Pharmacological treatment of noise phobia including fireworks and thunderstorm fear is underutilised despite strong evidence for effectiveness.
Noise phobia causes acute psychological suffering in nearly half of dogs during fireworks and thunderstorms. Effective medications exist that dramatically reduce this suffering, but uptake is poor because owners underestimate the problem or are unaware of treatment options. Better owner education and proactive veterinary discussion before fireworks season would reduce enormous preventable suffering.