Tonight is the full moon. Give your monthly preventatives!
Note: If you have another way to remember to give your preventatives, that’s okay too! Do what works for you. I thought it might be fun for us to all give it together.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to stop by and donate to the AMOS HOUSE toy drive!
We are helping to sponsor the 14th Annual Ocean House Marina POLAR PLUNGE! 100% of the proceeds will benefit the Rhode Island Center Assisting Those in Need (RICAN) to help those in need!
The event takes place on January 1st, 2025 at the Charlestown Town Beach at 11:30 am. If you would like to register or pledge a donation you can visit their website. After the plunge, folks are gathering at the Breachway Grill for food, fun and live music!
We have had a lot of no shows lately. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE give us at least 24 hours of notice if you need to cancel or change an appointment. Pets are in need of care and our appointments are booking out. Our time is valuable. Please be courteous to us and your fellow hospital goers and give us notice if you can’t make an appointment!
How can we make a trip to the veterinarian less stressful?
When I opened I took the Fear Free training and became certified.
Some suggestions were as follows:
- Separate entrances for dogs and cats. (We have this)
- Pheromones in the cat and dog rooms that are appropriate to the species. (We have this)
- Bringing animals hungry to the appointment so dogs and cats are more likely to be interested in the treats we offer.
- Having owners bring treats they REALLY like if they aren’t interested in our treats. Our treats are pretty yummy!
- Having a cat carrier that opens from the top and from the end so it’s easier and less stressful to extract the cat.
- Providing premedication to our patients that are too nervous to eat at the hospital or that feel stressed during their visit.
- Gabapentin provides mild sedation and makes pets less anxious. It is available in a liquid and in a capsule and can be prescribed prior to the first appointment.
- Trazodone provides similar sedation and can be layered on top of the gabapentin.
- Both gabapentin and trazodone are given the night before and a few hours prior to the appointment.
- For dogs that are really nervous or aggressive I will sometimes also add acepromazine,which is an oral tranquilizer in tablet form that can be given.
- Premedication makes a huge difference and makes office visits (and nail trims) so much less stressful for the pet and for staff.
- For pets that are still not relaxed with oral premedication, we offer injectable sedatives and anesthetics that can be given in the office.
I use more sedatives now than I did years ago because I find that it makes life less stressful for pets, for me and for owners.
Freedom from fear and distress is considered a basic animal right.
Part of my job is signing health certificates to send pets off to other states and foreign countries. To do this I have to take six hours of classes sponsored by the Animal Health and Plant Inspection Service (APHIS). Usually they are super boring and I struggle to stay awake. But if we think of ourselves as animals (and we are) and we read the excerpt below… It touched me in a way that made me want to care for my own mental health and that of my employees, clients, and pets that I serve.
From The National Veterinary Accreditation Program
Module 22: Animal Welfare, An Introduction
The Five Freedoms form a framework for examining welfare in any system for any animal and describe the ideal to be sought rather than the establishment of standards for acceptable welfare. The goal of the Five Freedoms is to safeguard and improve animal welfare within a philosophical framework that assumes the use of animals for human purposes is acceptable.
The Five Freedoms include the following:
- Freedom from hunger and thirst;
- Freedom from thermal and physical discomfort;
- Freedom from pain, injury, and disease;
- Freedom to express normal behavior; and
- Freedom from fear and distress.
While the third Freedom may initially appear to have the most direct relationship to veterinary medicine, in practice, veterinarians address all of these freedoms because all five elements contribute to a healthy animal. These freedoms are a useful reference when assessing the welfare of animals.
Speaking of stress, how do I know Christmas has finally arrived?
- I am cussing at the gingerbread!
- I know Christmas is here because it happened this morning.
In typical Christmas fashion, my kids gave me their Christmas lists. Carter wanted a Kurt Vonnegut game-board that is no longer available to be purchased and shipped to my home before Christmas (of course), but is available at the Middletown, RI, Barnes and Noble. So, since there were no extractions needed in either of the dentals I performed on Wednesday, I was able to leave a little early. It was the night of the MONSOON. December 11th. My husband agreed to go with me. First stop was Carter’s volleyball coach’s house in North Kingstown to pick up some gear Carter requested for Christmas.
Then we made a Walmart and Home Depot run.
It was raining SO HARD, complete with emergency vehicles and down power lines, that we decided NOT to travel across both bridges to get to the Barnes and Noble and we went home.
I decorated gingerbread with my daughter in preparation for my husband’s office Christmas party on Friday. It is a labor of love. The dough starts on the stove, it is chilled overnight, then rolled, then cut into shapes, and finally decorated with colored icings which then dry overnight before the cookies can be packaged for gifts.
I got up super early the next morning to discover… that I had more gingerbread than bags! Hence the cussing. Solved by rooting around under my bed (while my husband was ‘asleep’) for boxes with bags that require a heat sealer and asking myself, not very nicely, why I just didn’t buy BAGS when I was at Walmart last night!
I hope everyone else is in the middle of their holiday crazy, whatever holiday you celebrate! I also hope in the midst of all of this, that you can remember your monthly preventatives for your dogs and cats.
A link for a favorite Christmas song (probably not for young and tender ears) is below.
Enjoy the Full Moon!
Happy Holidays!