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Arthritis in dogs is very common, particularly in middle-aged and older dogs. And winter is the time when our pets suffer most from this painful condition. There are still a large number of dogs with osteoarthritis that are undiagnosed and untreated. Signs can include reduced activity, stiffness, difficulty getting up or lameness. Many people assume that their pet is just getting old, and that nothing can be done. Your pet may actually be in pain, and something can be done!
For the month of June we are running a special offer to encourage early diagnosis and treatment. Make an appointment and have your pet examined and assessed. If your dog is diagnosed with arthritis then we will offer you a free course of Rimadyl Chewables to treat the condition. And if your pet shows a good response, we will offer you a 10% discount on a supply of Rimadyl to last your pet right through the winter. We will also advise you on a management plan, which may include Cartrophen, weight loss, diet and exercise.
Please telephone for an appointment. For further information visit:
www.ingleburnvet.com.au/arthritis or
www.pethealthcheck.com
or ask us for a free booklet.
It's time again to remind you that good flea control requires that you continue to treat your pets throughout the year. If you don’t, then you might not notice a problem now, but come spring, you’ll find you’ve bred a whole new generation of fleas ready to infect your pets. Suitable products include Sentinel, Revolution, Frontline, Advantage or Program. For more information, ask us for a copy of our new "Flea Control" handout, or visit: www.ingleburnvet.com.au/fleas
Our vets and nurses have been to a number of courses and conferences over the last few months. Mark spent a week in Adelaide in May at the Aust. Veterinary Assoc. annual conference. Peter has recently been to a one-day dermatology conference that concentrated on atopy (an allergic skin disease) and a new product called Atopica used to manage this condition. Mark and Peter both attended an evening seminar on pain management. Ros has been to a series of one-day courses over the last few months focused on improving client service.
You may have noticed that our vets have been to quite a few conferences on pain management over the last year. This is a topic that has received a lot of recent attention within the veterinary profession.
Animals do experience pain. But they can't tell us about it, so we may not always know when they are in pain. One example of pain management is the active approach that we take to the diagnosis and treatment of arthritis. In this article we want to focus on the prevention of pain associated with surgery, such as routine desexing.
At a minimum, any veterinarian would perform desexing under full general anaesthesia. If administered correctly, this will make the animal totally unaware of what is happening, and no pain at all will be felt during the surgery. But what about after the surgery?
Proper surgical technique ensures minimal damage to the tissues. But even with the best surgeon, nerve endings will be stimulated and this will activate the whole nervous system. Subsequent pain is amplified by an over-active nervous system. This continues after your pet wakes up from surgery, and it is at this time that we need to be most active to prevent pain.
There is no set formula for managing pain. Some vets believe that just an anaesthetic is enough. At Ingleburn, we have defined a surgical pain management protocol.
Prior to the surgery we give a potent analgesic (pain-relieving drug), as well as the anaesthetic. By blocking the pain before it occurs, the nervous system will not be so intensely activated, and so will be less sensitive to pain after the surgery. In addition, the analgesic itself continues to block pain for some time after the surgery.
After recovery, we give another injection of a different drug that reduces inflammation and provides pain relief for a further 24 hours. This second drug is the one that you may have seen itemised separately on your desexing bill. (The anaesthetic and the pre-surgical analgesic are included in the basic desexing price).
Desexing is of course just one of the many surgical procedures that we perform. We try to tailor the pain management to the level of pain that we expect the procedure to cause. In orthopaedic surgery for example, we give more analgesic injections in various combinations, and follow this up with drugs that you can give at home, such as Rimadyl (chewable) tablets or Metacam liquid in the food.
Continued study ensures that we are aware of the most effective procedures & drugs for pain management.
Related articles: Getting Your Pet Desexed, Products - Analgesics
As you may already be aware, laws were introduced in July 1999, requiring that all dogs (and all new cats) be microchipped and registered on a new lifetime system. A 3-year transitional period was allowed for people to register existing dogs under the new system. That period is now over and annual dog registration has ceased. This means that owners of dogs that are currently registered with council on the annual system, will need to get their dog microchipped and registered under the new lifetime system by 1st October 2002.
Lifetime registration fees (to be paid to the council) are $100 but this is reduced to $35 if the dog is desexed. Pensioners pay only $15, providing the dog is desexed.
These concession rates are now also available to entire (not desexed) dogs, if they are over 10 years of age and are currently registered on the yearly registration system.
If you are not intending to breed your pet, then we strongly recommend desexing (For more info visit: www.ingleburnvet.com.au/desexqst. And if you desex your dog before registration, it could save you money. To make this more affordable, we are running a…
Special offer on desexing and microchipping
For the month of July, we will waive the $33 surcharge that normally applies to desexing female dogs over 12 months of age. This surcharge is never applied to male dogs, but so that the boys don't miss out, we'll also discount the cost of castration by $15 during July.
(For a quote visit: www.ingleburnvet.com.au/desexcalc (normal prices are shown), or give us a call.)
In addition, if you get your dog or cat microchipped at the same time as desexing, we will discount the cost of the microchip by 10%.
Kidney failure is very common in older cats. Early diagnosis and treatment can slow the progression of the disease, leading to a longer, healthier life for your cat. By the time you see any signs, it may be too late.
For this reason we recommend annual screening tests for all cats over 7 years of age.
A drop of blood and a few drops of urine are all that's required. Visit www.ingleburnvet.com.au/kidneyfail for more information on kidney disease, or ask us for a free copy of our "Kidney Disease in Cats" handout.
During the month of August we have a special offer running.
You can have your cat examined and screened for kidney disease for just $50.00.
The offer includes Consultation ($36.00), Urine Testing ($16.50) and
blood creatinine test ($18.35). That's $70.85 total value. Phone for an appointment.
We've made several recent improvements to our web site. New pages have been added on flea control, heartworm prevention and bathing. And we've got some major new features in the works too. For full details go to www.ingleburnvet.com.au and click on the What's New link.
While you're there, go to our Feedback page and let us know what you think of our site. Is there anything else you'd like to see added to the site? Make a suggestion and we'll see what we can do.
Put yourself on our e-mail list and we'll keep you advised of all major changes to our site, as well as any hospital news and special offers.
We've been busy recently preparing information packs for our clients. These packs contain details about our hospital and the services that we provide, plus some other useful information for pet owners. The packs will be issued free to all new clients of our hospital. For existing clients, the packs are available on request. The same information is also available on our web site.
We have also prepared puppy information packs. These contain a lot of our own handouts on health care information that is relevant to puppies, as well as a selection of brochures and information booklets from a variety of other sources. These packs will be issued free of charge to all clients who bring a puppy to see us for the first time - for vaccination, consultation or Puppy Preschool. If you have brought a puppy to us recently, and would like one of these packs, please let us know.
Related articles: Caring for Your Puppy
Congratulations go to Nicole who was married in April. We also welcome 2 new staff members since our last newsletter. Angela Akehurst joins us as our 3rd full-time nurse. Clare Arnold also joins us and now shares the weekend nursing roster with Corinne.
Related articles: Staff page
Our PetCare Reward Scheme was designed to help make quality health care for your pets more affordable. Each time you spend money at our hospital, our staff will make an entry on your card. The card can be used not only for consultations, but also for the purchase of virtually any medications and even pet food. And there’s no time limit on the card. When it’s full, you’ll receive reward dollars equivalent to the average value of all entries on the card. This reward can be spent on virtually any product or service that we provide – it’s our way of saying thank you for your regular business. Make the most of the scheme – use us for all of your pet-care needs and remember to bring your card with you! If you don't already have a PetCare card, ask us for one next time you're in - it's free.
Related articles: PetCare Reward Card Scheme