New Year’s Celebrations can cause Stress for your Pets…

As you plan for your New Year’s Celebration, don’t forget to plan for your pets too.

Like the 4th of July, New Year’s can cause high stress for pets if you are close to, or in ear shot of fireworks.

Workers at Banfield Pet Hospital in Santa Cruz say this is a time where they see a rise in pets running away from home or accidentally injuring themselves. Brian Schulze, a Vet Assistant, says when animals are in a lot of stress their “fight or flight” instincts are triggered, “we often see that dogs will get stressed and even sometimes if you think your house is sealed up, they might find a window that is just slightly cracked and tear out the screen and try to run away.”

Schulze says aside from bringing pets inside their are several things you can do to keep your pets calm, “like putting on the television and turning up the volume pretty loudly so that it can cancel out any fire works that they could possible hear. You could also play some nice music or white noise to help drown out any booming from the fire works.”

There are also medications sold at pet stores and hospitals that can help pets that do get stressed.

Just in case a pet does get out, Schulze says it is very important to microchip your animal or make sure it is wearing a collar.