DAP Could Help Keep Your Dog Calm and Relaxed

DAP is a natural pheromone secreted in the milk of nursing mothers to help their puppies feel safe, secure and calm
How to reduce stress and keep a dog quiet and calm are topics I have received many questions from worried owners about. Their lively, boisterous, energetic dogs have had to undergo Immiticide treatment after a positive test for adult heartworms and now having to keep them quiet and confined for their own safety is causing major problems.
As explained in my heartworm aftercare article, it is imperative to keep the dog very calm and quiet after treatment, whilst the Immiticide does its job and the worms get killed, broken up into smaller pieces and expelled from the heart and the arteries where they have lodged. If the pet gets excited, running, jumping or playing , or stressed or distressed enough to raise the heart rate, this could result in the dead bits of worm being expelled too quickly and causing a blockage in the pulmonary artery – which could result in a pulmonary embolism and might even prove fatal.
It is no wonder then, that pet owners are trying to do all they can to keep an otherwise active and lively dog quiet at this time. There is a lot of advice about crating a dog (see our article on this topic). However, whilst this might solve the immediate problem of how to restrict physical activity, it does nothing to address the stress or distress that being confined in this way might cause for your dog.
Reduce Stress Naturally
After powerful medication, it is also not surprising that owners do not want to subject their dogs to further sedatives or other medicines to keep them quiet. However, there are many positive reports in forums and on some other sites about pet owners having good results from using DAP products for their pet at this time.
What is DAP?
DAP is actually an acronym for Dog Appeasing Pheromone. It is a natural substance that nursing bitches secrete in their milk and which works to make little puppies feel safe, secure and comforted during the first few weeks of life. As such, it is a totally natural substance and only works on dogs – so any other animal you might have (including cats), will not be affected.
This pheromone is available in collars, diffusers and sprays made by CEVA under the brand name Adaptil ™. I already knew about the benefits of another pheromone product they make, the Feliway Diffuser for cats which I wrote about on HubPages some time ago, so I wrote to Elizabeth Hodgkins at CEVA, to ask her about the benefits for dogs of using Adaptil products to help calm them and keep them as stress-free as possible after heartworm treatment. She said:
“Adaptil pheromone can be very helpful in providing the confined dog with a sense of well-being that is often not part of a restricted environment, such as a carrier or crate. Adaptil communicates to the dog that the security and safety that was so much a part of the first few weeks of its life with its mother are once again a real part of its circumstances, no matter how stressful and limited those circumstances might be.”
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