As part of Canine Behaviour Month, Dr Emma Brown BVSc PGDip MRCVS CCAB explores how preparation, handling techniques, and pre-visit medication can help create more positive veterinary visits for patients, owners, and veterinary teams.

Why can Vet Visits be Difficult?

It’s easy to underestimate just how challenging a routine vet appointment can be from an animal’s perspective. The clinic environment is full of unfamiliar scents, sounds, and surfaces. Travel to the clinic can cause stress particularly for cats, who rarely leave their home territory. Add in potential pain or illness, unfamiliar handling by an unfamiliar person, and an anxious owner, and it’s easy to see why some animals struggle.

It’s a Whole-Team Effort

Every member of the practice has a role to play:

• Reception staff: offer quiet appointment slots, invite owners to wait in the car, and prepare the team when an animal with a behaviour note is booked in.
• Nurses: are often the people clients confide in, making them well placed to advocate for nervous patients and apply low-stress handling during patient care.
• Vets: should record what worked and what didn’t — and act proactively when a pattern of anxiety is spotted, rather than simply adding a warning to the record.

Species Differences

Dogs and cats should be approached differently. Most cats rarely seek social interaction outside of a small group of bonded individuals, seldom have any formal training, and are strongly tied to the safety of their home territory. Dogs, by contrast, are often more used to novel environments, may actively seek social contact, and typically respond to a wider range of cues. Recognising these differences allows us to plan for the patient’s needs.

Setting up to Succeed

The first moments of a consultation should be about allowing the animal time to settle while you gather key information. Does the animal choose to explore? Will they take high-value food? Can they respond to a simple, familiar cue? These are useful indicators of their emotional state.

Allow acclimation time, observe body language carefully and give the animal rest breaks if needed. Simple adjustments such as non-slip matting can make a huge difference.

Cats: complete the exam in the bottom half of the carrier if possible and use towels to allow hiding and some choice. Use minimal restraint and carefully observe the cat’s response.

Dogs: where possible, procedures should be completed in positions the dog finds comfortable rather than defaulting to restraint on the table. Soft Elizabethan collars or rolled up towels can be an effective gentle way of keeping staff safe if an examination is essential.

Low-Stress Handling Principles

Good handling is patient-centred and reassessed at every stage. Wherever possible, animals should be given a degree of choice. It’s worth asking: is this procedure essential right now, or simply desirable? Using the smallest needles, local anaesthetic creams / numbing sprays, and distraction techniques can all reduce the impact of necessary interventions.

And sometimes, the most important decision is knowing when to stop. If an animal is struggling, could they return at a quieter time? Do they need sedation to complete today’s procedure safely? Pushing through when an animal is overwhelmed risks sensitising them further, making future visits harder.

Should Owners Be Present?

Research suggests that having the owner present does not make dogs harder to handle, and may improve their emotional state before examination. A majority of cat owners believe their presence reassures their cat. The key is that owners remain calm, handle their animal appropriately, and give staff space to work — but with those conditions met, there is a good case for keeping the human-animal bond intact during the visit.

What Owners Can Do at Home

Preparation doesn’t start at the practice — it starts at home. Owners can:

• Practise positive associations with handling and people
• Make the carrier a safe, familiar place for cats — not just something that appears before a vet trip
• Muzzle-train dogs as a positive experience, not a last resort
• Bring favoured high-value rewards, a familiar towel or bed, and plan for a calm, unhurried visit
• Consider a calm walk before bringing a dog to the practice
• Work with a behaviourist if their animal has underlying anxiety issues which impact on vet visits.

Cat carrier choice matters too. A carrier that is large enough, opens at the top or mid-section, and smells familiar can really help reduce handling and allow the cat to remain secure in a familiar location.

Pre-Visit Medication: Is it the magic answer?

Use of Pre-visit medication has increased enormously over the past 10 years. Despite this there is relatively little research into efficacy and long term impact. Medication is not a substitute for good preparation and handling but it can be a valuable adjunct helping reduce the emotional impact of the experience, protect welfare, and minimise sensitisation.

We should be tailoring protocols to each patient and working between visits to increase confidence and cooperation.

When choosing a medication, consider what is the underlying motivation for the animals behaviour – fear, anxiety, frustration and then consider:

• Are you looking for anxiolysis, sedation, or a blocking memory effect?
• Time to onset and duration of action?
• Can the owner administer it at home?
• Are there any relevant contraindications or interactions with other medications?

Commonly used options include:

Test doses are strongly recommended, and response should be monitored and recorded so the approach can be refined. It is not one-size-fits-all — and should not be seen as a long-term solution in isolation.

Key Takeaways

• Preparation is the foundation of a successful veterinary visit
• Successful handling is about far more than physical restraint
• Reassess at every stage — and know when to stop
• Owner presence is often beneficial when managed well
• Behavioural issues that exist outside the veterinary context need addressing at source
• Pre-visit medication, chosen carefully, can be a genuinely useful welfare tool

Where to Get Help

For further support and specialist referrals, the following organisations may be helpful:

• Fellowship of Animal Behaviour Clinicians
• RCVS Advanced Practitioners and Specialists
• CCAB Ltd

Want to know more, listen to our FREE CPD with Emma Brown on Positive Vet Visits.

Written by Dr Emma Brown BVSc PGDip MRCVS CCAB, Kernow Veterinary Group – Veterinary Behaviour Referrals, RCVS Advanced Practitioner in Companion Animal Behaviour, Certificated Member of the Fellowship of Animal Behaviour Clinicians, Animal Behaviour and Training Council (ABTC) Registered Veterinary Behaviourist