24 HOUR EMERGENCY AND CRITICAL CARE FOR YOUR PET

                     Always here...always ready

              Call us at: 803.865.1418

Please be patient while we build our new website!

What We Recommend

for a Canine Annual Visit

 The following services are considered routine for an adult dog “yearly” visit.

*Refills on heartworm preventative, other medications, or further diagnostics or treatment for problems found on the exam will involve additional charges.*

Physical exam:   Just like a people, pets should have an annual physical to look for problems that may have arisen since the last visit.  In addition, many owners have specific areas of concern they want addressed at the physical, including masses or lumps they’ve felt,itchy skin, ear infections, or other problems.  Estimates can be prepared for the further diagnosis or treatment of problems found.  Often, the doctor can detect a problem on the annual exam before it is bad enough for the owner to notice anything is wrong.  In this way, potentially serious problems can be controlled or cured before the pet has even begun suffering or showing symptoms.  The importance of an annual physical exam cannot be overstated.

Heartworm test:    Heartworms are a big problem here in the South.  Even cats are getting heartworms now. We recommend testing all dogs every year for heartworms, even those on a monthly preventative.  We have had several cases of heartworm in dogs who were on the monthly preventative.  This is not due to failure of the medicine, but dogs may vomit (as dogs just do sometimes) the day they get the pill, or someone may forget to give it a month here or there.  All dogs, even strictly indoor dogs, need to be tested yearly.  This disease is too dangerous and damaging to be treated lightly.  In addition, if a client declines this test for their dog, they will be asked to sign a release before refilling their heartworm preventative prescription, as giving the heartworm preventative to a dog with heartworms can cause a potentially fatal reaction.

Fecal test:   We also have a big problem with intestinal parasites here in the South.  All dogs should be tested yearly for intestinal parasites, which include roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, and coccidia among others.  All of these parasites can cause serious health problems for dogs.  Tapeworms are one parasite that can be hard to detect with this test, but usually this can be diagnosed other ways. The client can bring in a fresh stool sample from their dog(s) as long as it is less than six hours old.  Otherwise, we can usually retrieve a sample here.     

DHLP-P   Vaccine:   A combination vaccine that helps induce immunity against distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis, parainfluenza, and parvo. Dogs should be vaccinated annually for these diseases.  All of these diseases can be very expensive to try to treat, and in some cases can be fatal despite treatment.  Several of these diseases are very common, and unvaccinated dogs are at high risk for contracting them.  Corona vaccine is added to this combination for certain ages of dogs (<2 and >10 years of age).

Rabies vaccine:   Vaccination for this disease is required by law.  More importantly, there still is no cure for rabies, even in humans. We also recommend boostering this vaccine any time a dog current on rabies vaccine gets in a fight with an unknown animal.

Bordetella:   This vaccine helps provide protection against the bacterial component of the respiratory tract infection that used to be called “kennel cough”.  Dogs do not have to be boarded to be exposed to the bordetella bronchisepticum bacteria.  The vaccine comes as either a spray that is administered into one or both nostrils, or an injection for dogs that will not tolerate the intranasal spray.  The injection may take two weeks to induce an immune response, while the spray may take as little as two days.  Dogs that get this disease often cough continually for a month or even two, and may suffer permanent scarring in the respiratory tract.

Lyme vaccine:     Lyme disease is spread by ticks.  Incidence of this disease in dogs is increasing.  We do not recommend vaccinating for Lyme disease if the dog is never exposed to ticks (i.e. strictly indoor dogs) but do recommend it for all others.  Lyme disease is insidious in that often major damage is done in the body before clinical signs even appear. 

***The list of services above are our best recommendations for the routine annual visit.  If you do not wish one or more of these services to be performed, we ask that you clearly inform the attending staff member.  Thank you choosing Two Notch Road Animal Clinic, and on behalf of your pet, thank you for giving him or her the best possible care!***

Send mail to sheltiezoo@aol.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2006 Palmetto Regional Emergency Hospital for Animals
Last modified: 04/29/08