Fireworks frightening in-door pets.

gerTheGreat

Hi All,
I hope this is the right thread, maybe it should be in animal welfare. Mods please move as appropriate.

As you all know, it is the time of year where those of us with pets have to watch our pets as they shiver in fear from the fireworks going on outside. This year has seems to be an especially bad one for my little Westy. Last night I was really frightened that she would have a ceasure or attack. My best attempts to calm her and drown out the sound of the fireworks were to little avail.

Could anyone recomend a solution to this problem? Can I give her anything to calm her nerves or relax her?

Thanks in advance,
Ger.

seamus

A vet may be able to prescribe a mild sedative to give her if it gets really bad.

If you don't fancy drugging your dog, is there anyone you know who lives outside the city that you could send her to for a couple of weeks?

jen_23

Hi Ger,

There are a few threads floating about on halloween stuff at the moment though since the search is temporarily down I know it's difficult to find them so heres one
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055710523

There are a few things that I have come across that are quite effective.
DAP spray/ collar / diffuser. You can get it from nutrecare.co.uk quite cheap. It's dog appeasing pheromones which relax the dogs.

Zylekene (which you can get from the same place) is also quite good.

Rescue remedy that you buy from any healthstore/chemist is very effective. You can add a drop to their tongue and also a few drops to ther water to keep them topped up.

Kalm aid is another which you can get from your vet.

I have rescue remedy, DAP sray and collar and kalm aid at the ready for halloween.

Mods just a suggestion but since the search function is down would ye be able to sticky a halloween thread as i'm guessing alot of people will be looking for info on ow to calm their dogs coming up to it??

gerTheGreat

Thanks for the links and advice. I've ordered the DAP and Zylkene.

peasant

just one remark on sedatives:

Be very, very careful with sedating your dog. What some sedatives do is that they more or less incapacitate the dog physically but do nothing to muffle their senses.

The animal may be drowsy, slow to move and appear less hectic and less stressed but all the noises and all the anxiety is still getting through unfiltered.

Imagine what that must be like ...hearing, seeing and smelling these bangers and rockets, being frightened senseless and not being able to move...it would certainly be such a horrifying experience to scar the dog for life, forget about any chance of the dog getting used to bangers after that.

ROS123

slightly off post, but are nutrecare.co.uk and vetsuk generally secure to deal with.

jen_23

I've ordered from nutrecare and I havn't had any problems. The items did take about a week to arrive was the only thing but then the prices are great so I couldn't really complain

olaola

http://www.dogsandfireworks.com/

iguana

I know it might sound mean but the best thing to do is to ignore the dog's fear. When you try to comfort your dog the message it's getting from you is that the noises really are something to fear. If you ignore the noise, the dog hears the bang gets a fright looks to you and sees you completely unperturbed and it works out that the noises are nothing of consequence.

I'm not sure how possible it is with a dog that has already learned to be frightened. But perhaps you could do work on retraining. Find some bang sound-effects online and play them quietly first and completely ignore the sound and the dog's reaction. Over the day make the sounds louder and louder, all the while never reacting.