Their toolkit is a hybrid of pharmacotherapy and behavior modification. —fluoxetine, sertraline—are now as common in veterinary pharmacies as antibiotics. But the real innovation is in behavioral husbandry : designing an animal’s life to prevent pathology.
“We used to think we were being efficient by scruffing a cat and getting the IV in fast,” Okonkwo admits. “We were actually priming their bodies for failure. The physiological insult of fear is as real as the scalpel’s incision.” Zooskool Stories
“On paper, he was a liability,” says Vargas. “But when I watched him in the exam room, he wasn’t lunging. He was flinching. He flinched before anyone touched his left hip.” Their toolkit is a hybrid of pharmacotherapy and