Prep Pets for Evacuation
Prep Pets for Evacuation
Evacuation counseling, medical health screening & immunization updates to prepare your pet for safe and successful evacuation during disaster.
Whether it’s a winter storm or summer wildfire dangers, the pets that share our homes and spaces are at risk from emergency and disaster - just like the human members of our families.
According to data from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), Colorado ranks among the top ten states in terms of percentage of households that own pets1. An estimated 60% of Colorado households include dogs, cats, birds, and horses.
Moreover, most pet-owning households include more than one animal.2
Any emergency or disaster that affects large numbers of people will affect animals, too. Companion animals depend on their human caregivers for daily needs like food and water, but also transportation and escape from dangerous situations - including evacuation during disaster.
Keeping animals safe, healthy, and well - is the mission of the animal’s family as well as the veterinary and animal-care professionals on their care team. The loss of animal life or injury / emotional trauma to animals during a disaster is traumatic for all the humans that care for animal wellbeing.
Ensuring that your pet is safe during a disaster, and able to navigate the stress of evacuation successfully includes more than only having a go-bag prepped. Be proactive now - review your pet’s physiologic and psychologic health - help them be prepared for disaster.
Stressful events will always impact your animal - we can help them be both physically and mentally resilient despite those stressors.
Prep Pet Clinics
easy, adaptable community outreach events
Prep Pets for Evacuation clinics offer communities a plug-and-play veterinary preparedness module for any outreach or engagement event.
Through our community partners, we can offer these services (select any for your event!)
Evacuation counseling | $75 - 30min case review sessions with a veterinarian to review pet health statuses, discuss risk and evacuation options, provide guidance on immunization or support for stress-reponse systems such as the adrenal glands, GI tract, and ECS.
Our team is prepared to discuss questions on pet physical and emotional resiliency for stress associated with a disaster / evacuation event.
GoBag prep discussions - what supplies should your pet’s go bag have?
GoSlow Appointments for restraint-hesitant or touch-guarded animals. Our 30min appointments focus on strengthening the human-animal bond and building on each animal’s existing repertoire of communication signals.
Evaluation for Enrollment in our Cooperative Care classes for families that want to work on cooperative medical care skills with their animals.
Immunization (vaccination ) - $35 / vaccinations. If appropriate based on veterinarian guidance, risk-appropriate immunizations are available onsite at the Prep Pets clinic events.
Baseline diagnostic laboratory panels. Appropriate medical response to conditions presented by an animal during a stressful event is often determined by knowing the animal’s prior health status. Baseline diagnostics help medical professionals assess and care for animals during and after stressful events, such as an evacuation during a disaster.
$75 | Blood chemistry panel, complete blood count, urine stress panel
$45 | (needle-free!!!) urine panel to evaluate system stress and organ health
Supplement Support - Immune & stress-system support
Depending on your funding sources and the animal businesses interested in participating as sponsors, we can often offer coupons for most of these services.
Additionally, several partner nonprofits offer scholarships and barter options for certain family-unit and pet demographics.
Emergency Planning for Pets
Ground-breaking policies such as Colorado’s H.B. 24-1033—Disaster Preparedness and Sheltering Bill encourage emergency planners at all levels of leadership to consider the care of animals in their planning and response strategies. Some ways in which this policy affects emergency preparedness include:
pet-awareness at all levels of disaster planning
prioritization of pet-friendly sheltering sites
providing family-units (pets and their humans) safe evacuation options during a disaster
Read more about HB 24-1033 here on the ASPCA website: https://secure.aspca.org/action/co-disaster (photo credit3)
What does pet-inclusive evacuation shelters mean for animal safety?
Importantly, there are currently no requirements for vaccination records for an animal to enter an evacuation shelter with their human - evacuation shelters are available for everyone.
The availability of sheltering for the members of the family-units - including non-human animals - is critical to the safety of our communities.
Colorado families can prepare to evacuate with their pet by proactively addressing evacuation safety for your animal.
Keep your pet safe, by preparing them to safely evacuate before disaster occurs.
What is your pet’s physical and emotional health status? How will an evacuation affect their wellbeing? Short term and long term.
What options do you have for evacuation and sheltering in an emergency - which options are best for your pet?
What can you do, before the disaster, to make the evacuation experience less stressful / chronically impactful for your pet?
Communicable diseases are a risk in any situation that results in many different families and individuals mingling together in close proximity. During disasters, evacuees (human and animal) are exposed to mental, emotional, and physical stressors. When stress levels are high, body systems are required to work overtime to keep the body stable.
One of the best ways to prevent injury during a disaster is to be prepared beforehand - this means physical preparedness and practicing evacuation during low-stress times.
We can prepare and increase the tone stress-response systems of an animal’s physical and mental body. Easy preventative / strengthening practices such support to the immune system, support to the adrenal glands, and support to the endocannabinoid systems prepare an animal’s body to navigate a stressful and challenging situation, successfully.
A well balanced body is better able to adapt and grow through challenging experiences without negative long term effects.
Cooperative Care Skills for Medical Exam & Restraint
With a bit of communication practice, going to the clinic doesn’t need to be scary. For interested and eligible families, classes to specifically address cooperative care skills for animals, cooperative handling for medical procedures, and techniques for reduced clinic stress.
Watch Dr. Andre’s cat, Silas, demonstrate his fitness routine.
Easy pet preparedness practices include:
training your animal to calmly enter a carrier
periodically reviewing their immunization (vaccination) status to ensure their immune system’s tone matches your family-unit’s lifestyle and exposure risks.
Interested in booking a Prep Pets for Evacuation clinic, or have a question?
Please reach out by email: reception.desk@cultivatewellbeing.health - we look forward to connecting with you and your community soon.
American Veterinary Medical Association. (2018). AVMA Pet ownership and demographics sourcebook. American Veterinary Medical Association.
Irvine, L., & Andre, C. (2022). Tracking the Effects of the Marshall Fire on Pets and People (Natural Hazards Center Quick Response Research Report Series, Report 347). Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado Boulder. https://hazards.colorado.edu/quick-response-report/tracking-the-effects-of-the-marshall-fire-on-pets-and-people
https://secure.aspca.org/action/co-disaster