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| Learn about feline heartworm disease. To learn how feline heartworms can affect your cat. |
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| The best way to help your pet live a long, healthy life is with preventative medicine and wellness care. This means having your pet routinely examined, insuring that your pet receives the appropriate vaccinations and providing your pet with preventative medicines such as Heartworm prevention. Dental Health Month! Dentistry is one of the most common aspects of health care practiced in veterinary medicine. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most commonly overlooked. Almost any procedure that can be performed in human dentistry can also be performed in our pets, including but not limited to root canals, orthodontics, crowns, implants and periodontal surgery. Regular examination, both at home and during routine veterinary exams are crucial to determining the overall oral health of our pets. Symptoms of potential dental disease requiring possible treatment include foul smelling breath, red, inflamed, or bleeding gums, tartar accumulation, difficulty eating/chewing and swelling around the mouth. If allowed to progress for too long, dental disease could lead to fractured or chipped teeth, receded gum lines, exposing tooth roots, tooth root abscesses, and lost teeth. Fortunately, there are things that pet owners can do at home to improve the overall dental health of their pets. Brushing your pet's teeth regularly (with pet approved toothpaste) is the best thing that you can do but there are a variety of other dental health products that can also be used. These include dental rinses, feeding your pet a dental diet and allowing your pet to chew on dental health rawhides or treats. However, even with the best at home dental care, it is still recommended that your pet has their teeth cleaned at least every 1-3 years with your regular veterinarian. This is essential to remove the tartar build up that is inevitable and to assess the areas of the teeth that are not visible above the gum lines. As part of our dental health program, we will be offering discounts for dental cleanings during the month of February. This includes 10% off the regular cost of a dental cleaning. Please call us for more details and to schedule an appointment today. Dental cleanings are not available on Saturdays due to limited staff and hours. Canine Parvovirus Canine parvovirus is unfortunately on the rise in San Antonio. But what exactly is canine parvovirus and what can we do to protect our pets? Parvovirus is a disease that targets, almost exclusively, puppies and adolescent dogs. It is spread by elimination in stool of infected dogs and can persist in the environment or on surfaces such as clothes, carpets, and bedding for long periods of time or until those surfaces are disinfected. The virus itself targets the cells of the body that rapidly replace themselves such as the cells of the gastrointestinal tract and the immune system. This is why infected animals portray the symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea (often liquid and bloody), weakness, and loss of appetite. Without proper treatment, the disease is almost always fatal. The animals with the best chance for recovery are those that are treated early and aggressively. Routine vaccination is extremely important in preventing and controlling infections and outbreaks. Puppies are especially susceptible and should be started on vaccinations at a veterinary clinic when they are 6 weeks old. Vaccines are repeated every 3 weeks until the puppy is 15 weeks of age. It is highly recommend that puppies without vaccines not be exposed to dog parks, public parks, pet stores, or even front yards as the virus can be present and persist in the environment for a long time. For more detailed information, please visit the Parvovirus information site at VeterinaryPartner.com General Pet Health Tips: Pet Vaccinations No two pets are exactly alike and no two households are exactly alike. Depending on your pet's age, environment and lifestyle, his or her vaccine requirements may differ from other animals. The best way to insure that your pet is receiving the appropriate vaccinations is to have a Veterinarian review their specific needs annually during their routine annual examination. Annual Examinations The annual visit to the Veterinarian isn't just for "shots". Your pet ages 5 to 10 years for every 1 of our years! Having your pet throughly examined at least once a year may help detect changes in your pet's health before they become serious. When your pet comes to us for their annual visit, we will preform a complete physical examination, discuss your pets behavior at home such as eating and bathroom habits, administer any appropriate vaccinations, test for heartworms and other parasites, and discuss in full any abnormal findings. Dental Care Next to properly vaccinating your pet and diligent use of Heartworm prevention, maintaining a healthy set of teeth and gums is probably the single most important thing you can do to keep your pet healthy! Common disorders such as kidney failure, congestive heart failure and liver disease are all correlated to gingivitis and periodontal disease. A recent study showed that dogs who receive a professional dental cleaning annually may live 2 to 4 years longer than dogs who don't. We will inspect your pet's teeth and gums during each examination and show you any problem areas that require attention. Heartworms Heartworms are deadly parasites that are spread by mosquitoes. Dogs are especially at risk for heartworms due to our warm climate and heavy mosquito burden. We recommend that all dogs be on a monthly heartworm preventative and tested annually. While cats are not considered to be as high a risk as dogs, we know that cats can occasionally become infested with heartworms. Because there is no cure or treatment available for cats who get heartworms we recommend that all cats use a monthly heartworm preventative as well. Please feel free to discuss which heartworm preventative is right for your pet with one of our Veterinarians. Parasites Cats and dogs can carry several types of external and internal parasites that may affect you pet's health. Some of these parasites can affect people as well. To minimize the risk of disease to your family and your pet, we will screen you pet for parasites by examining your pet's skin and performing a fecal study at each annual exam. Wellness profiles and Senior profiles Since our pet's can't always tell us when something is wrong, we will occasionally recommend a "profile" or health screen to detect early signs of disease. Profiles are performed by taking a blood sample from your pet and sending it to a laboratory to be tested. The results of these test help us to better asses your pet's over all health status. As your pet ages, we may periodically recommend a senior profile to evaluate systemic organ function, blood count, vital electrolytes and endocrine function. Performing a senior profile and other diagnostic procedures such as Chest X-rays or urinalysis may lead to early detection of serious health problems, or, provide peace of mind and a baseline of values for a healthy pet.tonio Veterinarian Animal Hospital 78251 78253 78250 78254 78245 78227 78238 78252 |
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| San Antonio Veterinarian Animal Hospital Veterinary Pet care 78251 78250 78253 78254 78245 78227 |