Pet Calming Aids
Anxiety can be a real problem for pets and there are a variety of pet calming aids on the market that have been designed to help combat it. Whether your pet has storm anxiety, separation anxiety, gets anxious when traveling or suffers from other stress, there is a pet calming aid that might help him or her. Dogs with anxiety can urinate inappropriately, destroy furniture and are overall stressed. This can lead to elevations of the stress hormone cortisol.
You may need to try different products for your pet to find the one that works best for them. There are chews, pheromone products and even wearable devices that can help you get your pet's anxiety in check.
Types of Pet Calming Aids
Chews
Pets that are willing to take a pill or a chewy treat may benefit from a calming chew. There are products such as Under The Weather Calming Soft Chews or Hemp Chews. These products work by having a proprietary combination of additives such as hemp or CBD oil and products such as Valerian. These work internally to help calm your pet and reduce anxiety.
Other oral products that may be recommended by your veterinarian include products such as Zylkene. Derived from milk casein protein, this product is designed to reduce your pet's anxiety during stressful situations.
Wearable Devices
Many pets, dogs in particular, do well with a snug fitting vest or shirt, such as the Thundershirt or Calm Paws Calmz. These work in part by fitting your pet and giving them a swaddled feeling like a newborn baby. It manually stimulates your pet's parasympathetic nervous system to bring them down to a calmer state where they can be more relaxed. Calmz also provides audio stimulation and puts pressure on acupuncture points to help keep your pet calm and relaxed.
Pheromone Products
Another class of pet calming aids are the pheromone products. These include products such as Feliway for cats and Adaptil for dogs. These naturally produced pheromones relax your pet when they inhale them and get a feeling of calmness or a sense of home. There are spray products where you can spray their bedding or plug in a room diffuser, or you can get the product in collar form.
Essential Oils
Some essential oils are safe to use with cats and dogs. Some companies such as Earth Heart have designed essential oil remedies to help your pet's anxiety. These include oils such as lavender and can be found in spray mists, oil diffuser blends and even wipes to help reduce your pet's stress level.
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Acoustic Products
A newer type of product being used as pet calming aids are acoustic products such as the Pet Acoustics Pet Tunes. These items contain frequency modulated music to relax your pet and are clinically proven to reduce anxiety in dogs. In addition, DogTV has been designed to give your pet the right kind of stimulation to help minimize their stress levels, like when they are home alone.
When to Use Pet Calming Aids
Pet calming aids can be very beneficial to your dog or cat. They can take the place of prescription medications which may have harmful side effects. While sometimes these medications must be used, it is nice that there is an alternative that many pets will benefit from.
Pet calming aids should be used anytime you have a pet with an anxiety problem, whether it is separation anxiety or storm anxiety. These items can help calm your pet's nerves and relax them, helping their whole body's health.
When your dog or cat is stressed, their body releases cortisol to respond to stressful events. This body response helps the pet's fight or flight instincts by directing blood flow to muscles. As stress becomes a chronic or recurrent problem it can lead to health issues such as a weakened immune system. This is why treating your dog or cat's anxiety is so important.
When not to Use Pet Calming Aids
When your veterinarian recommends a medical alternative, it is usually time to stop solely relying on natural pet calming aids. Another instance is when your dog is not responding to the treatment and is destroying crates, furniture and potentially even hurting themselves.
If you are concerned about your dog or cat's behavior, you should make an appointment with your veterinarian. They can assess your pet's health to help determine if there might be a health condition that is affecting them, such as a loss of hearing. These types of problems may not be amenable to natural calming aids. Your veterinarian will also go over your pet's history with you and determine if natural pet calming aids may be beneficial to the situation or if pharmacologic therapy with medications such as fluoxetine might be a better option.
In Summary
Pet calming aids are beneficial to many dogs and cats. They help your dog or cat handle stressful situations that might otherwise be traumatizing, such as fireworks going off on the fourth of July. Talk to your veterinarian about options for your pet today.