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Heather Fraser

Heartworm Life cycle

It’s Time for Heartworm Testing.

By Clinic news No Comments

When they bite, mosquitoes can transmit heartworm infection, and those heartworms can wreak havoc on your dog or cat. These parasites can severely and sometimes fatally damage the heart, lungs, and blood vessels. Some pets may not show any signs of infection; in those that do, symptoms can vary widely.

In dogs, signs of heartworm disease can range from coughing, fatigue, and weight loss to difficulty breathing and a swollen abdomen (caused by fluid accumulation from heart failure). Canine heartworm infection can also lead to a life-threatening complication called “caval syndrome” (a form of liver failure); without prompt surgical intervention, this condition usually causes death.

Although often thought to not be susceptible to heartworm infection, cats can indeed get heartworms. Cats can suffer from a syndrome referred to as heartworm-associated respiratory disease (HARD); the symptoms can be subtle and may mimic those of asthma or allergic bronchitis. Signs of respiratory distress, such as rapid or difficult breathing, wheezing, and panting, are common. Other symptoms include coughing, vomiting (typically unrelated to eating), and loss of appetite or weight. Heartworm infection is more difficult to diagnose in cats than it is in dogs.

Treatment for heartworm infection is far more expensive than prevention—and it can actually kill your dog. There is no approved treatment for cats. Some cats spontaneously rid themselves of the infection; others might not survive it. And even one or two adult heartworms in a cat can cause serious problems.

Fortunately, there’s a way to keep your pets safe: by administering monthly heartworm preventives. Most heartworm medications also protect your pet against other parasites, such as roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, ear mites, fleas, and ticks. There are many products available nowadays, so please contact the clinic for more information,

HeartwormPrevention (1)

 

Renovations are coming along nicely!

By Uncategorized No Comments

The renos continue! The contractor is finally in the home stretch. These are just a few examples of what’s been happening.  There’s still lots to do but everything is finally coming together. We had fun drawing pictures on the walls of each ward before painting them!

Cat Ward

Cat Ward

Dog Kennels and Bathtub

Dog Kennels and Bathtub

Lab on the right, wards on the left. Dog ward straight ahead.

Lab on the right, wards on the left. Dog ward straight ahead.

The renos continue

Crystal painting

Exotics ward

Exotics Ward

 

Easter Lily and cat

Easter Lilies are Toxic

By Clinic news No Comments

Easter Lilies are beautiful and they’re always a sure sign of springtime and, of course, Easter. Nothing is a pretty as a dining room table or kitchen counter decorated for Easter with a lily as a centre piece.  Pretty, and deadly to your cat.

There are benign and dangerous lilies out there, and it’s important to know the difference. Benign lilies include the Peace, Peruvian, and Calla lilies; these contain insoluble oxalate crystals that cause minor signs such as tissue irritation to the mouth, tongue, pharynx, and esophagus. Clinical signs of drooling, pawing at the mouth, foaming, and vomiting may be transiently seen.

The more dangerous, potentially fatal lilies are true lilies of the Lilium or Hemerocallis species. Examples of some of these dangerous lilies include the tiger, day, Asiatic hybrid, Easter, Japanese Show, rubrum, stargazer, red, Western, and wood lilies – all of which are highly toxic to cats! Even small ingestions (such as 2-3 petals or leaves) – even the pollen or water from the vase – can result in severe, acute kidney failure.

Other types of dangerous lilies include lily of the valley. This type does not cause kidney failure, but can cause life-threatening heart arrhythmias and death when ingested by dogs or cats.

If your cat is seen consuming any part of a lily, bring your cat (and the plant) immediately to a veterinarian for medical care. The sooner you bring in your cat, the better and more efficiently the lily poisoning can be treated. Decontamination (like inducing vomiting and giving binders like activated charcoal) are imperative in the early toxic stage, while aggressive intravenous fluid therapy, kidney function monitoring tests, and supportive care can greatly improve the prognosis. Do not wait to see if your cat gets sick-he undoubtedly will and waiting greatly reduces his chance of survival.

The Easter Lily is not toxic to dogs, or most other species. As gorgeous as they are, it’s probably best not to bring Easter Lilies into your home if you have a cat.

 

 

Easter Lily

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poisonous to: Cats

Scientific name: Lilium longiflorum

Alternate names: Lilies, Easter lily, tiger lily, rubrum lily, red lily, wood lily, Western lily, stargazer lily, daylily, Japanese show lily, Asiatic lily, Asiatic hydrid lily, peace lily, calla lily, lily of the valley, Lilium longiflorum, Lilium tigrinum, Lilium speciosum, Lilium auratum, Lilium lancifolimu, Lilium umbellantum, Hemerocallis

Level of toxicity: Generally moderate to severe

Common signs to watch for:

  • Inappetance
  • Lethargy
  • Hiding
  • Vomiting
  • Diarrhea
  • Halitosis
  • Dehydration
  • Inappropriate urination or thirst
  • Seizures
  • Death

There are benign and dangerous lilies out there, and it’s important to know the difference. Benign lilies include the Peace, Peruvian, and Calla lilies; these contain insoluble oxalate crystals that cause minor signs such as tissue irritation to the mouth, tongue, pharynx, and esophagus. Clinical signs of drooling, pawing at the mouth, foaming, and vomiting may be transiently seen.

The more dangerous, potentially fatal lilies are true lilies of the Lilium or Hemerocallis species. Examples of some of these dangerous lilies include the tiger, day, Asiatic hybrid, Easter, Japanese Show, rubrum, stargazer, red, Western, and wood lilies – all of which are highly toxic to cats! Even small ingestions (such as 2-3 petals or leaves) – even the pollen or water from the vase – can result in severe, acute kidney failure.

Other types of dangerous lilies include lily of the valley. This type does not cause kidney failure, but can cause life-threatening heart arrhythmias and death when ingested by dogs or cats.

If your cat is seen consuming any part of a lily, bring your cat (and the plant) immediately to a veterinarian for medical care. The sooner you bring in your cat, the better and more efficiently the lily poisoning can be treated. Decontamination (like inducing vomiting and giving binders like activated charcoal) are imperative in the early toxic stage, while aggressive intravenous fluid therapy, kidney function monitoring tests, and supportive care can greatly improve the prognosis. Intravenous fluids must be started within an 18 hour window for the best outcome.

The Easter Lily is not toxic to dogs, or most other species. As gorgeous as they are, it’s probably best not to bring Easter Lilies into your home if you have a cat.

 

dog using a laptop computer

Introducing our new Webstore!

By Clinic news No Comments

We recognize that you live a busy life and taking the time to drive to the clinic for your pets food can be onerous. Who doesn’t love shopping from home?  With the added convenience of home delivery or pick up here at the clinic, we are proud to introduce our new webstore. You can now order your pet’s foods and medications online through our webstore 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

To sign up for the webstore follow the link on our website or call us for more information at (519) 752-3431.

 

 

 

MVS link button white 1

Meet Lydia-Veterinary Technician Student

By Clinic news No Comments

We have really enjoyed having Lydia working with us for the past 4 weeks. She is studying to become a veterinary technician and she’s completing her final year at Northern College. As part of their training, each student must attend a placement for a minimum of 40 hours before graduating in order to gain valuable hands-on experience. Lydia’s had an opportunity to assist with X-rays, anesthesia, laboratory work and animal nursing while here. She even helped with managing Zeta’s diet. Lydia weighed Zeta today, and we’re sorry to say she hasn’t lost any more weight. Zeta is, however, staying stable at 5.6kg. Royal Canin’s SlimFit program suggests that we reduce her caloric intake by 5% which means she’ll get 47 grams of food per day instead of 50. We’ll weigh her again in 2 weeks to see how she’s doing.

 

Animal Pictures in frames

Gallery of Distinction

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Dr. Lee is a true visionary when it comes to decorating the clinic. One of our favourite things is the Gallery of Distinction. We have pictures hanging in the waiting room and hallways, and eventually will have them in both exam rooms. Actually, they’ll be just about everywhere! If you have a special picture of your pet that you’d like to see hanging up please let us know

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Esam room 1

Exam room renovations

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The clinic renovations are coming along. If you’ve been in during the past month you already know that the girls have been hard at work painting the exam rooms and hallways. Our construction crew has replaced the trim and added beautiful wainscoting along the hallways and in the exam rooms.  New cupboards have been ordered and should be installed shortly. Feel free to come in and have a look anytime!

 

Zeta’s on a diet!

By Clinic news No Comments

Our clinic cat, Zeta, put on quite a few pounds this past year so we decided it was time to put her on a strict diet, with the help of Royal Canin. Royal Canin manufactures most of our therapeutic diets and their weight loss diet, Feline Satiety, was the perfect choice for Zeta. Like any diet, being hungry all the time is the hardest thing to overcome. This particular diet has psyllium fibre added to it which helps to keep pets feeling full and has all the important nutrients that are needed while reducing calories.  It definitely works because we noticed a big difference in Zeta’s begging habits.

Zeta started out at 6.30 kg on November 25, 2015 and her target weight is 4.50 kg. Royal Canin has an awesome on-line program called “Slimfit” with a special calculator that veterinarians can use to easily determine a patient’s target weight and calorie allowance.  After plugging all of Zeta’s information into the program it told us how much Satiety Diet to feed her (50 grams total per day in divided meals) each day.  We actually weigh her food to make sure she doesn’t accidentally get overfed. It’s easy to add a few extra kibbles to a measuring cup, but by weighing the food she gets exactly the amount prescribed.  The program figures everything out for us; the calories, how much to give in cups and in grams. All we needed was a kitchen weigh scale.

Zeta’s progress has been steady, with the exception of a little stagnation around Christmas time, but that’s to be expected.  We know it’s hard to resist good food over the holidays, right?  With each weigh in we also add her body condition score (BCS)to the program so it helps to control the rate at which she’s losing weight. Her BCS in November was 8 out of 9.  Now she’s 7 out of 9.  When we first changed her BCS to 7 the program told us she was losing weight too fast so for a week we fed her a few grams more.  It would be awesome to see her with a BCS of 5!

Today she’s 5.60 kg and we are very proud of her.  Dieting is never easy, but Zeta is a trooper!

Overweight cats and dogs can suffer from a variety of ailments, such as arthritis, heart disease and lung disease that can be managed and possibly eliminated if we can get the extra pounds off of them.

Zeta’s next weigh in will be in a couple of weeks so we’ll keep you posted.

 

Scott Veterinary Clinic painting

The murals have arrived!

By Clinic Renovations! No Comments

We proudly present our much anticipated, highly acclaimed Scott Vet Clinic MURALS!!!!!  We commissioned a groovy local artist, Debbie Shannon to come up with an idea that encompasses all that we do here at the clinic. We think she has done an outstanding job and so far the feedback from our clients has been awesome too.

Why not pop in and let us know what you think as well?

 

IMG_0409 IMG_0408

 

impromed infinity logo

New Veterinary Software!

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We are proud to announce that we have recently introduced a new veterinary software program at Scott Veterinary Clinic, called Impromed Infinity. The addition of this program means that the written files that you are used to seeing will soon disappear. The veterinarians and staff will now be using the computer exclusively for invoicing, record keeping, and organizing the various areas of the clinic.

We have been using this software program for 2 weeks now and would like to thank you in advance for your patience and for bearing with us while we learn to navigate our way through this robust program. Before you know it we’ll be whizzes! In the end we will save a few trees by being almost paperless and we will be more efficient by having your pet’s records all in one location which can be easily located with the click of a mouse!