With the holidays just around the corner and the struggling economy on everyone’s mind, we are all pinching our pennies and frugally monitoring where our money is being spent.  This can easily be delineated to what we spend on our pets.  Just like in every aspect of our budget, we want the absolute best of quality and care for the least amount of money.  It may therefore be tempting to price-shop for elective procedures and surgeries, such as ovariohysterectomies and castrations, or spays and neuters, respectively.  However, the quality of care you receive may suffer, depending on where you go.

While shopping for the appropriate facility to care for your pet, there are important issues to keep in mind.  Having a professional relationship in place before any procedure is always recommended.  Would you want a surgeon that you have never met before operating on you?  The most likely time this will occur for your pet is during their visit for their exam and vaccines.  Also, this is a great opportunity to learn about expectations, possible complications, and post-operative care of any procedure, while getting all your questions answered.

One question, for example, is who will be taking care of your pet during their hospital stay?  If you are at a low-cost facility, will there be someone monitoring your pet before, during and after their surgery?  Some facilities do not provide a technician to monitor anesthesia separately…the doctor is required to both be the surgeon and anesthetist, and these are two important separate jobs that should not be multi-tasked.

Next, consider how important your particular pet is to that facility.  While some facilities may sound ideal because they are low-cost, remember that they must have a high volume of animals coming through their doors to keep those costs down, similar to McDonalds’ and their Value Menu.  There cannot be specialty sides offered, such as preanesthetic bloodwork to ensure that your pet is healthy and without a subclinical disease that would make anesthesia dangerous, or anesthetic drugs that are tailored for your particular pet’s needs.  Most lost-cost clinics use the same drug cocktail for all their procedures, no matter the age or physical needs of the animal.  Another caveat to understand is instead of using an autoclave which uses pressurized steam to separately sterilize surgical equipment for each individual pet, some low-cost shelters store their surgical equipment in cold packs (chemical solutions), which is no doubt much cheaper from an operations stand-point, but can be less than ideal when cleaning instruments of blood contamination and microorganisms.

Post-operative care is just as critical.  Because each patient is different, it is important to monitor and manage their pain accordingly, which cannot be offered at a low-cost facility.  That particular clinic may only have one source of injectable pain medication, and little or no choice of oral pain medications for you to take home after the procedure.   And while none of us want it to occur, if there is a post-operative complication, is the surgeon available to care for your pet?  If you were able to create a relationship with a general practitioner before the procedure, then they are likely to answer your phone calls readily and recheck your pet at no additional cost.  If you did it with a spay/neuter clinic, you may be scrambling to find someone to help your pet in a potentially emergent situation, and spend significantly more money than if you had simply paid for a higher quality of care at the front end.

It’s always important to spend your money wisely, but it is just as important to realize that you get what you pay for. For veterinary services, you are paying for quality of care and service, both of which your pet, and you, deserve.

As most dog owners are aware, the veterinary community recommends that our canine companions receive heartworm preventative year round in the southeastern United States.  This is because heartworms are transmitted from dog to dog by the bite of a mosquito and our winters are not consistently cold enough to eliminate the mosquito population for an extended period of time.
 
The life cycle of the heartworm is such that it takes approximately six months from the time of the bite until our test will detect the adult heartworm.  Consequently, the current recommendation is that our canine friends get tested annually.
 
Until recently, if one of our canine friends tested positively for heartworms, veterinarians had a treatment option at our disposal to kill the heartworms.  This medication was called melarsomine (Immiticide) and it was given as multiple intramuscular injections.  Unfortunately, due to some glitches in manufacturing, Merial is completely out of the medication.  What this means for our companion canines is that there is no treatment available for heartworm infections in the foreseeable future unless a veterinary hospital has some Immiticide put back in their inventory supply.

The take home message is that every canine needs to be on a heartworm preventative to ensure that owners do not find themselves in a tough situation.  Previously, canines treated for heartworm infections with Immiticide had to endure approximately three to four months of restricted activity.  The recommendation for untreated heartworm positive canines is twelve to eighteen months of restricted activity. 

Please pickup heartworm preventative for your canine friend today!

Body temperature may be elevated because of an infection (fever), but it may also increase because of hot and/or humid conditions outside. An increased body temperature caused by environmental conditions is commonly referred to as hyperthermia, heatstroke, and heat prostration.

Hyperthermia may be a life-threatening condition, and does require immediate treatment. A dog’s normal body temperature is 101.5°F plus or minus 1 degree Fahrenheit, and any time the body temperature is higher than 105°F, a true emergency exists. Heatstroke generally occurs in hot summer weather when dogs are left with inadequate ventilation in hot vehicles. However, heatstroke may also occur in other conditions, including:

When an animal is left outdoors in hot/humid conditions without adequate shade.

When exercised in hot/humid weather.

When left in a car on a relatively cool (70°F) day; a study from Stanford University Medical Center found the temperature within a vehicle may increase by an average of 40 degrees Fahrenheit within one hour regardless of outside temperature.

Other predisposing factors may be obesity and/or diseases affecting a pet’s airway. Keep in mind that prolonged seizures, eclampsia (milk fever), poisonings, and many other conditions may cause hyperthermia. Also, brachycephalic (short-nosed) breeds (Pekingese, Pug, Lhasa apso, Boston terrier, etc.) may suffer from ineffectual panter syndrome that results in an increased body temperature that may be fatal.

Initially the pet appears distressed, and will pant excessively and become restless. As the hyperthermia progresses, the pet may drool large amounts of saliva from the nose and/or mouth. The pet may become unsteady on his feet. You may notice the gums turning blue/purple or bright red in color, which is due to inadequate oxygen.

What to Do

·         Remove your pet from the environment where the hyperthermia occurred.

·         Move your pet to shaded and cool environment, and direct a fan on her.

·         If possible, determine rectal temperature and record it.

·         Begin to cool the body by placing cool, wet towels over the back of the neck, in the armpits, and in the groin region. You may also wet the ear flaps and paws with cool water. Directing a fan on these wetted areas will help to speed evaporative cooling. Transport to the closest veterinary facility immediately.

What NOT to Do

·         Do not use cold water or ice for cooling.

·         Do not overcool the pet.

·         Most pets with hyperthermia have body temperatures greater than 105°F, and a reasonable goal of cooling is to reduce your pet’s body temperature to 102.5-103°F while transporting her to the closest veterinary facility.

·         Do not attempt to force water into your pet’s mouth, but you may have fresh cool water ready to offer should your pet be alert and show an interest in drinking.

·         Do not leave your pet unattended for any length of time.

Rapidly cooling the pet is extremely important. While ice or cold water may seem logical, its use is not advised. Cooling the innermost structures of the body will actually be delayed, as ice or cold water will cause superficial blood vessels to shrink, effectively forming an insulating layer of tissue to hold the heat inside. Tap water is more suitable for effective cooling.

Severe hyperthermia is a disease that affects nearly every system in the body. Simply lowering the body temperature fails to address the potentially catastrophic events that often accompany this disorder. A pet suffering from hyperthermia should be seen by a veterinarian as soon as possible.

Authored by: The VIN emergency medicine folder staff

Since my husband and I are expecting this month, we are interested taking some extra steps in preparing our "fur" children for the arrival of our new baby.   Here are some quick tips from the Humane Society of the United States for introducing your newborn to the family pet.

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