Corner Animal Hospital : Online Pet Pharmacy and Veterinary Service

Choosing the right veterinary hospital for you and your pet is almost as important as actually choosing your pet! It’s a good idea to choose the hospital before you choose your new pet. That way if you have a sudden emergency, you will not have the added stress of picking a veterinary hospital on the spot. Start your search by asking family and friends for recommendations. Doing this helps you begin to narrow down the hospitals. Once you have done that, visit the hospitals that are on your list.

Here are some things to keep in mind during your visits to potential veterinary hospitals :

• Office hours : Be sure to notice if there are regular office hours and make sure that the hours work with your schedule. Also make sure you find out who covers the hospital when the veterinarian is not available.

• Professional staff : The attitude of the staff is very important when choosing a hospital. Take notice of how routine phone calls are handled. Find out if you can request appointments with specific veterinarians and most importantly, make sure that you feel comfortable talking to the entire staff.

• Services : Some hospitals offer services that others do not. Find out what kinds of services are offered at the hospital you’re visiting.

• Emergency care : Not all veterinary hospitals handle emergencies, especially after hours. If the hospital doesn’t handle during or after hour emergencies, find out if they have an affiliate hospital where they send their patients to in the case of an emergency.

• Fees and payment : Find out what types of payment the hospital accepts. Also, are payments required on the day of a visit, or can you use a payment plan?

• Professional affiliations : Find out if the veterinarians are part of any national veterinary associations.

• Facility : Take a tour of the hospital and make sure that it looks clean and orderly. Also, check for any foul odors.

Once you have made sure that the hospital facilities meet your standards and expectations, you want to make sure that you are comfortable with the veterinarian as well. You should be able to comfortably communicate with your pet’s doctor. Make sure that you feel that you can ask questions and that the answers are clearly explained. Your relationship with your veterinarian is essential to your pet’s health. Your pet cannot tell the doctor when something is not right, so you need to be able to.

Choosing the right veterinary hospital is an important step in choosing a new pet. Be sure to carefully choose your hospital. Be sure that your pet is going to be as important to the veterinarian as it is to you! 

Is it time to bring your pet to the veterinarian for a checkup? Are you unsure of what to expect? It’s actually very important to understand what your veterinarian does to your pet during its annual exam. This helps you recognize when your pet is healthy and also if something is wrong. Here are the normal procedures that a veterinarian goes through on an annual physical exam:

Temperature
Taking the temperature of your pet is one the most important parts of the physical exam. A dog or cat’s average temperature is somewhere between 101 and 102.5 degrees. Even if an animal seems healthy, a veterinarian can often tell that something is not right if the animal has a high temperature.

Skin and Coat
A healthy pet should have a shiny coat and clean skin. A brittle, dry coat or flaky skin is an indication that something is wrong. If the skin and coat are not healthy, the veterinarian will likely suggest that you switch your pet from a grain-based diet to a meat-based diet. Within a few weeks, your pet’s skin and coat should be much healthier.

Ears
Normal ears should have smooth skin and should be without any wounds. The ears should be clean, dry and almost odor free. If your pet has an allergy or ear infection, you should be able to see it. However, infections usually start deep in the ear canal. The veterinarian will check for any infections that are in the early stages in order to eliminate them before they become a problem. Your veterinarian can prescribe any necessary medications and can show you the correct way to clean your pet’s ears.

Eyes
The veterinarian will examine the interior of your pet’s eye structures. Usually, pets do not have serious eye problems. The most common eye irritations among pets stem from contact with pollen, dust, or grass.

Paws and Toenails
Paw injuries usually heal on their own relatively quickly, but if your pet has really long toenails, they should be clipped shorter.

Mouth
Often pets with an infection in their mouth do not display any symptoms. However, many infections can be found in animals’ mouths including infected gums, objects stuck in between teeth, and even tumors.

Abdomen
A seemingly healthy pet can also have problems with its abdomen. A veterinarian can discover that your pet could have bladder stones, a tumor, only one working kidney, or is pregnant. By feeling the outside of your pet’s abdomen, the veterinarian can tell what’s going on in the inside. Often what’s on the inside is just as important, if not more important, than what’s on the outside.

Heart
During any physical exam, it is important that your veterinarian listens to your pet’s heart and lungs. By doing this, they can detect any heart valve or heart rhythm problems. If any heart problems are detected, further testing is usually recommended.

Bringing your pet in for a physical exam is an extremely important part of your pet’s health. Many times, a seemingly normal pet is actually unhealthy. Only a veterinarian would be able to detect such problems. Understanding the physical exam will help you understand your pet’s health and this will help your pet live a long and healthy life.

Heartworms are parasites that attack an animal’s heart and cause congenital heart problems if not detected. They are transmitted from animal to animal, after one is bit by an infected mosquito. Heartworms normally live in the right ventricle of the heart and in the nearby blood vessels.

Adult male and female worms that are living in your pet’s heart produce millions of baby parasites that circulate through your pet’s body. When a mosquito bites an animal with heartworms, it sucks up the baby worms and transmits them to the next animal it bites. Those worms now live in the heart of the newly infected animal, where they become adults and begin to reproduce.

When the baby worms are transmitted into the new animal, it takes approximately 6-7 months for them to become reproducing adult worms. They are only detectable when they are adults, so an animal needs to be infected for at least 6 months before it can be diagnosed through blood tests or X-rays.

Since heartworms can be spread easily from animal to animal, it is important to use preventative measures to protect your pet. Veterinarians recommend heartworm prevention for all dogs and as knowledge on heartworms in cats is increasing, prevention for cats is also becoming common.

In order to protect your pets from heartworm disease:

• Make sure you have your pet tested for heartworms before you begin to give them preventatives- unless they are less than 7 months old. If your pet is over 7 months and is started on preventative heartworm medication without initial testing, they are at risk for serious reactions to the medication.

• Puppies should be given a heartworm preventative by the time they are 8 weeks old.

• Puppies should be tested once they are 7 months old even if they are taking preventative medication.

• Dogs should be tested on a regular basis. Testing should be done every 2-3 years if the dog is regularly given the preventative medication, and every year if any doses of the medication were missed.

• In cats, one heartworm can cause sudden death, but it is difficult to test in cats. You can start the preventative medication without an initial test.

• Cats do not display the same symptoms as dogs. The symptoms in cats are similar to those of other common cat diseases. It is important to remember the possibility that such symptoms can be because of heartworm.

It is important to protect your pets from heartworms because it can be a fatal disease. However, if they are detected in your dog, there are curable treatments to use. A series of injections cause the adult heartworms living in the heart to die. The worms then continually break up into smaller pieces until they are small enough for the body to absorb. While this is happening, the dog’s heart is working harder than usual, so it is important that the dog does not do any strenuous exercise for 5 weeks. After 5 weeks, the dog is given a one day treatment to rid its body of the baby worms. Be sure that your dog receives a follow up test 6 months after the treatment to ensure that the heartworms are gone. There are currently no heartworm treatments for cats yet. The best way to treat a cat infected with heartworms is to begin using preventative medications to help alleviate your cat’s symptoms.

The liver is vital to your pet’s health. It is the main filtering and clearing house of the body. All blood supply travels through the liver to be detoxified. When functioning properly, it performs crucial processes like the regulation of blood sugar, the production of bile for digestion and the regulation of blood clotting. The liver also works as a filter to remove toxic substances, as well as helping to absorb fats and certain vitamins.

An overload of toxins can cause the liver to fail. Some pets are genetically prone to liver failure, while a lack of food can cause liver malfunction in certain animals, particularly cats. Bacterial or viral infections of the liver can also cause this vital organ to stop working. There are many causes of liver disease- such as genetics, copper storage diseases, drug induce diseases, poisons, pancreatitis, cushing’s disease, malnutrition, parasites, environmental stresses, cancer, trauma, and infectious diseases (bacterial, viral, fungal), just to name a few.

When the liver fails, both dogs and cats experience similar symptoms :

• Vomiting
• Loss of appetite,
• Weight loss
• Soft and/or gray stools
• Weakness and lethargy

Often times these symptoms are similar to other conditions and the liver remains untreated until it becomes evident that the animal is experiencing advanced liver disease. As the disease worsens, toxins begin to build up in the body and the signs of liver failure become more evident :

• Jaundice
• Convulsions
• Confusion
• Swollen abdomen from fluid accumulation

While advanced liver disease can be treated effectively, it is always best to identify the signs and begin treatment early. Do your pet a favor – if the above symptoms persist for several days, take your companion to your veterinarian. When diagnosed early, treatment of liver disease can be worthwhile. The liver is remarkable in its ability to regenerate itself and so many animals go on to live normal, healthy lives after experiencing liver failure. Diagnosis includes blood tests, X-rays and ultrasounds.

Denosyl SD4 For Dogs And Cats :

When liver function is compromised, the exact cause can often be difficult to determine. Supporting the liver, regardless of the cause, is essential if function is to be improved. Denosyl has been shown to markedly increase liver glutathione levels in dogs and cats. However, Denosyl’s activities go far beyond just increasing glutathione levels. It has also been shown to protect liver cells from cell death and may help cell repair and healing.

About half of dogs and cats with liver problems have a low hepatic glutathione level. Glutathione is a potent antioxidant that protects hepatic cells from toxins and death. Denosyl SD4 has been shown to increase these hepatic glutathione levels.

Click here to get Denosyl SD4 from our online pet pharmacy  http://shop.corneranimal.com/product_p/10375.htm

Doggie ear care is very important to the health of your dog. Checking your dog’s ears only takes a few minutes, so make it a part of your dog grooming routine. Regular cleanings can prevent many common ear problems and infections. Since dogs’ ears are so sensitive, routinely cleaning them will keep them pain free and happy. Here are some helpful tips on checking your dog’s ears:

Use your eyes and your nose:

If you need help seeing inside your dog’s ears, you may want to invest in a pet scope. It’s a tool very similar to the kind your doctor uses to check your ears. If you see a dark waxy discharge, this may be a sign of ear mites. Your dog’s ear canal can be the perfect breeding ground for mites, yeast or bacterial infection. Dogs with floppy ears, like spaniels and bloodhounds, are very prone to ear infections because very little air flows into their ear canals.

Sniffing your dog’s ears is another way to detect problems early. Normally, a dog’s ears shouldn’t smell foul in any way. If you see puss-like discharge along with a foul smell this may be a sign of a bacterial infection. Allergies are also known to cause some dogs to have smelly ears. If you’re new to this and are unsure, have your vet check your dog’s ears. An infection, if left untreated, can be very painful for your dog and could even damage your dog’s hearing.

Some signs that your dog might have an ear problem :

• Constant scratching
• Rubbing their ears against objects
• Excessive wax
• Redness
• Foul odor
• Matting of hair in the external ear
• Head shaking

When encountering an ear that needs cleaning, follow these 4 steps:

1. Use a gauze to wipe away discharge that is on the surface

2. Gently pull up on the ear and partially fill the ear with the cleaning solution. By straightening out the ear you allow the cleaning solution to flow down the ear canal to where the infection and debris are located.

3. After the canal had been partially filled, massage the base of the ear canal very gently. Most pets find this part soothing.

4. Let your pet shake its head if it wants to. Then use gauze to soak up the fluid that comes out of the ear.

Just remember :

No matter which species you are cleaning, pick a room that is quiet and free of small children.

Do not put Q-tips into your pet’s ears unless you have been shown the proper technique, and your pet is adequately restrained. Q-tips can damage the sensitive tissue that lines the ear canal. Also, an ear drum can easily be ruptured by placing objects in the ear canal, especially if the ear has an infection. They can actually push dirt and foreign matter deeper into the ear if not handled properly. You can even lose the cotton tip in the ear canal.

A great non-prescription medication is Pan-Otic, which is used for routine ear cleaning. It enables removal of debris from the external ear to eliminate sources of irritation and infection and to facilitate otic examination. It is safe and suitable for dispensable use.

Click here to get Pan-Otic    http://shop.corneranimal.com/product_p/08857.htm