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Hearing
We can describe an animal’s hearing in one simple word – Acute!
Animals hear quiet sounds that humans do not hear and they hear a much wider range of sounds as well. They hear at both higher and lower Hz (sound wavelengths including ultrasound) than humans which means the hearing experience you have in the hospital is much different than what the animal is experiencing.
Think about how annoying the sounds of mechanical equipment, human stress (loud voices) and animal stress (barking and meowing) are to you. Now imagine how that sounds to an already stressed and anxious patient in your practice.
Think about how those same types of sounds likely exist at home and you can understand how the animals we love may react to common noises that we too find annoying, even though we are only hearing them at a fraction of what the animals are hearing them at.
It is important to understand that sounds we find comforting or as just background noise may be very distressing to our patients. While we may enjoy listening to heavy metal in the surgery suite, the pets in the recovery ward or treatment area may be hearing something quite scary.