Bad dog may be anxious

If so, it may be suffering from anxiety issues, which is a serious problem for animals and can lead to more detrimental health problems.

Anxiety disorders and phobias are the focus of this year’s Polite Pets Month, which aims to raise awareness of some common pet behaviour problems, prevention and treatment.

Forbes Veterinary Clinic is participating in the month-long promotion throughout March, which is an initiative of the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) to educate pet owners about what’s abnormal behaviour in pets and how their vet can help.

This year’s theme is ‘Mental health is important for pets’.

Forbes vet and practice manager, Dr Saraih Werry said that there are a lot of anxious pets out there and whilst it is normal for dogs, cats and birds to feel anxious as it prepares them to respond to a threat, excessive anxiety is detrimental to your pet’s health and contributes to behaviour problems.

“Instead of enjoying a relationship with a pet it becomes hard and stressful for both the pet and the owner,” she said.

“So we’d love to be able to work with people to improve that.”

Signs of anxiety in dogs include tail between legs, hiding, avoiding eye contact, barking, destructive behaviour, excessive lip licking or panting.

There are a number of situations that can produce anxiety or fear in dogs including visiting the vet, rough handling, changes to daily routine, dietary changes, medical conditions, visitors to the home, poor early socialisation, other dogs or introduction of new dogs, and thunderstorms and loud noise, such as fireworks.

Signs of anxiety in cats include excessive grooming, inappropriate toileting behaviours, aggression when being petted, withdrawal, urine spraying, avoiding eye contact, staying low when moving and excessive meowing.

“Many owners see these signs every day in their animals and accept them as being normal,” Dr Werry said.

“People do not realise that their animal is suffering anxiety at an inappropriate level that is affecting its health.”

During March Forbes Veterinary Clinic wants to encourage discussion between pet owners and vets about pet behaviour and improve the quality of life and health of pets in Forbes.

They are offering behaviour consults at a discounted price to encourage owners to address their pet’s issues.

Consultations during March will be $30 instead of the usual $45.

They are also offering a special on Adaptil and Feliway products used to help reduce anxiety in dogs and cats respectively by providing a nice, safe chill-out zone, which Dr Werry says can often resolve a lot of their problems.

The clinic will soon be getting a line of Kong dog toys and are offering specials on those which dogs can use to take out their frustration and calm them down.

For more information on Polite Pets Month visit www.ava.com.au/polite-pets-month or call Forbes Veterinary Clinic on 6852 1775 for a behaviour consultation.