Armadale Animal Hospital Monthly Newsletter

New Parasite Prevention Protocol

2011-06-14T10:34:00.000-04:00

Our veterinary hospital is committed to providing each patient with the best possible care and protection from disease. Because of this, we continually review available intestinal parasite and heartworm products and recommend only the treatment that we feel is best suited for your dog.

After recent comparison testing of the major products available, our veterinarians have decided to upgrade our current recommendation for prevention of heartworm disease, intestinal parasites and fleas to SENTINEL^® (milbemycin oxime/lufenuron) Flavor Tabs^®. Our new recommendation for tick prevention has been upgraded to SCALIBOR^® tick collars. Key factors in our decision include:

Broad-spectrum protection - SENTINEL^® Flavor Tabs^® protect against heartworms, roundworms, hookworms, whipworms and fleas in one convenient monthly dose.
Flea prevention - SENTINEL^® Flavor Tabs^® attack fleas before they hatch, relieving your dog from skin irritations and avoiding infestations in your carpet, furniture and bedding.
Easy to give - SENTINEL^® Flavor Tabs^® are beef flavored tablets that involve no messy liquid application.
Tick Safety - SCALIBOR^®collars kill the majority of ticks BEFORE they bite, helping prevent diseases such as lyme and ehrlichiosis.
Cost Effective - 6 months of SENTINEL^®and SCALIBOR^®will cost $13.40 less than 6 months of Front Line^® and Heartgard^® on average (depending on dog size).

The most effective way to reduce the risk of infection to your dog and family is to maintain continuous, year round protection. The transmission of parasites from pets to humans is much more common than you might expect, especially in children. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control estimates between one and three million people contract a disease from an animal each year in the United States.

We are committed to keeping you updated on the best and most affordable protection for your family, so we will also take $5 off any purchase of 6 months of SENTINEL^®with a SCALIBOR^® collar. Please feel free to call us at 847-1972 if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Your Armadale Staff

March 2011 Newsletter

2011-02-28T11:42:00.000-05:00

Have you every wondered why your dog or cat may have bad breath or noticed their teeth aren’t the pearly white color they once had?

Just like how we worry about our oral health, it is also as important to worry about a pet’s oral health. If you could imagine what would happen to a human’s mouth after months or year with out brushing, it is similar what is happening in your pet’s mouth. A pet’s tooth gets bathed with saliva and covered with plaque and bacteria. With no regular disinfection of the mouth and brushing away the plaque, the plague leads to tartar build up. Tartar build allows your pet teeth to be a great place for particular bacteria to live that are harmful to the bone and gum tissues. This process leads to periodontal disease.

Periodontal disease:

85% of pets have periodontal disease by age of 3 years

Periodontal disease is a process where the bone around the tooth is literally eaten away and the gum becomes sensitive and develops gingivitis. Periodontal disease can lead to tooth loss and bone loss in the jaw. The bacteria from the mouth can also spread to other area in the body leading to infection in the heart, kidney or anywhere in the bloodstream. If this disease is addressed in its early stages of gingivitis, it can be treated and the condition reversed. But if the disease is allowed to progress, irreversible peritonitis can occur with bacterial infection. Periodontal disease is one of the most prevalent diseases seen by veterinarians. It is also one of the easiest to prevent.

How to prevent oral disease:

HOME CARE:

The first step to help prevent periodontal disease and maintain healthy oral care for your pet is home care. It is important that you become comfortable with opening your pet’s mouth and looking at their teeth. This is a great habit to start when they are puppies or kittens. Not only is it a great opportunity to look for any defects/abnormalities, but it is also a great way to get your pet use to the action for brushing their teeth. Similar to humans, pets require daily brushing. Studies have shown that pet’s that have their tooth brushed 3 times a week was adequate to maintain healthy teeth and gum, but daily brushing is needed to control. It is important that you use veterinarian approved tooth brush and tooth paste. There are special bristle sized tooth brushes or finger brushes that help remove bacteria, food products, and plaque. Pet tooth paste is specially formulated for pets, so it can be swallowed by the pets. Never use human toothpaste, fluoride can be harmful. At your next visit, we can show you an easy way to brush your pet’s teeth.

Although daily brushing (at least 3 times a week) is the optimum care, there are other additional helpful homecare products available. Products like a water additive can be added to the drinking water for dogs and cats to help reduce the number of bacteria, helping with the bad breath and slowing the formation of dental tartar. It is colorless, odorless, and tasteless for the pets. It is a great and easy way to help with pet’s oral condition daily.

Other great products are the dental treats, C.E.T chews for dogs and enzymatic seafood treats for cats. The chewing on these proper dental treats can reduce plaque up to 69%. The chewing action provides abrasion against the tooth to remove the plaque and tartar. Like any rawhide, it is best to give these treats surprised and after a meal, this is to reduce chocking risk and your pet eating the whole treat at once. Never give this treat while leaving your pet alone. Dental treats are great but in order for them to work properly, your pet needs to chew on the treat and not consume the treat in one bite.

We have other products available that can further benefit your pet’s oral health. Please stop by or call us if you have any further questions or would like to discuss what other dental products we have available.

PROFESSIONAL DENTAL CLEANING:

In addition to home care, dental health does require period of professional cleaning. Home care is never perfect and periodically tartar must be properly removed and the tooth surface properly polished and disinfected. A professional cleaning at the vet’s office is similar to what a person receives at their dentist’s office. This process requires safely anesthetizing your pet so they can have a complete oral exam, removal of dental tartar, and polishing of each tooth. Your pet then goes home that evening with a fresh clean smile.

So, lets try to keep your pet’s healthy smile and prevent painful disease like periodontal. Don’t forge to brush at least three times a week and schedule regular dental cleaning with your veterinarian.

December 2009 Newsletter

2010-01-02T10:03:00.000-05:00

The end of the year approaches and it is an exciting time at Armadale. We have a new website with the goal of providing more information to our clients and creating a tool that will help make pet care easier and more convenient. We are also using this time to provide more information to pet owners about wellness medicine, focusing on yearly lab work and catching disease and parasites early.

What is “wellness” or preventative medicine?

Wellness medicine is simply an active approach to making sure your dog or cat is healthy and all of its body functions are normal. You may not realize this, but just by vaccinating your pet, you are already engaging in part of our wellness program. Yearly vaccines allows your veterinarian to not only protect against the more common infectious diseases, but also allows him or her to thoroughly examine your pet, checking for any skin, ear, eye, oral, joint, nerve, lung, or heart problems. What many people do not know is that yearly blood work is just as important as yearly vaccinations and exams. The blood work is a continuation of the doctor’s exam that shows us how the internal organ systems are functioning, giving the doctor vital information that is impossible to discover on an external exam. Although wellness medicine has been around as long as veterinary medicine has been, advances in technology and knowledge allow us to be more and more active in the fight against pet disease.

Why is wellness medicine important?

Disease in dogs and cats is much more difficult to catch than it is in people, and many times is much faster to have adverse effects. Not only are dogs and cats unable to communicate with us verbally to describe how they are feeling, their survival instincts actually encourage them to hide their symptoms, making it more difficult to catch disease in its early stages. Here are a few examples of the importance of catching diseases in their early stages:

If detected early, 75% of common diseases in dogs and 63% of common diseases in cats can be prevented by dietary modifications alone over a one-year period.

· Kidney disease is one of the major causes of illness and death in dogs and cats, but symptoms do not usually appear until 2/3 kidney function has been lost. If caught early, the animal can live with this condition many years.

· If detected early, 75% of common diseases in dogs and 63% of common diseases in cats can be prevented by dietary modifications alone over a one-year period.

· If a liver problem is detected at early stage of disease and is administered proper treatment, the chance of your pet's recovery is in your favor.