There are few concepts more quintessentially American than gathering friends and family for a gluttonous grill-out followed by a gratuitously deafening show of explosions in the sky. While a simulated artillery strike makes for a perfectly sensible human celebration, our pets understandably tend to interpret the ruckus as the end of the world. Indeed, veterinarians are generally consigned to spend the first three days of July fielding desperate requests for sedatives.
If you’re lucky, you live in an area where the sound of fireworks is light and sporadic. But if you live anywhere near a major display, your pet might be overwhelmed by the shock and awe of it. Anxiety stricken animals can demonstrate a variety of reactions ranging from minor cowering to outright panic. And while the stress alone can be unpleasant, some pets respond in ways that are genuinely dangerous.
The first order of business is simply making sure your pets are safe. Dogs and cats should be inside, with all doors and windows closed. Every year, the holiday brings reports of dogs that busted through glass storm doors and cats that tore through screens in terror. Apart from the sorrow of a pet gone missing, these animals are frightened and disoriented, leaving them more vulnerable to environmental dangers like getting hit by cars. And no matter how well you’ve got the place locked down, all animals should be wearing proper identification in case of an escape (which is good advice regardless of what day it is).
Once the hatches are battened, there are still things you can do to soothe frazzled nerves. It’s so important to stay positive. Animals read our mood, and if you look worried it will only reinforce their sense that something is wrong. Distract them with treats and games, play some music to buffer the noise and try to keep things upbeat. But if your pets prefer to seek out a particular safe spot in times of stress, don’t fight them on it. Make it readily available and welcoming, whether it be their bed or the bathtub.
Ideally, it would be nice if animals were less terrified by all of this to begin with. This part is trickier, but some advance planning can be helpful. As with so many anxieties, desensitization can be of great help. It’s easy to find recordings of firework shows online, and you can use them to gradually acclimate your pets to the noise of it all. Play them back quietly the first few times, and then start increasing the volume as their response improves. This may take weeks or months depending on how sensitive your pet is, and it means dealing with some terrible racket in your home for a while, but the end result can be worth it.
It’s impossible to discuss this kind of anxiety without a passing mention of available solutions like “thunder shirts” that hug your pet into security and pheromone diffusers intended to calm their nerves with chemical signals. If these products fit your budget and you want to experiment, there’s no harm in trying. But any evidence of their benefit could be charitably described as questionable, so your mileage may vary.
It’s also worth briefly mentioning medical management, which I try to reserve as a last resort until other options have proven unsuccessful. The most widely prescribed medications are simple sedatives that unfortunately do very little to combat anxiety. They do help depress the response to anxiety, but they don’t address the root problem. Proper anxiety medication (think Valium) is also available, but is a much bigger gun, and I’m reluctant to use it unless a pet is utterly unhinged by the noise.
I wish I could produce a nice magic bullet to make this holiday easier for pets. But as with so many things, the best solutions are proper preparation and training. It’s hard but not hopeless, and if things go well, even your pet will have something to celebrate next time the fireworks come to town.
Dr. Mike Fietz is a small animal veterinarian at Georgetown Veterinary Hospital. He received his veterinary degree from Cornell University in 2003 and has lived in Charlottesville since.