Changing of the Guard
Change is part of life as we all know and it has come to Hanover Animal Hospital in the form of the departure of Julie Johnson, one of our long time veterinary assistants. Julie has moved to North Carolina and will be missed for her gentle abilities with frightened cats and her courage in dealing with aggressive patients. We wish her well and hope to hear of her progress soon.
Not all is lost however since we are now welcoming Dawn Winans as a new assistant. Dawn is a fast learner with an infectious laugh and a gentle disposition and we hope will be an important member of our team. Dawn lives in Varina and enjoys western pleasure riding when she is not helping us care for our patients. Please help us welcome her to the practice when you meet her.
Welcome to the Vetspecs PM4!!
Many of our clients are understandably anxious about anesthesia and its effects on their pets during surgery. In order to minimize the risks associated with these procedures, it is important to watch carefully for indicators of anesthetic depth. There are many ways which we can monitor the depth of anesthesia including, respiratory rate, eye position, jaw tone, heart rate and other physiologic parameters. Our ability to monitor our patients during anesthesia has improved recently due to our acquisition of the Vetspecs PM4. This is a monitor which combines the ability to determine electrocardiogram, core body temperature, heart rate, airway direct respiratory rate and oxygen saturation. Monitoring these values can give us more information regarding a patients status and alert us to the need for intervention should problems arise. The PM4 also automatically stores information on a flash drive which can be used to view trends and retrieve vital information from a pets anesthetic episode.
Of course this new unit will not replace the human element for truly monitoring our patients, but it should give us additional information to help us more safely attend to their needs.
Phycox is back!!!
We are pleased and excited to announce the reintroduction of phycox to our hospital inventory as an aid in the fight against canine arthritis. The original manufacturer, Pharma Chemie, has been able to reintroduce it because the previous companies (DVM and Teva animal health) had their license to market phycox expire. The original difficulties arose when manufacturing shortcomings caused DVM to decide to remove all of its product lines from distribution. Although there were never any specific problems with the quality or effectiveness of phycox, DVM decided to take a broad stance to assure product quality. Pharma Chemie, the holder of the original patent on phycox then decided to remarket it under its own label. The ONLY difference will be that new bottles will not have the "JS" on the label. Otherwise, the product is identical. We apologize for the incovenience this may have caused and do not anticipate any further problems with what we consider to be an excellent tool in helping us to keep our canine patients more comfortable.
Cats CAN get hip dysplasia!!
It seems that everyone is at least somewhat familiar with the condition, hip dysplasia. It is certainly a common disorder in dogs of all shapes and sizes and is highly variable in its presentation. How many however realize that cats can also be afflicted with this disorder?
We were recently presented with a seven year old spayed female cat,"Amy", with a history of rear limb lameness. Since this could be symptomatic of many different conditions, we completed a physical exam and radiographs were recommended. Once obtained, it was a bit of a surprise to see evidence of degenerative joint disease involving the coxofemoral joints, aka "hip dysplasia".
Although we do see this condition in cats on occasion, it is certainly not a daily occurence and is interesting in that it reminds us to keep an open mind when evaluating our patients for things which may be unexpected. If your cat seems to be having difficulty jumping up onto things which previously weren't a problem or limps consistently, we should examine them so that we may determine first what is wrong and second how best to treat the condition.
Many of our clients are understandably anxious about anesthesia and its effects on their pets during surgery. In order to minimize the risks associated with these procedures, it is important to watch carefully for indicators of anesthetic depth. There are many ways which we can monitor the depth of anesthesia including, respiratory rate, eye position, jaw tone, heart rate and other physiologic parameters. Our ability to monitor our patients during anesthesia has improved recently due to our acquisition of the Vetspecs PM4. This is a monitor which combines the ability to determine electrocardiogram, core body temperature, heart rate, airway direct respiratory rate and oxygen saturation. Monitoring these values can give us more information regarding a patients status and alert us to the need for intervention should problems arise. The PM4 also automatically stores information on a flash drive which can be used to view trends and retrieve vital information from a pets anesthetic episode.
