Seattle Veterinary Associates has one goal: to make life better for pets and their people.
Part of achieving this goal means taking care of more than just your pet’s physical ailments. Over the last several years we have been at the forefront of the movement to be a “fear-free practice.” By striving to make your pet’s visit fear-free we feel we can make their visit to the clinic more pleasant for everyone, your pet, you, and us, too. This is why our doctors and technicians are becoming fear-free certified!
It has always been important for us to make pet visits as pleasant as possible.
When Sophia Yin, a notable veterinarian and behaviorist, began offering low-stress handling technique classes we were excited to make them a part of our repertoire. In 2010 we began formal training for all staff in low-stress handling techniques, even going so far as to have Sophia come in to do the training personally. Her methods are now a permanent part of Seattle Veterinary Associates’ required training for all employees regardless of how long they’ve worked in veterinary medicine.
In an effort to be more feline-friendly our clinics each became Cat-Friendly Practice Certified by the American Association of Feline Practitioners.
When the American Association of Feline Practitioners began to offer Feline- Friendly Certification, we pounced on the opportunity! Some of their requirements include having waiting areas segregated for cats and dogs, offering training on low-stress handling for cats, and having specifically assigned staff members who act as cat advocates within the clinic. All of these changes have helped us improve the well-being of our feline patients and move toward making their visits fear-free.
Last year we also opened our mobile nursing unit SVA On the Go.
SVA On the Go‘s purpose is to make medical testing and treatments available comfort and safety of your home. Shy cats and dogs often do better in their home environment allowing handling that otherwise would not be possible. It also offers more accurate testing results for tests which can be affected by patient stress levels. This was a major move toward fear-free veterinary care for your pets and we are very proud to offer this service.
Additional Training
In addition, early this year we held an all staff meeting in which we had two veterinary professionals who have also embraced the fear-free ideology come in and train all of our staff on the basics of the system. We began implementing changes within our clinics including adding cat and dog-friendly music, adding lavender oil diffusers to the dog-area in the lobbies, increasing the number and variety of treats for dogs, increasing the use of feline calming pheromones, and more.
Fear-Free Certification
Now that the fear-free certification program has become widely available, we are pursuing this new training with the same passion. By the end of the year most of our doctors and technicians will be fear-free certified. We would love all of our patients to leave our clinics happy or calm. While we know that’s not entirely possible, we sincerely hope our efforts to improve veterinary visits really will make lives better for pets and their people!