During the month of February, we will be offering a fifteen percent discount on all services related to the maintenance and preservation of the dental health of your family pet! The AVMA has declared February dental health month so we are offering this discount to help families provide the support that your best friends need. Dental care is an often overlooked aspect of general health care and yet if neglected can lead to a variety of medical maladies and the dreaded “dog/cat breath”. A thorough dental cleaning followed by regular care afterwards can often help keep our pets healthier and happier. Just as in people, it is important to follow up a dental procedure with maintenance programs to maintain healthy teeth and gums. We will be happy to discuss further any details of our procedures and aftercare!

Visit the sites below for further information!

http://www.avma.org/animal_health/npdhm/default.asp

http://www.kvoa.com/news/pet-vet-february-is-pet-dental-month

http://amcny.wordpress.com/tag/veterinary-dental-month

I find myself in a position reminiscent of five years ago when I lost my good friend and companion Blade. Last week our family had to make the decision to let go of our longtime family member Madeline. She is and will continue to be shown on this website since this was her home for the first six or seven years that we had her and since I found her as a stray on 301. I remember having seen her wander around near the office for a week or so prior to my being able to catch her. She was very elusive and would run away barking if approached. I finally was able to get ahold of her when I was out on an errand and saw her lying in front of a business near the office where she lay quietly licking her paws. I pulled up to her and tossed out a small bit of canned food which she ate. I was then able to slip a leash over her head and pull her into the truck. From there, she became firmly entrenched in our office despite her unpredictable behavior which at times was aggressive. We tried initially to place her with a local family but soon realized her aggressive streak was too deeply entrenched and so she came back to live with us permanently. She spent her first several years here at the office with an occasional trip home for the weekend. When we lost Blade in November of 2006, she came home with me for good. Her favorite activity had to have been knocking over and looting trash cans, and barking excessively when people came over. Over the past several months, her health began to deteriorate, but with the help of my outstanding staff, Dr’s Lynn Harpold and Ed Fallin at the Veterinary Referral and Critical Care, we were able to keep her comfortable and I think happy as she could be until last Wednesday when we knew it was time to make that awful choice. Our family was with her and now she rests in our back yard near her friends. I miss the sound of her toenails clicking on our bedroom floor and the way her silly ears would stand out. It seems that I and all Veterinarians should somehow have a get out of jail free card regarding our pets. We spend part of our careers helping our clients deal with the loss of their pets and making difficult decisions so it seems like we should somehow catch a break when our own animals become ill. Unfortunately I don’t think that will happen anytime soon. Being on the other side of the exam table is uncomfortable and strange, but if it helps me to better understand what people go through when they agonize over such decisions, then I will try to focus on that as the only good to come out of our loss. Maddie was a good girl if you knew her and if she knew you, but like all of us, she had her moments. She is deeply missed.

I’ve said partly in jest for many years that if I were an older cat and if I had to pick a disease to be afflicted with, I would choose hyperthyroidism. The exact cause of this condition remains unknown, but its primary feature is a benign enlargement of the paired thyroid glands which lie at the midpoint of the underside of the neck of all cats.
The enlarged glands produce excessive levels of thyroid hormone which is simply thought of as the bodies thermostat. High levels can cause a constellation of signs such as excessive vocalization, weight loss despite a ravenous appetite, increased frequency of vomiting, heart murmurs and secondary heart disease, and changes in liver enzymes which are often noted on biochemical tests. Without treatment, cats will often gradually deteriorate and may suffer several different serious consequences such as acute blindness and liver or heart disease. Treatment options for years were well established. Daily administration of a medication called methimazole would often suffice to control the hormone levels. Surgical removal of one or both affected glands would also be considered an option, and finally, intravenous injections of radioactive iodine was considered the gold standard of treatment. Recently Hills has introduced another option to consider. Prescription diet Y/D was introduced recently as an additional means to control this very common disease. Tightly controlled levels of iodine in Y/D allow cats with hyperthyroidism to eventually maintain normal levels of thyroid hormone and live without the need for daily pilling, surgery or costly radiation therapy. Anyone who has tried to administer oral medication to an angry cat can attest to the potential benefit of such a diet. Follow the link below to learn more about this innovative new diet!

http://www.multivu.com/mnr/51765-hills-pet-nutrition-launches-new-pet-food-for-hyperthyroid-cats

At the risk of patting ourselves on the back, just a quick mention about the fact that Dr. Tyson and I were recently selected among the Top Vets in central Virginia by Virginia Living Magazine. We are pleased with this recent recognition and will continue to strive to provide our clients with the best medical care and advice that we can offer!
http://www.virginialiving.com/downloads/5197/download/_TopVetsOCT11_web.pdf

We had a client recently bring us in what they thought was a “stray” cat. He had been hanging around for a while and needed help so they brought him in. Our standard protocol with any stray be it a dog or a cat, is to scan them with our microchip reader. As luck would have it, this guy happened to have a microchip! Un fortunately, the owner was no longer available at their old number and so we have been unable to locate them and reunite them with this very nice cat! Please make sure that if you go to the trouble of microchipping your pet to be sure and register them and to update that information if you relocate. If anyone should happen to recognize this guy, please get in touch with us here at HAH so we may send him back to his family!

While sitting in the office the other day, Dr. Tyson mentioned to me the story of an owner who brought their older dog in for some minor issue and how he (Dr. Tyson) was impressed with the apparent well being of this elderly patient. Further questioning of the owner revealed signs of a non specific nature which may have indicated some subclinical problem and so preliminary workups were recommended. The owner responded with an all too familiar response of ”well,….. she is an old dog”. At the risk of being somewhat sarcastic, both Dr. Tyson and myself are well aware of the age of our patients and the frequent maladies and afflictions which plague our older pet population. After all, we both studied “oldness” in our pets. My point is that unfortunately too often owners place an emphasis on the costs associated with lab evaluations of geriatric pets and perhaps fail to see the potential benefits to be derived from such diagnostics. It is absolutely true that many older pets have conditions which cannot be cured or easily and cheaply treated, but there are just as many if not more conditions which can be identified and addressed with symptomatic and palliative measures. My main emphasis when I walk into any appointment is to try and provide the best medical advice to my clients and let them tell me what their preference is when discussing patient care. I know Dr. Tyson would echo this sentiment. It is our job to provide this advice without regard to our patients age, and we will therefore continue to recommend what we consider to be the best option when our advice is sought on pet care. The well being of our patients and by extension their owners/ families is our highest priority and so again we will continue to offer what is in our opinion the best medical advice we can offer when it comes to geriatric care. I can’t speak for Dr. Tyson, but I know I sleep better at night knowing I recommended what was best for my patients.

We recently had the opportunity to help a young lady who has a hamster named “Penelope”. It seems that Penelope had developed a tumor on her lower abdomen which was growing steadily larger and needed to be removed. After discussing the options and risks of anesthesia in such a tiny patient, it was decided to proceed. I am glad to report that as of this writing, Penelope is doing well and will have her sutures out within a couple of days. She now has the honor of being our tiniest surgical patient to date!

We are very excited here at HAH to be acquiring a therapeutic laser for treatment of a wide variety of ailments. In traditional medicine we use many different drugs in our patients to achieve the desired effect whether that effect is combating bacterial infections or dealing with the debilitating effects of osteoarthritis. The new laser will help us to expand our ability to treat many different diseases and conditions.  Since many of the conditions we see affect elderly patients and since many of these pets have other concurrent issues with liver or kidney function, and therefore may not be able to tolerate some medications, the laser will give us additional methods with which to treat these patients.The general principle is the transfer of energy to deep tissues such as cartilage, tendons, muscle and blood vessels to improve circulation, aid in the removal of metabolic wastes and toxins and therefore improve healing of injured or diseased tissues. We expect to begin treatments in mid to late February and look forward to hearing from you with your opinions on it’s performance! Look for more information on our newest treatment method in the next several weeks!

Part of our daily activity invariably involves checking out various lumps and bumps on our patients. By far they appear to be more common on dogs than cats, but both species can be afflicted with a wide range of skin tumors and lumps. It is important to note that tumor does not always equal cancer! This appears  to be the primary concern or fear that owners have when presenting their pets to us for evaluation. It is often difficult to look at a tumor or lump and determine its true tissue type. There are papillomas, lipomas, mast cell tumors, epidermal inclusion cysts, sebaceous adenomas, and the list goes on from there. The diagnostics used to determine the type of mass and therefore the “best” treatment option is variable and to some extent dependent on the nature of the mass. We will often start with aspirates of tumors to try and obtain a representative sample of cells which guides us as to whether or not further treatment is necessary. They can often be done without any anesthesia and are minimally painful. Aspirates may yield a definitive answer as to what type of tumor we are dealing with, however there are some instances in which cytological samples may not reveal the true nature of the lump. In these cases, we may recommend a biopsy of the mass to then decide what type of tumor we are dealing with. If the tumor is fairly small and not near the face or head, we may be able to obtain our sample with a sedative and local anesthetic. Many however will require the use of a general anesthetic to get samples of tissues. Many owners will ask why the mass can’t simply be removed and this is an excellent question. It isn’t that a tumor “can’t” be removed entirely in one procedure, many times economic factors dictate that we do! It is more that by obtaining a representative sample of tissue, whether by aspirate or biopsy, we can better understand the type of tumor we are dealing with and so plan our surgery more effectively in order to minimize the likelihood of recurrence or plan for follow up care and or treatment if the mass should end up being cancerous or malignant. Finally, it is worth noting that it is better to proceed with biopsy/aspirate or tumor removal while a mass is small and relatively easily dealt with than to let it grow uncontrolled for longer periods of time. There is no magic cutoff or criteria by which we can decide when to proceed, but as a general rule it is better to deal with a small tumor than a large one! The attached pictures are of Cocoa, a Corgi with a little problem on the side of his face! Fortunately, despite its size, we were able to remove this growth without major complications or problems. His surgery incidentally was performed after an aspirate showed no significant indications of cancer.

Andrea Sweder is familiar to anyone who has been in our office in the last several months. She is an important part of our team and is likely to greet you with a big smile when you come in with your pets. Andrea joined Hanover Animal Hospital in February 2010 and has been a wonderful addition to our staff. When not answering phones, filling prescriptions, helping with patient care, or keeping the office decorated for the appropriate season, Andrea spends time barrel racing, fishing, and in the company of her fiance. Pictured with her here are two of her babies, Buckwheat and Darla. Please make her feel welcome and enjoy the great service that she provides.

Andrea, Buckwheat and Darla