Please help, vet phobic dog.

[Madondogs]

Hi, hope someone can give some good advice .Noah is our 16 month Golden retriever.3 weeks ago he twisted his leg/ hip whilst out walking(he was off the lead ,playing with another dog) we only noticed that he had hurt himself later that night,when we saw that his hock was swollen.
We took him to the vets the next day,the vet thought it was a soft tissue injury,involving his hock and hip,and prescribed anti-inflamatories and lead walks. Noah behaved well at the vets,although he did yelp when the vet examined his hip,he was happy to return to the consulting room after the vet watched him walk outside.

However when we returned a week later for the follow up appointment he was extremely nervous. We had to wait a long time because some emergency had occurred......in retrospect I wish I had taken him outside , but did not realise how long we would be waiting.
When it was our turn he totally refused to enter the consulting room ,the vet was newly qualified and although very nice seemed nervous .I could not carry him into the room as he is too heavy,so she ended up examining him in the waiting room.
She examined him and concluded another week of rest and if no improvement an x-ray would be needed. Noah was very anxious during the examination and growled a little.

Following the week of rest we returned a third time, this time my dh and dd took Noah as I was in work. Once again Noah was fine going into the vet waiting area, they did not have to wait long but when the vet,( this time an experienced, lovely vet who Noah has met several times before) asked him into the consultation room he absolutely would not go and tried to shrug his neck out of the collar. The vet then asked my dh and dd to go outside and she took Noah, this also did not work, she described Noah as 'phobic' and said she did not want to force him into the room as this could make matters worse. She examined him in the waiting room and although he was completely uncooperative he did not growl. The vet said he need de-sensitising to the vets, and said she would be worried about putting under anesthetic required for the x-ray when he his so stressed so would probably require pre medication.

I realise this is a big problem that needs to be dealt with but I just cannot think of how to get him over this fear. ( we did try using treats but he just wasn't interested)

We are trying another week of rest before the x-ray, so any ideas would be very greatly appreciated.

TIA

[fruitshootsandheaves]

The only thing I can think of is to ask your vet if you can just go to the surgery a few times without actually having anyone do anything to your dog apart from praise and fuss him.
Go in and out a few times a week and chat to the people there normally as if it were an everyday occasion.
At the moment your dog is only associating the surgery with pain and more frequent visits with rewards and no painful treatments could make him more tolerant of the visits.
HTH

[sb6699]

Was going to say the same as fruitshoots!

My friends German Shepherd is prescribed sedatives for vet visits but it does make life difficult when you dog is large.

[Lizcat]

As fruitshoots I am a vet and after I castrated (nothing bad happened at all) a rhodesian he developed such a severe phobia to the visit I had to remove his stitches in the car park. We started a desensitisation program he came down at different times a couple of times during the week each week, first we gave him biscuits in the carpark, the we stood in the porch then in the door way then in reception, in the corridor, in the consult room, in the prep room, in the x-ray room, in the kennels. Now he rushes in looking for his biscuit, he is more than happy to examined and treated.
I have to say I bribe nearly every dog that enters my surgery we do everything they hop off the table then they get their biscuit so the last thing they remember of each visit is the biscuit. We have many fewer phobic dogs now than when I started in the surgery 13 years ago.

[Batteryhuman]

What Lizcat said