Hi everyone,
So here in the UK we may have just survived the famous Bonfire night and many of us were hoping that it would have been the end of fireworks and more upsetting our pets…
Sadly no! Bonfire night was just the start of the fireworks season here in the UK. Over the last 2 weeks, we’ve had random fireworks almost every night…
While Oliver & Nubia are very relaxed with them sadly Freya and Renegade get panicked a lot by them…
So what can we do to reduce the stress caused to our pets by this?
The most important thing is to ensure that they have a relaxed and safe environment!
If your cats are indoor only give them plenty of hiding spaces and comfy beds in which they can snuggle up in.
If your cats do go outdoors we would actually recommend that you try and limit their time outside during this season. While fireworks can still be fairly loud indoors it’s a totally different matter outside! The loud bangs and flashing lights can often even startle us, humans, it’s far worse for our feline friends. Too often have we heard of cats that got scared so much that even a normally streetwise cat ends up running in front of a car… :'(
But fireworks are not the only thing that can frighten and cause stress to our pets at this time of the year. You know how much we love to have friends and family over for Christmas and New Years celebrations? Sometimes, people, we haven’t seen in a very long time? This sadly too can upset some of our furry family members. While luckily not all pets get frightened by having new people or more activity in the house it can be for others.
One example that comes to my mind is the large fluffy Maine Coone of one of our relatives. He is one of the biggest cats I’ve ever seen in my life but he gets absolutely terrified by seeing new people! In fact, he still gets somewhat frightened when he sees us and we’ve been around plenty of times…
Similar to the tips around fireworks it’s worth providing your pets extra comfy hiding spaces when you know that you are going to have people over that might seem strange to them or if you are simply planning a bigger party but sometimes that’s just not enough for an especially frightened pet.
This is where we’d like to remind you of the option of using calming supplements that can aid to relax and calm your pet. One of the products we’d recommend for this is Zylkene capsules. These capsules can be sprinkled on food or mixed into a liquid treat. There are no negative side effects and especially important for cats they are completely lactose-free.
The tablets can either be put on top of wet food or be mixed into a liquid treat. Knowing our terrible foursome we opted for the liquid treat as the sprinkle on version promised to completely dissolve in this type of food.
After sprinkling it on it did look a bit like icing sugar… but a quick stir with a teaspoon and look it was all mixed in! But the most important question of course is… what did the kids think of it?
Rennie: What have you got there for us human?!?
Rennie: *Sniffs* It’s a treat!!!
Freya: What!!! Let me have some too!
Freya: It’s all gone now…
Renegade: Give us more!!!
So as you can see the cats didn’t notice at all that I hid a bit of calming supplement to their treat. 😉
While Zylkene work quite quickly it is recommended to start giving them daily a few weeks before the actual event for maximum effectiveness. To find your nearest stockist check out their stockist page.
Online it’s also available via places such as Animed Direct which is great if you need to order some other bits and bobs as well!
So what do you do when your pets get stressed? Let us know your top tips in the comments.
Thanks,
Marc
We are glad Zylkéne helps Freya and Renegade get through all those stressful fireworks and visitors. How great that they don’t even realize you mixed it in that food.
We humans are so well trained. 😉 I wish I could find something to calm Crystal — something she can tolerate. She’s on prescription hypo-allergenic food (and has to take meds to make her hungry enough to eat it), but still gets Inflammatory Bowel Disease flareups from stress.
Hugs.
Oh no!!! :/ ours devoured the treats. ?
Rosie, who is scared of the laundry basket, my dressing gown, and any sudden movements, actually sits and watches the fireworks. Typical contrary tortie. Frodo and Sammie aren’t keen at all though. The fireworks started around the beginning of October here, and are only just tapering off. They’ll pick up again soon and I hate seeing them scared.
We’ve got a Feliway plugged in but I didn’t think of dosing them with Zylkene. I’ll give that a go.
It’s a very good thing to have and if that alone doesn’t work… you could use zylkene, feliway and petremedy at the same time as they all target different aspects there is no risk of overdosing. 🙂
Because our cats are indoor only cats and while they don’t try to get out when it is just our husband and I, we are a bit afraid that when we have a party they might get scared and dart out. Especially if a guest is not accustom to having to pay attention to keeping the door closed and watching for animals. So we usually lock them in a room for the duration of the party. They would probably hide in there anyway so we just keep the door shut and that keeps them safe. Then we visit them throughout the evening to check on them. It just is better for all of us, I think. I am glad that we don’t have that lengthy of a firework season. YIKES!
The fireworks season here is far too long…
share the love not the stress with your pets this holiday season https://t.co/Z1xctZtyAH
Thank you 🙂
I put calming cat music on for Spike it really helps. x?????
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