Halloween

HAPPY HOLLOWEEN

Dogs may become frightened with costumes that change the way a person walks, stands, or their general appearance may cause a dog to react differently than usual even with those they know.  Children on Halloween night are excited and doing their best to be scary.  Dogs don't understand.  Even the normally terrific tolerant family dog can find this night hard to handle.  Costumes may become interesting too and may be fun for an excited dog to chase.  Some toddlers certainly won't appreciate this.
    HERE ARE SOME QUICK TIPS TO KEEP YOUR PET SAFE ON HALLOWEEN:
    1. Set your dog up with their own private Halloween bash in a safe quiet spot with a yummy treat of their own.  This may     be the safest tip to prevent losing your dog out the front door!  Many dogs are lost Halloween night.
    2. If your dog is fearful of noise, consider adding a fan or radio for white noise.  Something consistent is best.
    3. Be sure the blinds are down or the dog is not watching kids coming and going by the window.  This will only frustrate     him and allow him to practice barking and carrying on at the window.

Chocolate is toxic to dogs.  Put candy in a safe spot.

Sometimes dogs and cats are stolen, poisoned or injured by Halloween pranks.  Keep you dog safe and sound inside your home.

Vaccicheck

Distemper, Adenovirus, Parvovirus (DAP) Titre Testing is Now Available In-House

We use vaccine, similar to people vaccines, to decrease the risk of serious infectious diseases that can cause harm to the population.  It has been proven that by vaccinating we can keep serious diseases like Distemper and Parvovirus under control.  There is still debate on how long the vaccines offer immunity to a pet. The current recommendation for vaccination against these three diseases is to vaccinate a puppy at 8, 12 and 16 weeks of age, repeat at one year of age then every 3 years.  These recommendations have been found to maintain 95% of the dog population with immunity.

Each pet, like humans, is likely to respond to vaccination differently.  Some dogs are not able to produce an adequate immune response to vaccine; others may have protection from two years to seven years with the same vaccine protocol.

We now have the ability in clinic to run titre levels to see if a pet is protected for Distemper, Parvovirus and Adenovirus.  Previously we would have sent blood out to an external laboratory at a significant cost.  Vaccicheck was developed in Israel and has shown to give the same results as the laboratories here in North America.  Vaccicheck allows us to check antibody levels in the hospital and then the decision to vaccinate can be made when results become available, often the same day.

Dogs that should benefit from Vaccicheck include pets that have had previous vaccine reactions, breeders who prefer a minimal vaccine regime, debilitated and elderly pets, and running a titre on puppies after their series of vaccines to confirm that adequate immune levels have been reached.

Vaccination is still an important part of preventive health care; titre testing is another aid in individualizing the vaccine for the pets we see.  Please remember that the in house titre testing is not available for Leptospirosis, Kennel cough and Rabies.

Settling in finally

Settling in has not been easy since we moved on March 11th to our new location, but, events are now turning around and staff members and clients are gaining confidence in the building and surroundings.

In May we had a vehicle drive into the parking lot side of the building, causing Lockwood's to be back building for us.  In June we had paramedics for a heart attack victim, who is than goodness, on the road to a full recovery.  The month of July brought a leaking water tank that immersed the front half of the building in 3 inches of water and destroyed the lab area - welcome back Lockwood's!  We also had the paramedics back visiting and whisking away an unfortunate young lady who had a grand mal seizure.  We are now hoping unfortunate events have ended and Lockwood's can finally complete their work that was scheduled in the spring, so our apologies if you arrive when scaffolding is around the building.

The next big challenge we have been faced with is our clients believing our prices have increased dramatically.  We would like to assure all our present and future clients that in May we increased our office fee by three dollars to become competitive with local clinics.  This increase is the only thing that has changed since moving from Somerville Road.  You may see elevations in the price of food and medications but this is due to our distributors increasing prices to us.

Many of our existing clients may not realize that when we moved we also updated all our equipment in the practice at no cost to you.  We now have a $76,000 digital radiograph machine to allow speedy and clear x rays of your pets, $49,000 worth of blood machines so we can do your pets blood work in hours, $25,000 worth of digital radiograph and dental equipment to keep those pearly whites happy and bright, not to mention the building that accommodates clients and patients every needs.

We have been very fortunate over the years to acquire a great client base and we know that our clients have been treated well by our friendly receptionists, knowledgeable technicians and compassionate veterinarians, we appreciate that every dollar counts in the household and we still strive to help you within your financial budget.