Enrichment for the surgical patient

Re: Enrichment for the surgical patient

Nick Shackleton — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 12:49:22 GMT

[quote user="Bizzy McClure"]

Stuffed Kongs can last for ages

[/quote]

freeze 'em and they last even longer!

Re: Enrichment for the surgical patient

Honeybadger — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 12:27:22 GMT

Stuffed Kongs can last for ages

Re: Enrichment for the surgical patient

Sal the 1st — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 11:45:11 GMT

[quote user="Maisy"]

One practice I worked at had a large office that was fairly central in the building with people coming and going as well as various desks with people working in there. Often if there was a long term patient we would set up an indoor kennel in the office for them

[/quote]

yes we used to do this quite a bit with long term patients and when we had kittens in for rehoming we had a huge parrot cage which we had adapted to use in the office

Re: Enrichment for the surgical patient

Maisy — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 11:04:49 GMT

[quote user="Phrin Vernon"]

Could you put him in a crate somewhere interesting for a bit? We had a yard which people were always crossing, and I've put inpatients outside in the sun for a while before if appropriate to their condition, and with a shaded area.

[/quote]

This is good and I've found it can work well with long term patients who are getting bored in kennels. One practice I worked at had a large office that was fairly central in the building with people coming and going as well as various desks with people working in there. Often if there was a long term patient we would set up an indoor kennel in the office for them, give them a stuffed kong (if appropriate) and let them stay in there. Likewise with nice weather they could go into the (very safe) garden under supervision in their crate if staff were eating lunch/having breaks outside.

-take out of kennel for grooming/interaction

-feed out of kennel just for something different

-let out to play with Buster cubes/Kongs - these are great for long term patients

Re: Enrichment for the surgical patient

shelly jefferies — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 09:40:34 GMT

personally I would try a few things....

- try a comfy collar (inflatable) or body t-shirt, instead of a buster collar especially if with you for a long time, and will then be able to use kongs or puzzle boards.

- put a large dog cage outside in the sun, can put locks on doors so secure. this way can watch what is going outside.

- zylkene may help to calm in kennel if a problem.

- put in the large kennel possible to feed and scatter feed.

- provide different types of food, veg, meat or dog foods.

Re: Enrichment for the surgical patient

Phrin Vernon RVN — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 23:55:45 GMT

Are you able to give him much time? Would supervised removal of collar so that he can use kong/puzzle toys etc be an option?

Stuff like frozen carrots are a different treat if they like them, and keep them occupied for a bit.

Re: Enrichment for the surgical patient

funkyfish — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 23:42:46 GMT

They can learn to work a kong with a collar on-extra difficult tho ( my JRTx 6mths abdo castrate had 1 on for 14d) .Personally if he was mine I'd put him on double dose Zylkene/prition/valium to keen him in his happy place. scatter feed and a puzzle board like Ninna Otterson toy could help. Look up Susan Garret's Crate games on Utube if he is allowed to move around a bit, would help give him something to do and work for his food.

good luck!