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FAS stands for Fear, Anxiety, and Stress.
It's a way to describe how animals feel when they're scared, nervous, or stressed out.
Just like people, animals can experience fear, anxiety, and stress in different situations.
When animals have FAS, it can affect their behavior and overall well-being.
Why We Talk About FAS
Talking about FAS is important because it helps us understand and improve the lives of animals. When we know what causes fear, anxiety, and stress in animals, we can take steps to prevent these feelings and make them feel more comfortable.
Here are some reasons why addressing FAS matters:
Animal Welfare: Reducing FAS helps animals live happier, healthier lives.
Safety: Animals that have FAS can sometimes behave with defensive aggression, if their warning cues are ignored which can be dangerous for them and for people.
Trust: When animals feel safe and secure, they are more likely to trust the people around them. This improves the human animal bond and can create safe and trusting interactions for years to come.
Health Benefits: Reducing FAS can improve an animal's physical health, as stress can weaken the immune system and lead to other health problems.
Our Fear Free philosophy puts FAS at the forefront of your pet’s care: so that we can build relationships, keep your pets healthy, and build trusting relationships.
Why (and When) Animals Feel FAS
We’ve all heard about (or been in) situations where a pet’s FAS was high - even if we didn’t realize it, at the time. Whether it was having new people over to your home, needing to take your pet to a new clinic, or moving to a new home, if your pet was feeling a bit (or a lot) of FAS, know that it was totally normal!
Animals might feel FAS for many reasons, such as:
New Environments: When animals are in a place they don’t recognize, it can make them feel uneasy.
Loud Noises: Thunderstorms, fireworks, or even loud traffic and voices can scare animals.
Unfamiliar People or Animals: Meeting new people or other animals can be stressful, especially if they don’t feel safe. Unfamiliar clothing and appearances - hats, hoods, beards, etc. can also elicit FAS.
Changes in Routine: Animals like predictability. Changes in their daily routine can cause anxiety.
Signs of FAS in Animals
It's important to recognize when an animal is feeling FAS. Here are some common signs:
Hiding or Trying to Escape: Animals may try to find a safe spot or run away.
Pacing or Restlessness: They might move around a lot and seem unable to settle down.
Howling, Barking, and Increased Vocalizations: When pets vocalize, they are communicating with you.
Excessive Panting or Drooling: This can be a sign of stress, especially in dogs.
Hypervigilance: Such as hard staring at potential threat.
Changes in Eating or Drinking: They might eat or drink more or less than usual.
Aggression or Fearful Behavior: This can include growling, biting, or avoiding people and other animals.
If you’re new to noticing these signs - or realizing that they can indicate FAS - it’s okay!
We all start somewhere: now that you know what to look for, you can start to be more in-tune with what your pet is communicating.
How You Can Help Reduce FAS
There are several ways to help reduce FAS in animals:
Create a Safe Space: Provide a quiet, comfortable place for animals to retreat to when they feel scared or stressed. You can also try pheromone plug-ins, for added comfort.
Do not force interactions: Allow your pet to initiate greetings
Use Gentle Handling and Voices: Always handle animals with care and patience, especially when they're scared or in a new environment. This includes letting them hide and then come to you, when they are feeling a bit more brave. Speak in a soothing, soft voice, to avoid startling them or coming across as aggressive or intimidating. Often, we don't speak at all.
Desensitization: Gradually expose animals to the things that aren’t familiar to them, helping them to get used to these situations over time. This is a great technique for things like a car carrier: leave it open and in a room where your pet can access it. Let her sniff it, walk all around, and even take a nap in it (with the carrier door open, so she can come and go on her own), if she’d like. This helps her get used to the carrier and see it as non-threatening: which will help, when you need to actually use it to go somewhere.
Positive Reinforcement: Reward animals with treats, praise, or toys when they show calm behavior in stressful situations. You can also use treats to create positive associations with things like the car carrier.
These are great ways to support your animals at home - and are some of the techniques we use, in our Fear Free appointments!
FAS and Fear Free Vet Appointments
In Fear Free vet appointments, we continually monitor your pet’s FAS signs and actively look for ways that they are expressing how fearful, anxious, or stressed they are. By watching closely - and adjusting our approach based on their signals - we are able to work with your pet, to keep them comfortable.
Fear-free vet appointments are important because they:
Improve Animal Health: When pets are less stressed, they are more likely to have positive experiences and cooperate during exams, leading to better health outcomes.
Build Trust: Regular, fear-free visits help build trust between your pet, the vet, and you, making future visits easier.
Enhance Well-Being: Reducing fear and stress contributes to your pet’s overall happiness and well-being.
Over time, and with repeated FAS-reducing techniques, your pet begins to learn that we’re not a threat: and that vet visits can be neutral (or even positive!) experiences.
Reducing Appointment FAS
Vet appointments can be stressful for animals, but there are ways to make them more comfortable and less frightening. Here are some tips for reducing vet appointment FAS:
Before the Appointment
Familiarize with the Carrier: If your pet uses a carrier, leave it out at home with some treats or a favorite blanket inside. This helps them associate the carrier with positive experiences.
Practice Car Rides: Take your pet on short, calm car rides to get them used to traveling without always ending up at the vet.
Calm Environment: Try to keep your pet calm before the visit. Avoid loud noises and stressful situations on the way to the vet.
Consider PVPs: If you know your pet has FAS at the vet (or in the car), let us know ahead of time! We can work with you to get your pet pre-visit pharmaceuticals (PVPs), that can help them stay calm during their visit.
At the Vet's Office
Bring Comfort Items: Bring your pet’s favorite toys, blankets, or treats to help them feel more secure.
Use Calming Techniques: Speak to your pet in a soothing voice and try to keep yourself calm, as animals can pick up on your stress. Sometimes, not speaking at all and just gentle handling or petting is used. Use low, soft voices when talking, minimize laughing and yelling to help decrease the excitement in the environment while traveling. Playing soft classical music in the car helps, too.
Choose Quiet Times: Schedule appointments during less busy times to reduce the chances of long waits and loud, busy waiting rooms.
Wait in the Car: If your pet has FAS when they see other animals, call us from the parking lot when you arrive for your appointment: we’ll let you know when to come in, so that we can take your right into your room and bypass the waiting area.
Schedule a Walk-Through: If you have a nervous dog, let us know! We can often schedule a walk-through for you and your pup, with treats, pets, and friendly faces to help them get used to our office in a stress-free way, before you bring them in for their actual appointment.
During the Appointment
Gentle Handling: We’ll handle your pet gently and with care, using techniques that minimize fear and stress.
Distraction and Reward: We use treats, toys, and/or gentle petting to distract and reward your pet during and after the examination.
Take Breaks: If your pet becomes too stressed, we’ll often reassess and/or take a short break to allow your pet to calm down.
Please, do not yell at your pet for growling or force them to sit or interact with unfamiliar people or pets. We welcome warnings (growling) from your pet so that we can accurately assess their level of FAS.
Please understand that we may stop the visit at any point if the pet is panicking and it becomes detrimental to them. We follow a list of NEEDS vs WANTS - attempting to complete the needs first.
After the Appointment
Positive Reinforcement: Reward your pet with treats, praise, or playtime after the appointment to create positive associations with vet visits.
Monitor Stress Levels: Keep an eye on your pet for any signs of lingering stress and provide a calm and comforting environment when you get home.
We know that this all takes time, effort, and collaboration, from all of us. We really appreciate your help. By taking steps to make vet visits less stressful, you can help ensure that your pet stays healthy and happy, and that visiting the vet becomes a positive experience rather than a fearful one. Our goal is to eventually minimize the FAS in pets so much so that, hopefully, after time, PVPs are not required for many of our friends for their exams.
And we think that is 100% worth it.
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