July 4th

alittlelioness:

why-animals-do-the-thing:

theexoticvet:

July 4th is almost here, please take the time to ensure you and your pets are prepared. Many pets have noise phobia and fireworks can be torturous to them. We see lots of hit by car cases and lost pets this time of year because pets get afraid and run away, sometimes even breaking through windows and doors because they are so scared.

• Make sure your pets are microchipped AND that all the information is up to date. This is the best way to reunite you if the worst happens.
• Keep pets inside during the holiday, even animals that seemed fine before can become scared and will bolt or injure themselves.
• If you know your pet is scared, go to the vet now. There are lots of solutions ranging from Thundershirts to a really great medication for noise phobia called Sileo. Your vet can help you choose.
• If having a BBQ or cookout, make sure guests know not to give food to your pets. Our ER’s are full of dogs with pancreatitis and other GI disorders the day after.
• Clean up! Pets will eat trash, firework wrappers, wooden skewers, etc. Never underestimate what they will and won’t eat and play it safe and don’t leave anything around.

Things you can do to help your pets!

If you’re having a party, set them up in a room by themselves with everything they’d need – crate or bed, food, water, toys. If they’re stressed out by people, shut the door. If they’re okay with crowds, leave it open but make it off limit to humans so they have somewhere to go to get away from people. Put a sign up and let guests know the room rules either way.

If you’ve got lots of people coming over and your pet will be loose in your house, make sure the entry has an airlock and that you’ve got signs up reminding guests to keep one door closed at all times.

It’s totally fine to comfort your pets during the fireworks, it won’t reinforce their fear. If they’re super stressed you can put them in an interior room and leave water running or a radio station on for white noise. Thundershirts or swaddling can also help, but make sure you figure out ahead of time if it’s something your pet tolerates.

Make sure they’ve got ID on! Even if you don’t expect them to get out, put on their tags anyways (if they don’t wear a collar indoors) just in case.

and for your general hoof stock crowd in regard to horses, cows, sheep, etc.

Make sure you have your ear tags well marked. Where I used to live, ear tags and even brands were pretty well recognized enough to where we knew who that livestock belonged to. If you can, take them to an enclosed area in the early evening before fireworks go off! Give them a place of safety.

In regard to horses, you can take a silver paint pen and write your number on their hooves since anything left on a horse is a dangerous thing they can hang themselves up on. If they have white hooves, good ol’ sharpie pen will do it as silver can be harder to see.

If you are dealing with a few animals, make sure you have some clear, distinct photos on hand in case something does happen so your animal is easy to identify and you can prove the animal is yours.

I was very lucky having horses who saw fireworks and then went upon their way, but I know a lot of people do not. Some people may be on such large swaths of land you don’t have to worry much about it, but for those less fully rural areas where you are closer together and land tracts aren’t as large, this may be something to consider. Be safe for the 4th!