Month: December 2019

139 The Year in Review 2019

As the year winds down, I pause to look back on 2019.  Here are the new things that happened in 2019 at Garden Ridge Animal Hospital:

New exterior sign with new logo.

Added Portal on a new website (gardenridgevet.com) for new ways to stay in contact with us. Check it out, create a log in and experience the options. You will need an old receipt with your client number to access your pet’s data.

Proheart 12- an annual heartworm prevention injection for dogs was approved in the US and we started using it in August.

New Allergy control shot (Cytopoint ) that lasts 4-8 weeks. This gives us another option to Apoquel, and sometimes in cheaper than Apoquel.

Different flea product (Credelio) that are now by same manufacturer as Trifexis and Interceptor for better rebates

VetSource, our online pharmacy, now does autoship on food, even prescription ones.

The Flower Mound Emergency Clinic by Sprouts changed ownership, and we still recommend it

Windows 10 upgrade/new computers- pardon our printer glitches as we work through this one.

New air conditioners- we apologize if you experienced a warm exam room last summer. Things wear out after 29 years

I personally racked up 62 hours of continuing education. My personal best in 38 years of practice. One of the most interesting online courses was about cannabis and CBD. See the blog on CBD for more information. I am currently using a specific CBD oral product for my old sheltie, Sarge, for his arthritis but I see its main effect on his alertness.

And my puppies are now a year old, but still wild rodent hunting, digging, running, and sometime destructive little terrors. And I love them.

138 O Christmas Tree

Tis the season. O Tannenbaum. There are many kinds so Christmas trees: real, live, artificial. I love them all, but we must be careful as pet owners to keep our fur babies safe.

I hear stories every day about cats, especially kittens, climbing trees and possibly knocking them over. Some tricks to prevent this are to anchor the top to the ceiling or wall and to put up a baby gate/fence around the tree to block access.

Dog often drinking the tree water. If you have added preservative or nutrients for the tree, this might make the dog vomit or have diarrhea. That is no fun around the holidays.

Both dogs and cats are famous for eating ornaments. I had one special ornament that has never been the same since chewed on by my bored puppy many years ago. This year, even though my pups are a year old, I just did a tabletop tree. I don’t want to tempt them to be naughty.

Some pets may chew on electric lights and get an electrical burn in their mouth. I laugh at the cat scene in the Christmas Vacation movie, but I have never seen a Persian go up in a puff of smoke.

Here at Garden Ridge Animal Hospital, we put up our annual “Angel” tree to memorialize patients that have passed in last year. If you had a pet (that was a patient here) pass in 2019, please stop by and see your baby’s angel ornament. And feel free to take it home AFTER Christmas.

And we wish all our patients and clients a safe and Merry Christmas.

137 Pet Insurance Update

It is almost that time of year when we must sign up for next year’s health insurance for ourselves and our family. My brain is hurting from all the options, and I don’t like the price of any of it.

Pets can get insurance too. The process is much simpler, and it can be affordable, especially is you start when they are young. For example, I just looked up the monthly premium for my little terrier mix, Sally, who just turned a year old. On Pet Plan, endorsed by the AAHA, based on her size and age and my zip code, she would cost me $20/month. That’s $240/year. That is much less than 1 emergency visit or sick visits with labwork and xrays.

If I were to have a claim, it is an easy 3 steps. First, I seek treatment at any vet I wish and pay them directly. Next, I submit my receipt on my phone app to the insurance company. Lastly, I get reimbursed, usually about 80% of my bill.

All pet insurance covers illnesses, lab work, surgery, emergencies, specialists (no in-network/out of network), but some have exclusions of hereditary diseases, and many won’t cover old dogs or cats.

With the AAHA Pet Plan insurance,
• sick office exams are covered
• dental /oral procedures are covered
• all ages can be insured
• all conditions even chronic and hereditary diseases
• it can’t be cancelled
• alternative treatments are also covered.

I know that health insurance is expensive, but it just takes one trip to the emergency room, and pet insurance could easily pay for itself. I find owners that have pet insurance aren’t worried about the costs because they have peace of mind that they will be reimbursed. They can focus on getting their fur baby medical help to get better.

https://www.gopetplan.com/partners/aahapetinsurance?c=AAHA

136 Recent Wins

We have had a few “winning” behavior cases in the last two weeks and reunited a lost dog with an owner from the microchip.

The stray dog was found today by one of our clients, who was able to catch him and bring him in for scanning. Animal Control could also do this, but he thought of us first. The dog was microchipped, but with an address in Carrollton, and a phone number that didn’t work. My staff didn’t give up there, and contacted the email address linked to the microchip, and got a phone call shortly afterward that he was indeed the owner, and the story has a happy ending. The takeaway is always have your pets microchipped, and check the contact information years, and whenever you move.

One of the winning behavior cases involved a dog who has become terrified out us touching his toenails. And last week he presented with a broken dewclaw nail, that had already stopped bleeding. We gave the owner several choices: just buck up and wrestle to dog to examine the feet, give him sedation by injection now, or send him home with some oral anti-anxiety medicine, Trazadone, and see him the next day, knowing we still might have to sedate. She chose Trazadone, and the next day he wasn’t as anxious, we were able to cover his head with a towel with some calming pheromones and touch his feet without sedation. Things went so well we even did his annual exam, vaccines & blood test for heartworms. Success with Trazadone!

The other success story was a very “reactive” Malinois patient. He usually barks nonstop while here, protecting his owner. Last month we tried seeing him and we couldn’t approach him at all. This time, he came here on Trazadone, wearing his basket muzzle, and we gave the intramuscular sedation in the parking lot, before he was aroused. Then he walked in, stayed in the exam room with the owner until the drugs took effect. The exam went calmly, with the owner present, we did everything we needed, and then gave him the reversal agent for the sedation. Fifteen minutes later he walked out on his own, not having had a bad experience, and not stressed.

These are a few of our recent Fear Free success stories. It is ok to use anti-anxiety medicine for a scary situation, and often these same dogs need less and less each year. The pets are less stressed, the owners are less stressed, and our staff is less stressed. Win-Win-Win