Fear Free certified animal hospitals help relieve stress from going to the vet

Do you feel stress or anxiety when going to the hospital? Well your pets may feel the same way. Mountain View Animal Hospital and Canyon Lake Veterinary are certified Fear Free animal hospitals, what is fear free you ask?

"The Fair Free program gives us additional tools that we can instill in our practice and our daily visits with pets to help them feel more at ease and comfortable while they're here," said Tami Bremer, practice manager at Mountain View Animal Hospital and Canyon Lake Veterinary Hospital.

"What we are trying to do is make this as much fun as we can make it so that it something that's not as scary experience for them,” said Dr. Erin Brown, veterinarian at Mountain View Animal Hospital, “…taking our time and trying to really read and interact with the animals."

And one technique has a profound effect on dogs.

"We designed this picture frame so it can be cleaned between patients and we apply some kind of either a squeeze cheese or Kong treats to it and then the pets can lick at it and we can do our physical exams and sometimes even administer treatment and the pets don't even realize that we are doing it,” said Bremer.

Another technique to reduce anxiety is used even before your animal leaves the house.

"We could send home pheromones for cats and dogs,” said Bremer,” that can be put in their kennels it's an appeasing pheromone makes them feel at ease, so the ride here is less anxious so when they get here they're not as worked up and it kind it just feeds through the whole visit."

The Fear Free Program creates a stress free environment that's best for owners and their pets.

"Well one of the ways we like to view it is we like to view it as coming to the vet as coming to grandma's house I want to make it fun we want to make it interesting we want to make it exciting we don't want it to be scary because if it's scary I was are getting the best out of the visit,” said Brown.

"They are more At ease, sometimes they come back in the room get more treats and more love from us and they are definitely going to be more anxious to come in and see us and more excited as they know that this is the place that they get treats and they get loud, said Bremer."

Mountain View Animal Hospital and Canyon Lake Veterinary Hospital are the only Fear Free certified animal hospitals in West River.