Questions You Should Be Asking

Although there are some reputable sites on the internet that provide health tips for your pet, there are many sites that do not have correct medical information. As an animal lover and veterinarian who truly cares about your pet’s health and safety, I have concerns about using the internet to diagnose your pet.

For example, if you do a search for “why is my dog for vomiting” or “why does my cat have diarrhea,” you may find hundreds of reasons why your pet could have these symptoms and even choose one that you believe to be the cause. But, if your pet does not receive a thorough physical exam from a skilled veterinarian, and possibly diagnostic tests, it may be hard to know exactly what your pet’s problem is.

It’s understandable that you may not want to cause your pet stress by bringing them to the animal hospital, or you may be concerned about the cost or the time involved to come in to the veterinary office right away. You may feel that you want to just “give it a little time” to see if the problem will go away on its own. This can seem like a good idea at first, however, this is rarely beneficial for your pet’s health and could often be more expensive for you in the long run, and cause your pet to have unnecessary discomfort, pain or deteriorated health.

Factor #1: Pre-Surgical Blood Work. Always make sure that your veterinarian offers pre-surgical blood work for all pets undergoing anesthesia. This is important for even young pets undergoing routine surgeries.

Why is this so important? Even though we call many surgeries, such as spays and neuters routine surgery, they still involve inherent risks. Many pets are fine when we check their blood work, but there are also even young pets that have abnormalities on bloodwork that appear very healthy on the outside. It is important that we know this prior to any anesthesia as we want to keep your pet as safe as possible. You need to ask this question when you are getting surgery quotes from other veterinary hospitals.

Factor #2: You should also make sure that your veterinarian is placing an iv catheter and giving iv fluids during even routine surgery procedures. It is important to have an iv catheter in place so that if an emergency should arise it can be used to help support the animal as it can be hard to find a blood vessel and place a catheter in an arresting animal whose heart may have stopped beating. The iv fluids can also help keep blood pressure stable during surgery and they can help replace fluids lost during and after surgery. You need to ask if this is included in your estimate for surgery.

Factor #3: You need to ask if your pet will receive pain medication before and after the procedure.

Factor #4: You need to ask if there are licensed veterinary technicians on staff as not all veterinary hospitals have technicians taking care of pets that actually went to school to learn about patient care.

Pet owners do not always know what to ask to make sure that there pet is getting excellent medical care. This is what I would want to know!

We have an exam room dedicated just for cats. Your feline companion can relax in a bed with a window view of a bird feeder, use the scratching post, play with a toy mouse or relax in a bed filled with cat nip.

Our veterinary technicians are licensed and are required to attend continuing education seminars.