• Resist the urge to take your pet to fireworks displays.
• Never leave your pet in the car. With only hot air to breathe inside a car, your pet can suffer serious health effects--even death--in a few short minutes. Partially opened windows do not provide sufficient air, but they do provide an opportunity for your pet to be stolen.
• Keep your pets indoors at home in a sheltered, quiet area. Leave a television or radio playing at normal volume to keep him company while you're out.
• If you know that your pet is seriously distressed by loud noises like thunder, consult with your veterinarian before July 4th for ways to help alleviate the fear and anxiety he or she will experience during fireworks displays.
• Never leave pets outside unattended, even in a fenced yard or on a chain. In their fear, pets who normally wouldn't leave the yard may escape and become lost, or become entangled in their chain, risking injury or death.
• Make sure your pets are wearing identification tags so that if they do become lost, they can be returned promptly. Animals found running at-large should be taken to the local animal shelter, where they will have the best chance of being reunited with their owners.
Good points Susan! I'd like to add that people should make sure their pets have identification, and it is UP TO DATE! In the clinic we get a number of lost pets brought in on the 5th of July, many with no tags, or tags/microchips that are no longer current.
-Dr. Waterhouse
Good information, Susan and Dr. Waterhouse. Of course prevention is the very best approach, as someone who lost a pet, I'd like to add that shelters are the best way to reunite families with their pets (if the ID info is out of date). In Washington, by law, people must turn a lost animal into the shelter. But there are many good online registries to aid the process. I volunteer for Missing Pet Partnership. Here's the URL to get more helpful information. http://lostapet.org/recoverytips.php