With the darker nights and autumn upon us it’s time to start thinking about preparing your pets for Bonfire Night and in particular the fireworks.
If you notice the following signs it’s likely your pet is stressed.
- Nose/lip licking
- Tail lowered or tucked
- Panting in dogs
- Increased vocalisation
- Hiding or isolating themselves
- Scratching and chewing on furniture
- Ears pulled or pinned back
A lot of pets struggle with anxiety when it comes to fireworks and it’s sometimes hard to know how to help your pet overcome their firework fears.
Here’s some top dog tips:-
- Walk your dog during the day
- Shut windows, draw curtains, turn on TV or music
- Create a den so your dog can feel safe
- Stay calm to help your dog stay calm too!
- Try distracting your dog with chews or toys
Here’s some top cat tips:-
- Make sure your cat is home before it gets dark
- Provide lots of hiding places for your cat
- Give your cat access to food, water and a litter tray
There are supplements available to help reduce the stress and anxiety in your pet. We keep Nutracalm and Pet Remedy in stock, so pop along to see us:
Nutracalm
To help calm your pet you might like to consider Nutracalm.
- It’s a fast acting natural calming supplement for dogs and cats where results are seen within 1-2 hours.
- helps reduce stress, and calms behaviour.
- Easy to administer, simply give the capsule or open the capsule and sprinkle on to your food.
Pet Remedy
You could use Pet Remedy which comes in a diffuser pack, spray or wipe and contains essential oils:
- Valarian
- Vetiver
- Sweet Basil
- Spanish Sage
Adaptil – is a synthetic analogue of the Dog Appeasing Pheromone.
Dogs feel scared and alarmed by the loud noises of the fireworks and don’t understand that the fireworks cannot harm them.
A mother dog’s pheromones are secreted in the mammary area from glands around her nipples. Known as the appeasing pheromone, this helps nursing puppies feel secure and content, and helps the puppies to get along together. This pheromone can also help a mother cat to identify her puppies if they become separated, and can be used in a wider context to help dogs mark other individuals as ‘familiar’ friends.
Because of this, the appeasing pheromone can be used to keep dogs calm during fireworks.
Feliway – is a synthetic analogue of the Cat Appeasing Pheromone.
A mother cat’s pheromones are secreted in the mammary area from glands around her nipples. Known as the appeasing pheromone, this helps nursing kittens feel secure and content, and helps the kittens to get along together. This pheromone can also help a mother cat to identify her kittens if they become separated, and can be used in a wider context to help cats mark other individuals as ‘familiar’ friends.
Because of this, the appeasing pheromone can be used to keep cats calm during fireworks.
If you’d like to try Adaptil or Feliway just give us 24 hours notice and we can get either of these in for you.
Not all tips and natural remedies work and your pet might need to be prescribed some medicine by our vet Sophie.
Give us a call if you’d like to know more about prescribed medications.
