Is Your Pet Afraid Of Going To The Vet?

Going to the vet can be scary for some pets. Maybe they had a previous bad experience or come from a traumatic past. Hanging Rock Animal Hospital is a Fear Free Clinic that helps pets and their owners overcome fearful vet visits.

In this video, I spoke with Penny Stanley from Hanging Rock Animal Hospital. The transcript is below the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8D-8aQJjFw

Hi, it's Beverly from the Well-Trained Dog and Pet Care, and today we are talking about fear-free certification, especially in the veterinary world. My guest is Penny Stanley with Hanging Rock Animal Hospital. Welcome, Penny.

Thank you so much. I'm excited to talk to you about being a fear-free clinic.

What does fear-free mean?

It means that we are offering services to an animal, to a dog or cat, or we see exotics now, without forcing treatment on them if they're showing stress, fear, and anxiety.

If we have a dog we're trying to do a blood draw on and they're showing that they're being very stressed about it, we stop, we reevaluate. How are we holding them? What's going on in the room? Do we need to move to a quieter place? Do we need to choose a different location to draw the blood? So we'll try again, the dog is still reacting, we'll step back, we'll reevaluate. And the idea is not to just hold an animal down against their will and do what needs to be done, that we're respecting their boundaries, and that hopefully is giving them more of a trusting relationship with their veterinarian and not a reason to be afraid every time they walk in the door.

I'm afraid when I go to the doctor, so I can absolutely see why I would be afraid for the dog or cat. In this instance, you're also cat-friendly, to go to the veterinarian. Tell me about the process of starting this and how did you go through with training and things?

Well, the first thing we did was we looked in just to getting employees accredited. And it's like a seven-hour course of everything from how to make an appointment to how to do an appointment to how to talk to clients about what it means to be fear-free and kind of what rules we have to follow in order to be considered fear-free. Once we had the majority of the employees certified, we decided that we wanted to become a certified clinic. And then that opened up a whole new realm of the facility, the information that we send out to people, the puppy and kitten books that we send out about, hey, you have a puppy in your house or a kitten in your house, what do you need to know? All of that had to be reviewed to make sure that we didn't have any negative reinforcement types of suggestions, how we make appointments and how we talk about it. So there was a lot that went on to making sure that the facility physically was up to standards.

And then at that time was pre-COVID. So they actually came to the clinic, they looked at records to see how we documented a pet's fear, anxiety and stress, which is called FAS for us. So we document FAS at each visit and every pet has an emotional medical record. And in that emotional medical record, which stays at the top of their history, so it gets looked at before we ever bring a pet in for their appointment, that tells us, are there triggers, things that the pet doesn't like, doesn't like people in hats, doesn't like to have their paws touched, doesn't like women, you know, just things like that.

What are their triggers? Do we use pre-visit medications for anxiety and stress? What are their favorite treats? We document restraint procedures that have worked because like I was talking about, we retry when something doesn't work, we reevaluate and try something new. When we find that something worked, we make a note of that in the emotional medical record.

So when a receptionist makes an appointment, they look at the emotional medical record and they might say, it looks like Lily absolutely loves coming here as long as we don't touch her feet. And the owner will laugh and go, you got it. Or it may say, it looks like Missy does better if she waits in the car until we have a room to put her in directly because one of her triggers may be a lobby with people and other pets. So from the very beginning, we're trying to set an environment for that pet to be as stress free as possible.

Was there something with the building itself that you had to change, maybe bigger rooms or something like that with the facility?

No, there really wasn't. It was more because we already fit the criteria of what was required. So we didn't have to, you know, physically do anything to the building. But bulletin boards and things like that in the exam rooms needed to have something that was fear-free related, whether it's, you know, how do you create a fear-free visit for your pet?

And then we have a bunch of information and photos or trying to think of something else that's not coming to my mind. Or what are the body signs? What are the signs that your dog's body or your cat's body is giving off that tells us that your pet is stressed?

So hopefully the client sees that and realizes that what we're doing is looking at that behavior and those body languages and adjusting how we handle their cat or dog accordingly. But other than that, I honestly can't remember anything major. They were small changes that we needed to make.

But most of it honestly comes to deal with handling.

Handling and recording and making sure that we are giving that pet the best experience that we can. So puppies that came here during, like puppies that came here during COVID, for instance, they got the supreme fear-free experience. They came in without their owners. We took them upstairs to see staff. We went around. We visited everybody. We played in the hallways. Those puppies love coming to the clinic because that was their first experience.

And then we have people seek us out who have pets that have had previously bad experiences at other vets. And they're giving us a try to see if we can do something to turn that around, because nobody wants to see their pet stressed out to that point where they're biting or they're defecating or things like that. It stresses everyone out when the pet's stressed.

Yeah, absolutely. Do you have to have a certification renewal every so often?

 Yeah, it's every three years. 

And you've been certified for five years, correct?

Yeah, I think we're probably coming up. I think it's been five. I think, yeah, I think we're coming up on six this fall. So yeah, it's been wonderful.

And honestly, the other thing that has helped a lot is it has helped our bite rate. I mean, our staff that work here do not get injured by pets on a regular basis because we know how to hold to keep them comfortable. We respect their boundaries. And, you know, that is one of the biggest things that you really have to work on so that everybody is on board with how we're going to handle a certain pet before we start handling them.

Yeah, and veterinarians don't want to be bitten either, or vet techs. That's hard for them. Yeah, I remember one time when I had my cat and she went, you know, we took her out of her crate. And I could see from the veterinarian, you know, the vet tech was holding her and I could see the vet just kind of go like that. And I went, oh, and she had taken a nail and got it in the vet tech's nostril and started making it bleed. And I was, oh, so that's that was, you know, 14, 15 years ago, it would have been great to have something called fear free back then. She obviously did not like going to the veterinarian.

No, and the thing is, is that you remember that from all those years ago, you remember how that made you feel? Absolutely. Animals have that same emotional memory. So if they have wonderful experiences with their vet, and then we have to do something to them that may be uncomfortable, we may backslide a little bit. Because they have that memory. We use a lot of pheromones, cat and dog pheromones in the room, because that helps with kind of helps with their stress. If a cat comes into a room that just had a cat in it that was really had high fear, anxiety and stress, those pheromones are still in the room. So we need to spritz our little Feliway pheromones and, you know, get that out of there or pick a different room.

So what are your clients been saying over the past five years with moving to fear free? Was it an adjustment for them?

Of course, we had COVID and everything. Yes. And, and, well, you know, COVID was an adjustment, no matter what for everybody. But, but I think that initially, it was it was a little tough. It was probably tougher on the medical team. Because, you know, we had been trained like other people had been trained and that if the dog needs a nail trim, you're going to hold them down and you're going to do the nail trim. And that's that. So we had to get to a point where we all understood, where's the point that we stop? How many times have we kind of regrouped, and it's still not working. And now we have to send the owner home with some pre visit medications and have their dog come back on those so that we can get a blood draw or a nail trim done.

And you know, we'll hear, I don't want to just drug my dog. I don't want to just drug my cat. And you have to give them something they can relate to. So do you know people that really hate to fly? And they cannot fly without some kind of Prozac or Valium or something on board. This is the same thing. Or does your dog react to thunderstorms and fireworks? This is the same as that. If you want your dog to not stress during fireworks, and you're willing to medicate them, you should also see this as the same type of process. And our goal is that over time, maybe the pet won't need it once there's a trust and they know we're going to respect their boundaries, you know, things like that.

So we had some pushback on drugs. Um, and then we did have some pushback on people that just said, I don't care, I'm not going to drug my dog, just hold them down and do the nail trim. And we have to say, we're a fear free clinic, we don't do that. And, you know, they may go to another clinic. And, you know, that's unfortunate for their dog, because somebody out there is going to hold them down and lay on top and trim those nails, whether they like it or not, and it will never become a better situation.

Right. It could just escalate and become worse. And that's how people, owner and vet tech, you know, get bitten. I mean, there are different times, you know, on Facebook, that I'll see people going, well, I have an aggressive dog or whatever. And aggressive is a word that we don't really know what that means. It could mean things to different people. But, you know, what vet do you recommend and things like that. So it's good to know that there are some vets around here that are fear free.

Is there anything else that you would like clients or potential clients or anyone watching this video to know?

I think right now, I think it's unfortunate that we're the only clinic in the Roanoke and surrounding areas that are a fully certified fear free clinic. I wish there were more, there are some clinics that have a good portion of their employees that are fear free certified. Um, I think that if you want your animal to have less stress, and you want to have less stress when you bring your animal, that a fear free clinic is the way to go.

And don't give up on your pet. And if your pet, if you're asked to teach your dog to wear a muzzle comfortably, that that's not a bad thing. That's just saying, we're going to feel more confident handling your pet, your pet is going to understand that they're going to feel more confident. And wearing a muzzle doesn't mean you're a bad, you're a bad dog or a bad cat. It just means everyone needs to be safe. And when everyone is safe, we can proceed and the animal will be safer for that.

You know, other than that, I don't know, I just have to say it's, it's been the most wonderful experience. And it reaches into all areas of, of the clinic, and, you know, including euthanasia. I mean, my God, if there's any time you want to be as fear free as possible, it's got to be on that visit. So Oh, I should mention, we also put a gazebo in outside for those dogs that are absolutely terrified to come into the clinic. We use the gazebo for outdoor exams. And we can do pretty much anything we need to do out there. And that's a game changer for some dogs.

Absolutely. Yeah, just that whole four walls and the smells, like you mentioned, with the pheromones, everything that's been in there. Yeah, yeah.

Well, thank you, Penny. Oh, I appreciate you. I appreciate you reach out to me so much. It's just so important. It's so important that you know, the veterinary world is starting to move in this direction. And a large animal vets have for years because you don't force a cow or a horse to do things against their will, they will, you know, they will hurt you. Yeah, so let's spread that to all animals.

Penny Stanley from Hanging Rock Animal Hospital. Thank you. Thank you so much.

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Beverly Amsler is the owner of The Well-Trained Dog & Pet Care. She has been a professional dog trainer, dog walker, and pet sitter since 2014.  Beverly is a Certified Dog Trainer through the Victoria Stilwell Academy and a Certified Professional Pet Sitter through Pet Sitters International.  She is a member of the Texas Pet Sitters Association and the Association For Professional Dog Training.  Before starting her business, Beverly spent more than 30 years as a journalist for newspapers, magazines, and radio and television stations in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Indiana, and Utah. Learn more about Beverly.