At West Ridge Animal Health Center, our entire medical and front office staff are certified in fear-free handling. We may use any of the following techniques to keep your pet calm throughout their time at our facility:
- Pheromones
- Specific handling techniques and tools
- “High value” treats
- Sedatives
- Little to no restraint
- Lots of love and affection!
This type of fear-free certified care makes your pet feel as comfortable as possible, and can even help extremely fearful pets to come around to enjoy visiting the veterinarian. When your pet is less stressed, the vet visit will go smoother for everyone. By using fear-free practices, we not only care for your pet’s physical being, we care for their emotional well-being as well.
What exactly does Fear Free mean to us at West Ridge Animal Health Center?
We want to introduce you to Bruno! He is now a 10-month-old, adorable Shepherd mix that has had increasing stress and anxiety with each and every puppy visit to our animal hospital. We used lots of positive reinforcement with treats and love at each visit, but his stress associated with coming to the vet continued to increase. We went through many trial and error visits. This meant using a Thundershirt, Adaptil, and Zylkene, in combination with continued high value treats and affection, to find the right tricks for Bruno’s comfort.
Bruno is a lucky dog because his owners didn’t give up. They made both his physical AND emotional health a priority. We found that an anti-anxiety medication called Trazodone is what worked best to keep Bruno calm and stress-free while in our care. He is much more confident while he’s here and now gladly accepts our love and treats!
We want to help your pet feel stress-free during exams, procedures, and more. WRAHC in Topeka, KS specializes in preventing and lessening your pet’s anxiety, stress, and fear. When your pet is less stressed, so are you! Please contact us if you think your pet would benefit from some Fear Free love!
Learn More About Fear Free Techniques Here & At Home
The Fear Free organization provides online and in-person education to veterinary professionals and the pet professional community. Fear Free Happy Homes provides courses to pet owners interested in reducing fear, anxiety and stress in their pets, as well as providing enrichment and strengthening the human-animal bond.
