General Care: Cleaning, Polishing and Digital Dental X-rays
Specialty Care: Restorations, Reconstruction, Root Canals and Extractions

The teeth and gums are part of the digestive system. Lack of care can lead to far reaching disease in other parts of the body. Sinusitis, heart disease, kidney disease, and respiratory disease are a few examples of diseases that can be traced back to a diseased mouth.

We recommend that your pet have their teeth examined once a year. It is very likely that a professional scaling and polishing will be recommended once your pet reaches the age of two or three years. Simply put: If you take care of the teeth and gums your pet has, your pet will live longer. If you do not pay attention to the mouth of your pet, your pet may acquire systemic disease because of diseased gums, and die an early death. Systemic disease can include kidney, liver, lung, heart, sinus, and gastrointestinal disease.

Did you know that about 75% of all dental problems serious enough to be seen by a veterinarian and almost all teeth lost in adult dogs and cats are a result of periodontal disease? It is associated with 95% of all cases of bad breath. It can also be associated with loss of appetite, diarrhea, vomiting, coughing, heart disease, kidney disease, and just plain irritability.

You can perform your own home examination to determine if your pet is in need of a dental cleaning:

1. Check your pet’s teeth by lifting up the upper lip and look at the teeth.
2. If the teeth have brownish discoloration near the gum line, or if the gums are red above the teeth, or if your pet has bad breath, make an appointment to have a dental examination to confirm that your pet needs a dental prophy.
3. If a tooth looks like it is broken, check the other side of the mouth and see if the opposite tooth looks different. If the tooth appears broken, seek out professional veterinary help for evaluation.

At Providence Veterinary Hospital, we can clean your pet’s teeth, repair fractured or broken teeth, perform root canals, treat apical abscess, periodontal or gum disease and can treat many more dental diseases your pet may encounter. We recommend that your pet should be examined for dental disease at least once per year. If your pet is prone to disease, then the examination should be performed more often.

We are fortunate to have a NovaDent high speed and low speed drill for treating teeth and a Piezo electronic scaler for efficient teeth cleaning.

All living creatures eventually enter a sunset phase of their lives. For pets, it seems that their lives are much shorter than ours. It seems that way because it is shorter. We live our lives for 70 or 80 years, while your pet may live for 10 or 20 years.

As your pet ages, more maintenance is needed to insure that your pet lives as normal a life span as possible. By finding little problems as your pet ages, the big problems are put off or prevented. The effort results in your pet living longer.

We recognize the need for special care and detection of little problems as your pet ages. We call this geriatric care program the “Wellness Program” much like your aging parents get as they get older. The more diligent we are in detecting small problems in aging pets, the less likely they will die prematurely.

The Wellness Program is designed to maintain health and prevent illness during your pet’s declining years by promoting early detection and treatment of illness. This is done by getting a baseline of information on the health of your pet through diagnostic procedures before it shows sign of illness. After establishing the baseline of information, the wellness program involves regular examinations and periodic testing specific to each individual. The baseline information will help to determine whether your pet is in an early disease state. This information also provides you with more effective and often less costly treatment options, a longer life for your pet and fewer surprises.

Bathing a dog or cat or other pet in the hospital serves many purposes:

●  A pet can be bathed for the obvious reason… it’s dirty and needs to be cleaned.

●  A medical condition has been diagnosed and bathing a pet with a specific shampoo can be very therapeutic.

Shampoos act as tools to the veterinarian. One shampoo or another can make the difference as to whether your pet’s skin condition improves. If your dog has scaly, dry skin, bathing that dog in a shampoo designed for scaly dry skin will improve your dog’s coat. If a different shampoo is used, let’s say a grooming shampoo or a supermarket generic, then your dog’s coat and skin will not improve nearly as much.

Sometime pet owners will confuse the words bathing and grooming. Bathing is the washing, drying, and combing of your pet. Grooming is done by a professional stylist that personalizes and cuts your pet’s fur. A groomer will bathe your pet during the grooming process, much like you get your hair washed before it gets cut. On the contrary, one does not usually get a haircut every time one takes a bath.

When a patient is scheduled for surgery, or for that matter, any anesthetic procedure, certain options are offered to the owners to insure their pet’s safety and comfort. Like you, our greatest concern is the well-being of the patient. Before putting your pet under anesthesia, we will perform a full physical examination. However, many conditions, including disorders of the liver, kidneys or blood, are not detected unless blood testing is performed. Such tests are especially important before any kind of surgery or putting your pet under anesthesia. Our laboratory is fully equipped and staffed to perform these important blood tests for the safety of your pet. Results will be immediately available to examine before anesthesia and/or surgery.

During Surgery:
Our hospital has a machine that can measure internal temperature, heart rate, and the amount of oxygen in your pet’s blood stream on a continual basis during anesthesia. We require every dog and cat get “EM” or Electronic Monitoring during their procedure. We can tell how your pet is doing on a moment to moment basis.

When these parameters are measured on a moment to moment basis, adjustments to your pet’s anesthesia and temperature control can be accomplished by our technicians during surgery long before any clinical signs develop. This insures your pet the utmost comfort and safety during short or long surgical procedures.

After Surgery:
Quite possibly, after surgery, your pet will experience some pain upon coming out of anesthesia. We suggest and can administer pain medication to your pet for the purpose of alleviating pain after surgery, if needed.

Consent Form:
All the above mentioned items, pre-operative blood testing, laser surgery, and pain management are all listed on our surgery consent form prior to your dropping off your pet for surgery. For the safety and comfort of your pet, we recommend that all options be answered “yes”.

Parasites or “worms” in your pet rob your pet of much needed nutrition and magnify any disease condition. The kinds of parasites found in pets can be divided into areas of the body in which they thrive and develop.

In the ideal condition, parasites do not kill your pet. Their goal is to rob just a little bit of nutrition to live and not kill the host. Often, you will not be aware of your pet having parasites. Sometimes, because of the great number of parasites, or because your pet is very young or very old, parasites can be fatal! It is very important that we look for these nasty parasites when we examine your pet. Often, a request for a stool sample will be made when your pet is due for vaccinations. A Heartworm test is scheduled for your dog once a year. During the flea and tick season, careful examination is made of your pet to detect the presence of these parasites.

Parasites can be classified into those living in:
●  The digestive system
●  The blood vessels and heart
●  On the skin or outer body

The Digestive System:
Roundworms or ascarids are intestinal parasites found in both dogs and cats. But, the common ascarids of cats do not infect dogs and vice versa. Roundworm infection can be fatal in young puppies and kittens. Infection in healthy adult pets is seldom serious, but can cause a general unthrifty look to your pet.

Hookworms are bloodsucking parasites found in both dogs and cats. But, the common hookworm of dogs does not infect cats and vice versa. Hookworm infection can cause severe, even fatal blood loss, especially in pups.

Tapeworms are common intestinal parasites of dogs and cats. Fleas, rabbits, mice, rats, and other animals carry the intermediate stage in the life cycle of tapeworms. Dogs and cats become infected by eating these carriers. The most common tapeworm of dogs and cats is carried by the flea. If your pet is exposed to fleas, watch for tapeworm segments passing with the stool.

Whipworms are intestinal parasites of dogs. They are usually found in the large intestine and cause a mucous and sometimes bloody diarrhea.

Coccidia are intestinal parasites of dogs and cats, which can cause diarrhea and weight loss. Coccidiosis usually affects young animals, especially those from places where large numbers of pets are kept together, such as kennels, catteries, and pet shops.

Toxoplasma are intestinal parasites of cats that can infect people. Cats become infected by eating mice, rats, birds or meat containing Toxoplasma cysts. This parasite is especially dangerous to women who are pregnant.

Giardia are intestinal parasites of dogs. They are very difficult to detect. They cause diarrhea and are usually found in places where large numbers of pets are kept together.
All intestinal parasites should be treated at the hospital. We do not recommend pet store treatments.

Blood Vessel and Heart Parasites:
Heartworms are most common in dogs, but cats have been known to be infected. They are blood parasites that spend their adult life in the heart and large blood vessels. They are transmitted by the mosquito.

They can be prevented with a heartworm test once every year and regular preventive medication every month of the year. There are two product choices you can make regarding heartworm prevention. The generic medication, Iverhart, is given monthly in the form of a tasty, chewable tablet. The brand name medication, Trifexis, is also a tasty monthly tablet. Trifexis will also control adult fleas (not ticks). By thinking the tablet is a treat, it could not be easier to give your dog safe and effective heartworm prevention.

The Skin or Outer Body:
Ticks carry many diseases and live in specific areas of the country. Depending on where you live, you will find different species. In the Northeastern USA, specifically in the Philadelphia area, the Deer tick, the Brown dog tick, and the American dog tick are threats to your pet. Ticks are out from April through October, but this timing can vary depending on the kind of weather we are having.

Ticks are blood-sucking pests that target dogs and cats, as well as humans. Dogs and cats trying to get relief from ticks will scratch frequently, many times breaking the skin and causing infection, which ultimately lowers your pet’s resistance to disease.

Two products that would be effective in protecting from ticks are Parastar Plus and the Preventic Collar.

Flea control is very important to the health and well being of your dog or cat. Flea bites cause discomfort and irritation, and they are responsible for a serious skin condition known as flea allergy dermatitis. In addition, fleas often carry tapeworms, a harmful intestinal parasite. One female flea can lay approximately 300-400 eggs in three weeks! Fleas can quickly infest your home and even attack humans.

To understand the magnitude of the flea problem, let us look at the life cycle. The flea develops in four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and finally, adult. The adults live on your dog or cat where the females lay eggs. These eggs fall off the dog or cat into your home. There they hatch and pass through the larva stage and pupa stage. They then develop into adults. These new adults jump onto your dog or cat and the cycle begins all over again.

Pet owners see adult fleas and recognize them as the source of aggravation for their pet. Owners get satisfaction in killing the adult flea because they think the problem is solved. What they do not realize is that for every one adult flea they kill, there are at least 10 eggs, 7 larvae, and 2 pupae developing to take their place. A single adult is backed by at least 19 pre-adults rapidly maturing to add the discomfort of your pet and the your frustration.
Parastar Plus is effective against the adult flea. Knockout Area Spray can be used for the house to prevent fleas and ticks and their eggs from hatching and living in the rugs, furniture, etc.

A note about store bought flea and tick collars:

In our experience, we have taken many, many pet shop and store bought flea and tick collars off pets with fleas and ticks. They are called “over the counter” products. Usually, the owner just assumes the collar is working and to their surprise and disappointment, it is not working. Avoid them!

This note is not a scientific study, just our opinion… for what it is worth…

Ear Mites are very small insects that infest the ear canal of dogs and cats and are highly contagious from pet to pet. They are not contagious to humans. Common signs of ear mites include scratching at the ears, and or shaking the head. A black dry crusty material can be seen in the ears. If you suspect your pet has ear mites, please make an appointment so we can diagnose the problem and treat it. If left alone, secondary complications such as bacterial infection, yeast infection, or worse – a broken blood vessel of the ear (Aural Hematoma), which would require surgery are all waiting for your pet.

You can order prescriptions, refills, over the counter products, flea and tick products, dental products, heartworm preventives, Iams Veterinary Formula products and more online and have it delivered to your home, provided we write the prescription, when required, and we first set your account up. This service is meant to provide you with a safe, convenient way of doing your prescription and pet care shopping through online storefront. For details about using our online storefront, please click here.