need to watch body language during this time. Indie is not overly keen on having her feet touched, but is relaxed and ok for her upper leg to be massaged. You can see as the stroking gets closer to her foot she pulls her foot in, her body tenses slightly, she begins to move her head up and licks her lips. All of these signs suggest she was uncomfortable, so the action was stopped immediately and she was given a tasty treat. She will continue to have these short desensitisation sessions and slowly build up to her feet being touched, until she is more comfortable.
It’s our birthday!
Today marks 10 years we have been opened! 🎉
To celebrate we have been entering everyone who visited into a raffle for a lovely hamper, and Abigail has drawn the winner… 🥳
We have a few dogs ( and cats) that are fearful at the Vets. Rescue dogs can be very fearful and especially Ex Street Dogs.
It is important that we handle with patience and with sensitive handling, rushing the dog onto the scales for example can ruin the process for life.
This is lovely Bilbo...
Every time he comes for weighing he's getting better and better.
Careful handling is essential with Street Dogs, they can quickly develop a fear response to a situation and they never forget it. This could be undone in an instant if he was rushed or any tension was on the lead, triggering 'Opposition Reflex' which with Bilbo triggers a flight response.
The scales have been a working progress from the fearful shut down puppy he was.
He's now 10 months old and doing really well.
Look up Tellington Touch, see how it can help fearful dogs
(Owner permission given )
