How to reduce stress in the veterinary waiting room

The veterinary environment can be stressful for patients and owners alike. The waiting room is the first exposure patients get to the veterinary environment, and can dictate their response to the environment thereafter. This article explores why it is important for both owners and staff to be able to recognise this stress response (SR) and why reducing anxiety within the waiting room is beneficial for all concerned. The article identifies methods that can be used and measures that can be taken to reduce a patient's SR within the waiting room, and therefore their emotional anxiety levels.

In the first instance, it is important to be able to recognise when a patient is experiencing a SR. There are certain behavioural signs that communicate that the patient is experiencing this SR. This article focuses on canine and feline signals, as these are predominantly the species that are seen within veterinary practice.

Beerda et al (1997, 1999, 2000) carried out a number of studies that looked at how dogs reacted to a perceived aversive stimuli. These studies correlated behaviours with physiological responses to a stressor such as raised cortisol levels and raised heart rate. These behaviours are indicators that a dog is not comfortable with a situation, or finds a situation potentially threatening. A list of these behaviours, along with other behaviours that may indicate a dog is struggling within a situation can be found in Table 1.