The last quarter of this year has started with an itch. Spring is a wonderful time in Sydney but not so wonderful for our itchy pets. We did some training last week with the entire team in preparation for the arrival of your itchy and scratchy pet. The graph below shows that just over 30% of dogs suffer from the itch. In approximately half of those cases good preventative health care through diet and flea prevention will completely resolve your pets itch. The other 50% of cases we diagnose atopy, an immune mediated disease that will require some form of medication. This medication may be life long.. 


Preventative care is the key to success in most cases. What we recommend is as follows :

1. Don’t bathe your pet too much – no more than every 2 weeks
2. Good quality food – We recommend Hills Science Diet pet food, human consumption raw meat and bones. Speak to us about out frequent buyers card discount.
3. Appropriate flea prevention. If you are slack then please take advantage of our flea compliance program.
4. Don’t leave it too long. Come in to see us before the itchy gets too bad. 

With every physical examination of your pet, you may notice that we flip the lip back to look at the gums and the teeth. The teeth are amazing. They are strong enough to bite through bone in most cases but can become weakened through disease and trauma.
 
Just this month we have seen a number of traumatic tooth fractures. Collisions with cars, balcony falls, “face plants” while running crazily in the park playing chasings, over enthusiastic bat and ball games and finally clumsy falls over retaining walls have all resulted in dogs or cats being presented with one or more broken teeth.
 
Within every tooth is a channel called the pulp canal. We are all familiar with this in our own teeth, because this is where the tooth nerve runs and it is the source of “ice cream teeth pain”. It is also the channel connecting the top of the tooth with the root.
Infection can also enter through this exposed area leading to tooth root abscesses and disease. This can cause pain and tooth loss. 
  The will to survive and hunger out weigh the pain. Does having a reaction to cold stop us from eating ice cream?? I don’t think so. Sometimes we will avoid certain foods that cause pain, or we will change our chewing pattern but we rarely stop eating all together.

 

Images of broken teeth

 
 
 

What we do?

Pets require a general anaesthesia to have teeth removed. We also use local anaesthetic at the time of removal so that there is good pain relief during and after removal. Sometimes removal requires a section of gum to be lifted away from the root of the tooth. This will later be stitched. Depending on the tooth we may also need to cut the teeth into sections to improve the ease and speed of removal. As with any surgery on bone and boney material, dental radiographs are often utilised to see what is happening under the gum line.

The radiograph below is from a speedy Italian Greyhound who often ran so fast while playing that his front legs often couldn’t keep up with his back legs – he came to see us having just fractured a tooth in a recent tumble. He had fresh blood from one tooth but another tooth missing. Radiographs revealed that he had fractured another tooth a little while ago but his gum had swallowed it up. This second broken tooth, although not visible on the surface can be a continuing source of pain and infection and needed removal as well. 



So, a healthy smile is important for good pain-free life. Come in have your pets teeth checked by one of our team at Vet HQ sometime soon. The sooner you act, the better chance we have of being able to save teeth.
 

Platelets are cells that are produced in the bone marrow and circulate around the body in the bloodstream. They are vital cells which cause clotting. When pets have a cut, these platelets stick to the edges of the cut and to one another forming a plug. If the animal has a condition called thrombocytopaenia, their platelet count is low and it is much harder for their body to form clots.

Without platelets, tiny vessels in the gums would bleed just from chewing food and as the food goes through the gut it would cause bleeding there too. Even the action of just touching skin or brushing hair can cause bruising of the skin. The clinical signs we look for on physical examination are pinpoint bleeds in the skin or gums, nosebleeds, bloody urine, blood in the poo or bleeding elsewhere. Below are photos of Midas, a patient of ours, when he presented with this condition.  

Christmas breakfast in the park – Saturday 5 December 2015 9.00am

• More details to follow
• New this year will be a staff dog race raising money for clown doctors

Crazy Halloween Food Fundraiser for Assistance Dogs Australia – Friday 31 October

• October is being rebranded as ‘Dogtober’ by Assistance dogs Australia
• Vet HQ will donate all proceeds of pet food sales to Assistance dogs on Halloween every year.
• Please join our Facebook sites for further details. 

Parking

• Unfortunately Kiaora Lane will be closed form Monday September 14 (This Monday)
• Please park in the Woolworths car park or on New South Head Rd.
• If you get stuck just phone us and we will come out to the car and collect your pet.
• We are sorry for the inconvenience. 

If you haven't received your pets birthday card, email us and update your details.