SylvaniaVET FYI Newsletter

9/2014

STARTING THIS MONTH WE WILL HAVE A SHORT ARTICLE FROM EACH DEPARTMENT TO KEEP YOU UP TO DATE ON WHAT IS HAPPENING IN:

DAY CARE- Canine Papilloma Virus.
We will be checking the mouth of every dog that enters daycare. This　
is just a standard precaution as we are checking for the Canine　
Papilloma Virus. It presents itself as a wart-like bump along the gums　
and the sides of the mouth. Papilloma is a virus that is spread from　
dog to dog through saliva. If you think your dog has Papilloma, please　
do not bring your dog to daycare. We have water bowls,　
toys, and pools which would increase the chance of spreading the virus. We also check every dog, every visit, for fleas.

- Tabitha, Day Care manager

BOARDING -SylvaniaVET boarding is just finishing up their busy summer season and things are going great! We will now be preparing for the upcoming holidays. Remember that we have heated floors during the cold months so your dogs are nice and cozy! We can't wait to see your pets for the Labor Day weekend!

- Alicia, Boarding manager

GROOMING - Is your pet shedding all over your house? Tumbleweeds of hair everywhere? Vacuuming every day? Well, we have our furminating shampoo/conditioner and furminator brush to help eliminate those nasty tumbleweeds. Ask us about our de-shedding package.

Feeling a little fancy? So are we! We love our four paw friends so much we would love to doll them up with bows and bandanas. We are even experimenting with tattoos! Using colorful blow pens and stencils there's no end in sight. Although it is still a work in progress, let us know if you would like to try!

FRONT DESK - It has been a good year so far up at reception. There have been a few changes, but we continue to grow as a team and work toward making client relations an always positive experience. We have two new faces this year, Amanda and Taylor. Please be sure to welcome them to the SylvaniaVET family!

- Marlee, Reception.
 

AFTER HOURS - SylvaniaVET offers 24 hr care 365 days of the year. A Registered Veterinary Technician and a Veterinary Assistant are in the hospital monitoring patients throughout the night.
 

Fido not acting right? Fluffy just isn't herself? The emergency staff can answer middle of the night questions to give you peace of mind. Your pet can also be admitted anytime of the night for observation. A Veterinarian is on call and can see patients on an emergency basis if needed. 
 

Plane get in late? Need to get an extra early start to your day? The emergency staff does late pickups and early drop offs for surgery, daycare and boarding.　 
 

The ER staff at SylvaniaVET are here for you anytime after the office closes.

- Beth, RVT,after hours lead tech.

AAHA- Did you know that SylvaniaVET is one of only 3 hospitals in the Toledo area that is regularly inspected and adheres to quality and customer service standards much like human hospitals? The AAHA standards that we follow were developed with high quality care in mind. By following the standards, we are in a better position to provide patients with the best in veterinary care. AAHA standards are a mark of distinction that sets our practice apart from others. It means we've worked hard to create, implement and update our protocols and to periodically review the procedures we're doing to make sure we're up-to-date and being the best we can be!

- Laura Ganzel, RVT, AAHA compliance manager

EVERYONE OF THESE NON-MEDICAL-SURGICAL AREAS ARE CRUCIAL TO THE "PET CARE DESTINATION" MISSION OF SYLVANIAVET.

SYLVANIAVET'S DOCTORS ARE ON-CALL AND AVAILABLE FOR OUR CLIENTS 24/7/365.

We limit our acceptance of afterhour's emergencies to clients of record so that we do not burn out our dedicated staff. This means that if you are registered in our computer we will be available after hours for your pet. Right now we are not able to see pets from families that chose to use another veterinary practice. There are two emergency clinics in the area, Douglas Road and Dogwood, for clients in need of emergency attention for their pet. Our regular hours enable us to see cases that might have to be seen at the emergency clinic as many practices close much earlier than SylvaniaVET. Our hours until 5 PM on Saturday have enabled us to see many pets that would have ended up as an emergency elsewhere. Having our excellent care available 24/7 is a great reason for you to refer friends to SylvaniaVET. Remember, if you refer any new client to us you receive a $20 account credit and the new client receives $20 off their first visit.

INTESTINAL FOREIGN BODIES ARE A POTENTIAL PROBLEM YEAR ROUND BUT THERE IS ADDED RISK IN THE SUMMER.

  Kid's toys, feminine hygiene products, undergarments, socks, strings, yarn, baby pacifiers and sticks are but a few of the foreign objects we have removed from the GI tract of dogs and cats. Add to this list during the summer corn cobs, beach rocks, peach or nectarine pits and the potential for trouble just escalated. Be sure that all waste and garbage cans are sealed away in a cupboard or have a secure lid as this is essential to preventing a pet from requiring surgery. Another concern in this time of environmental consciousness is a compost pile. Dogs love stinky smelly stuff and given access they might like to graze through the compost. There are many severe toxins created when organic material decomposes. We have seen dogs become very ill from eating composted waste.

WE WOULD LIKE YOUR E-MAIL AND CELL PHONE NUMBER SO THAT WE CAN COMMUICATE WITH YOU ELECTRONICALLY. 

 On your next visit if you have not filled out a new blue registration form, please take the time to do so. In addition to reminding you of appointments, we hope to be able to send you electronic receipts rather than having to print you a copy. Of course we can still print a receipt if you wish. This new relationship should enable us to also begin doing some refill requests and appointment requests electronically. We need your permission to have this two way electronic communication with you so please accept when asked on the registration form. You can download the new form on our website and bring it in at your next visit, www.sylvaniavet.com 

WHILE WE ARE TALKING ABOUT COMMUNICAITON, there are ways to contact each doctor through our website. Each doctor has a SylvaniaVET e-mail address. You can search for the exact address at sylvaniavet.com by going to the staff page. You can also contact Dr. Bob with questions on his Robert Esplin facebook account. He would like to have as many animal lover friends as possible so don't hesitate to make a friend request.

A FEW GROOMERS IN THE AREA OFFER DENTAL SCALING FOR THERE CUSTOMERS.

  This is not a service that should be done by an amateur. It is actually a violation of the state practice act for anyone other than a veterinary professional to scale teeth. If a groomer wishes to offer teeth brushing as part of their regular grooming service, we feel that is a fair and reasonable service but at no time should a groomer or other non-veterinary professional scrape teeth with an instrument. A professional dental prophy requires anesthesia, anesthesia support, monitoring and an educated experienced hygienist to do a competent job. Well controlled general anesthesia is no more risky than the risk and pain of advancing dental disease. If one thinks that having the groomer brush their pet's teeth once every 6-8 wks or less is sufficient, they are sorely mistaken. Pet's teeth should be brushed once daily. There is no proven water additive that will prevent dental disease.

YEAR ROUND MONTHLY HEARTWORM, FLEA AND TICK PROTECTION IS RECOMMENDED BY MOST TRAINED ANIMAL PARASITOLOGISTS AND THE COMPANION ANIMAL PARASITE COUNSEL. 

 In addition, year round heartworm protection is recommended by the American Heartworm Society. Yes, we know that winters like the last couple decrease the risks of exposure to fleas and ticks, however, a few situations can occur that might allow for even winter transmission of fleas and ticks. Some ticks can survive temperatures and actively transfer from plant life to pets at temperatures of near freezing. They can activate on those rare but not unheard of days in January or February that we get the sunny "winter thaw". Some ticks prefer living inside so if one comes in on your pet in the spring or summer and sets up housekeeping you could have a tick problem in the winter. Fleas survive the winter on warm blooded animals like rabbits, squirrels and raccoons. Should a close encounter occur where a wild flea carrier was recently there, a flea could hop to the pet's warm body before it gets frost bitten. Many of us travel south in the winter and take our pets. Stopping heart worm prevention is a concern in that some newer strains of heartworm can take over three months of continuous heartworm protection to provide real protection against the dog or cat from developing heartworm. 

 IN A NUT SHELL, WE RECOMMEND YEAR ROUND HEARTWORM, FLEA AND TICK PROTECTION.

MOST POPULAR PET NAMES IN 2013 (DRUM ROLL PLEASE) WERE:

Dogs- Bella, Max, Buddy, Daisy and Cats- Bella, Kitty. At SylvaniaVET, Bella is surly common but not so sure about the others being all that common. We would love to hear how and why you named your pet. Send the story to drbob@sylvaniavet.com. 
 

THE NEWEST AND MOST EFFECTIVE ALLERGY TREATMENT, APOQUEL, IS STILL IN SHORT SUPPLY.

Zoetis , the manufacturer, is unable to keep up with the demand. Supplies are being allocated across the country to veterinarians that had started pets on Apoquel when it was first released. Even with this very restrictive policy, the company cannot keep up with demand. We have had to switch dogs off and on between Apoquel and steroid-antihistamine treatment while we wait for Zoetis to catch up. The word from our rep is that it will be sometime in mid 2015 before production catches up with demand.

MILKBONE COMPANY IS SELLING AND PROMOTING A NEW CHEW THAT WOULD HAVE YOU THINK IT IS AS EFFECTIVE AS BRUSHING YOUR DOGS TEETH.

The product is called brushing chews (daily dental treats). The company's research claims that tartar is reduced by 50%, plaque is reduced 20% and bad breath is reduced 35%. The product is accepted by the Veterinary Oral Health Council for helping control tartar. A leading veterinary dentist, Jan Bellows, is recommending the product. We remain skeptical about it replacing brushing but will be doing further investigation before we give it our seal of approval. Yet, if it can help keep a dogs mouth healthy then why not? In addition to brushing your dog's teeth once daily, we recommend a variety of products to assist in oral health such as Prescription diet T/D, Greenies and Dentahex raw hide chews. So to that list we can tentatively add Milkbone brushing chews.

CAT DOMESTICATION MAY HAVE OCCURRED EARLIER THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT AND BY THE CHINESE NOT THE EGYPTIANS.

Archaeology studies in Quanchucun China have found evidence that cats lived in close contact with villagers in this small farming village as long as 5,300 years ago.

WE HAVE PUBLISHED TWO ARTICLES CONCERNING EARLY AGE SPAYING AND NEUTERING IN RECENT FYI BLOGS.

 We now discuss the best time to have your pet have these surgeries with the new info on the consequences of early age surgery. Clients can now make a decision with all the latest information. We still recommend six months as the best age, but some clients are electing to wait longer. Almost all dogs and cats adopted from local rescues and shelters have already been spayed or neuter, some as young as six weeks. Recently we saw three puppies purchased from breeders that were spayed and neutered before adoption at eight weeks. We do not recommend this early age surgery and you should consider not buying a puppy that has had these procedures at such an early age. Likewise, it is not possible to spay a female through a very small incision, less than one inch, as traumatic tension must be applied to the uterus to work through a key hole like incision. We have seen serious and fatal complications when animals receive this minimal surgical approach. At SylvaniaVET, we remove both ovaries and the entire uterus down to the cervix. This is considered the standard of the profession. When we spay your dog, it will have a longer incision so that we can see everything and do a complete surgery. Fortunately incisions heal side to side so short or long, the healing takes the same time.

TOLEDO UNLEASHED HELD A GROUND BREAKING FOR THE GLASS CITY DOG PARK LAST MONTH.

The opening for the Glass City Dog Park on Anthony Wayne Trail, near the zoo, is scheduled for late September. SylvaniaVET is a proud to sponsor one of the human and dog friendly water fountains located in the park. Dr. Bob is looking to develop a committee of dedicated dog lovers to begin the process of opening a Sylvania dog park. This is a major undertaking with fund raising a top priority. Please respond to drbob@sylvaniavet.com if you would like to be part of this exciting project.

WE HOPE YOU HAD A HAPPY LABOR DAY

THE DEDICATED STAFF OF SYLVANIAVET WAS ON DUTY THROUGHOUT THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND

DR. NATALIE WAS ON CALL

THANKS EVERYONE FOR YOUR DEDICATION

REMEMBER PAWS AND WHISKERS MAJOR FUND RAISER, THE COOL CAT STRUT, OCTOBER 17th