Prevent Pet Panic: Top Strategies to Keep Your Furry Friends Safe This 4th of July
Do you want to make sure your furry friends stay calm and safe during Fourth of July festivities? Are you tired of worrying about their anxiety levels and potential hazards? Look no further! I have the solution to help you achieve reduced stress and increased safety for your pets during Independence Day celebrations. With my tips and tricks, you can ensure your pets have a comfortable and secure environment while still enjoying the holiday festivities. Say goodbye to pet anxiety and hello to a more peaceful Fourth of July with your beloved pets.
In this episode, you will be able to:
Discover how to protect your pets from potential hazards during 4th of July festivities.
Learn to create a serene sanctuary for your pets amidst the chaos of fireworks.
Master the key precautions to ensure your pet's safety and prevent accidents.
Gain insights on consulting with your veterinarian for anxiety-related solutions.
Acquire tips on managing your pet's well-being during eventful gatherings and feasts.
Minimizing Noise
The 4th of July can be a time of stress for pets due to the loud noises from fireworks and bustling parties. It's essential to create a calming and comfortable environment to help ease their anxiety. Consider setting up a quiet and soothing space away from the commotion where your pet can retreat for the evening. Providing a cool area with white noise or calming melodies can also help drown out the unsettling sounds. In the episode, Dr. Sugerman highlights the importance of closing windows and drawing curtains to minimize the noise and prevent pets from seeing the fireworks. By taking these measures, you can create a more secure and relaxing area for your pet to enjoy and escape the chaos of 4th of July festivities.
Identification
Securing proper identification for your pet can be a lifesaver in case of an escape. A collar with an ID tag and an up-to-date microchip can significantly increase the chances of reuniting with your lost pet promptly. Dr. Sugarman recommends calling local emergency animal hospitals and humane societies to locate lost pets. Ensuring your pet has accurate identification on them allows you to act fast and locate your pet more efficiently in the event they run away during the stressful celebrations.
Minimizing Noise
The 4th of July can be a time of stress for pets due to the loud noises from fireworks and bustling parties. It's essential to create a calming and comfortable environment to help ease their anxiety. Consider setting up a quiet and soothing space away from the commotion where your pet can retreat for the evening. Providing a cool area with white noise or calming melodies can also help drown out the unsettling sounds. In the episode, Dr. Sugerman highlights the importance of closing windows and drawing curtains to minimize the noise and prevent pets from seeing the fireworks. By taking these measures, you can create a more secure and relaxing area for your pet to enjoy and escape the chaos of 4th of July festivities.
What You’ll Learn:
Create a quiet and comfortable space for your pet to minimize the impact of fireworks noise.
Secure your pet well if you're leaving them at home, keeping them in a cool area and closing all doors and windows.
Speak to your veterinarian about anxiety medication for your pet's extreme reaction to noise, and start the medication a few days prior to the 4th of July.
Keep your pet away from parties, barbecues, and bonfires, ensuring they have a comfortable and safe spot away from all the action.
Leave your pet at home if you're attending a fireworks display, and keep them on a leash or harness if you're setting off fireworks.
Ensure your pet has proper identification, including a collar with an ID tag and a microchip, and make sure the information is updated.
Call local ER hospitals and the Humane Society if your pet gets lost, providing them with your pet's description, your phone number, and address.
Ideas Worth Sharing:
"Create a quiet and comforting space for your pet to minimize the impact of noise." - Tyler Sugerman
"Make sure your pet has a comfortable and safe spot away from all of the 4 July action." - Tyler Sugerman
"Remember that fireworks can not only be dangerous to humans, but they can also be dangerous to our pets, too." - Tyler Sugerman
"If your pet has an extreme reaction to noise, talk to your veterinarian." - Tyler Sugerman
"Start anxiety medication a few days before the 4th of July to give it time to take effect." - Tyler Sugerman
Resources Mentioned:
Thunder shirt (This is an affiliate link)
Read The Transcript:
Welcome back to Vetsplanation where we discuss all things veterinary health. I'm your host, Dr. Sugerman, and today's episode is gonna be all about the fourth of July's safety for our pets.
So Independence Day is coming, and it is always a time for celebration, but for our furry friends and also for our wildlife.
The loud fireworks and the parties can be super scary and very stressful for them. Every year, animal shelters and emergency hospitals see a huge surge in lost pets and injured pets during this holiday.
So we're gonna go over some tips that can help keep our pets safe and calm for this 4th of July. First of all , let's talk about the noise. So fireworks, they're overwhelming for pets, especially those who have very sensitive ears and that a lot of them can hear really high frequencies compared to what we can.
So to minimize some of the impact of the noise it's really good to try to create some sort of quiet and comfortable space for your pet. If you're gonna leave them at home, try to make sure they're very well secured. Pets often get out of yards. People think that there's no way they can get out of 'em.
There's no holes, but they find ways, and I've even seen them break out of screens, like screens and windows and screens and doors to get out as well. Make sure you close all the doors, close all the windows. Also keep them in a really cool area to help make sure they don't overheat. I've definitely seen people who have put them into a room.
That dog got too hot cuz there was no air conditioning in there and has overheated. And then to help with some of the noise, you can also turn on some white noise or you can put on like a calming television show or even just calming music on the radio to try to help drown out some of that sound from the fireworks.
And also closing curtains so that they can't see the fireworks as well. Some people even board their pets like in a large indoor boarding facility where they can't see the fireworks and that noise is muffled so that they're less likely to get out and less likely to injure themselves. If your pet has an extreme reaction to noise talk to your veterinarian.
I suggest talking to them now about anxiety medication.
and not on July 3rd. The general practices, they're usually just inundated with requests for sedation, and they often just cannot fill all of them in one day, and then you end up at the ER trying to get medication.
The second reason is because fireworks are likely to go off sooner than the 4th of July, so it's always better to start the sedation a few days prior. And then the third reason is gonna be because you can see also how the sedation affects your pet before you actually need it. I always recommend trying it on a regular night when you know that there's not gonna be any loud noises.
And just think of this as like a practice dose, essentially. You may find that you need to increase the dose to help them to calm down, and if you try it while the fireworks are going, their adrenaline is already rushing. So the medication will not be able to take its full effect and seem like it's not gonna work. Therefore start the medication before the fireworks even start, which in some states, it could even start in the morning. So I always suggest even like a couple days prior to start doing that medication so that way it's already in their system ready to go by the time those fireworks start in the morning.
People often ask about the different medications that you can use. Some of those medications are gonna vary by which medication that hospital actually has. One of the most common ones is gonna be Trazodone. Trazodone works to help sedate them and also just keep them calmer. It's a really good one.
I like that one a lot. That one is used every eight hours, so it'll say on there usually every eight to 12 hours. But when we're in these times of high stress, every eight hours should be what you should be giving it to them as. Just trying to make sure that you give it to them in the morning.
Once in the afternoon before you leave and then once in the evening as well. Cause again, like sometimes in those states, fireworks go off all night long, like especially here in Washington, they go off constantly all night from the morning until, almost midnight or sometimes beyond.
So make sure that you have medication on board beforehand for them. Acepromazine is another big one that people use for sedation. So Acepromazine has good things and bad things. It's not my first choice, but it definitely is still a choice that you can use. Especially said, not everybody's gonna have Trazodone, so Acepromazine it helps again to sedate them.
It does lower their blood pressure, so it's not always as good for certain pets. Pets who have like heart problems , I'm a little more weary about giving it to them. Dexdomitor is another one. The other name for it is called Sileo. It's actually a sedation that we use in the hospital and it's something to, again, just try to help sedate them.
And I've seen it successful in some pets and not successful in other pets. We use it as an injectable on the hospital and that definitely works. But the paste that they give. I've tried it in the hospital and again, like I've tried it in a high stress situation, so I think that maybe it'd be better to try it when they're not stressed out.
Like I said, try a practice dose of it first, and that way you'll know if it is gonna work for them or not. Again, it just helps keep them calm, keeps them sedated so that hopefully they don't overreact to all of those noises. People often ask me about CBD treats for fireworks, and that's one of the most common questions that I get. I think around the 4th of July, I've had some people say that they worked really well for their pets and other people say that they didn't work at all.
I think this is very similar to humans. Some people CBD works for them, some people CBD does not. If you want to go that route, I recommend that you try it again beforehand as a practice dose before the fireworks and if they work, then make sure to get that same one to last for a couple of days around the 4th of July and anytime fireworks are set off really.
But CBD treats are not regulated and they have many different concentrations, so you don't wanna have the practice dose be like a really large dose. And then the other ones be a different brand, which may be a really small dose or just has different concentrations in it. So make sure if you get that one, you get multiple of them of the exact same one.
So that, that will work. Another thing that people often get is called a thunder shirt. It fits really snugly on the pet, so it's kinda like giving them a hug. It's like compressing them and making them feel a little bit more comfortable. Those are a great addition for pets to use. As long as they're in a cool environment, you don't wanna have that on them when they're in a really hot environment cause it's just gonna keep all the heat trapped in and they'll overheat.
So make sure you do it in a cool environment.
Or you could even seek advice from an animal behaviorist. I feel like that's something that usually you should do for the following 4th of July, cuz it does take some time for when you have to do stuff with animal behaviorists.
Next, let's talk about pets and parties. So barbecues, bonfires, loud music, it's all great for us, but for our pets, it's easy for them to get over stimulated and really anxious about it, to make sure your pet has a comfortable and safe spot away from all of that action.
There's also a lot of food that is normally dropped around the ground or given under the table. That's not always so healthy for dogs. Lots of fatty foods, spicy foods, greasy foods, bones all of those are known to cause things like pancreatitis, which we covered in episode 10, which is where the pancreas becomes really inflamed.
Or it can cause a gastroenteritis, which we covered in episode 22, and that's where there's inflammation of the stomach and the intestines. So the easiest way to keep our pets safe and safe from an upset stomach is simply to keep them at home when you're going to go to a gathering or keep them inside.
If you're hosting the party, just try to make sure that you ask your guests to keep them inside. Don't let them outside. July is usually a hot month and dogs overheat really quickly causing heat stroke, which you can hear more about in the last episode that we did, so consider leaving them at home and securing them indoors, not outdoors.
And then the other thing to mention too is gonna be also cleaning up all of those, fireworks and stuff if it's on your property. Trying to make sure that the dogs don't get into it afterwards, even though that they've been blown up or they've been used. Some of 'em still have heavy metal stuff that they can get into.
And also all of those. Containers and wrappers and stuff like dogs. Dogs are super smart, but sometimes they're not so smart. Some dogs will just eat anything, so ideally try to get everything cleaned up so that they can't get into that and they can't eat those objects. Remember that fireworks can not only be dangerous to humans, but they can also be dangerous to our pets too. If you do plan on setting them off, make sure you keep your pets far away from that area. Keep a close eye on them in case they try to run away or get injured. So keep them on a leash or on a harness.
Even better. They're less likely to get outta that harness than they are to slip out of a leash. Lit fireworks have been known to cause serious damage to pets, serious damage to dogs who have picked them up in their mouth, or cats being hit by a rogue firework that just was flailing around.
Even fireworks that have not been lit can still be really dangerous. They can have dangerous chemicals in them, such as like heavy metals, or they can eat parts of that firework causing them to have an obstruction or basically causing a blockage of their stomach or intestines. If you are attending a fireworks display, maybe just leave your pets at home again in a secured area. Finally, let's talk about identification. If your pet does happen to get lost, make sure they have proper identification. So a collar with an ID tag, ideally, one that's not dangling from mine. I have, my dogs have a collar that has like a.
Metal is fixed to it so that way it has their name on it and has the phone number and they can easily be found. It's not gonna just fall off if it gets caught on something. And a microchip is also another great way to ensure that they get returned home. If they get separated. If the collar falls off or it's broken off then you have an I, you still have ID from a microchip in that pit.
But make sure that if your pet does have a microchip, that you make sure that information, your information is updated so that the company can get ahold of you if somebody does find your pet. Collars with ID tags are great because if somebody does find your pet and it's just somebody who's around the neighborhood, they can grab that ID tag and.
Call the phone number, but if this is, like I said, they end up going to a hospital, an ER hospital, or the Humane Society, and they don't have that collar, then. It's easy to find your information so that they can get ahold of you. I've definitely seen pets that have traveled from one jurisdiction of humane society to another jurisdiction of Humane Society, or they were told the wrong information as to where they were picked up, and maybe it goes to a different humane society and you don't know that.
So it's ideal if you can just have some sort of identification so they can have an easier time finding you. If you can't find them , I always recommend trying to call the local ER hospitals, especially at night. A lot of times they end up going to the ER, or some ER hospitals are.
Contracted with the Humane Society to be a place that people can drop them off until the Humane Society can pick them up the next day. So definitely call local ER hospitals, not just one, cuz some ER hospitals don't do that and they're only contracted with certain ERs. So call lots of different local ER hospitals and then also calling the humane society during the day.
Again, call multiple jurisdictions and they'll always get information from you, like what your pet looks like. Your phone number and address so that way they can have, an easier time to find you if they do find them. And there you have it. Those are our top tips for keeping our pets safe and calm.
For this 4th of July, I remember to create a quiet and comforting space for your pet. Secure them away from parties and fireworks, and keep a close eye on them. Make sure that they have proper identification. So thanks for listening to Vetsplanaton. If you have any questions or topics that you'd like us to cover, reach out to us on social media.
I'm usually on Facebook the most at Vetsplanation, so until next time, take care. Keep your pet safe and enjoy your 4th of July.