Today is the full moon.
Give your monthly preventatives!
Note: If you have another way to remember to give your preventatives, that’s okay too! Do what works for you. I thought it might be fun for us to all give it together.
Dr. Mo Beck saw his first appointments here at Southern Rhode Island Animal Hospital. He loves all the little critters. He saw two bunnies and he has plans to neuter the boy bunny on Monday. Bring your bearded dragons, tortoises, birds, guinea pigs, rabbits, gerbils and degus (a relative of the guinea pig and chinchilla) and come see Dr Mo! Help spread the word that he is here and seeing exotics!
What’s new for cases at the clinic? We saw another foreign body. Padfoot ate a towel that I removed surgically. He was vomiting and not feeling well. After sedation and radiographs, I felt that I could see a foreign body in his intestines and we removed it.
This is Padfoot’s post surgery picture where he is feeling MUCH better!
I’m seeing a lot of itchy dogs. Dog allergies peak in the spring and fall and ragweed is blooming now. My own dog has allergies and I had her on immunosuppressives to control the itch. I don’t love immunosuppressives, however they are served up. They can be steroids, Apoquel, or Atopica. They all work and they are all expensive or have side effects that I don’t really love. Immunosuppressants keep dogs from itching, but they also don’t allow dogs to fight natural infections. The only way to possibly make a dog not allergic anymore is with allergy shots. We take a blood test to see what pets are allergic to, and then make a serum that contains those things. It is given to the dog in increasing concentrations until its body learns to ignore the offending allergen. I have been surprised by how well and how quickly it has worked for my own dog. Dogs that are white, or light in color, tend to have more allergies than other color dogs. I had my own inhalant allergies and I had allergy shots myself for about five years. I am much more comfortable and much less allergic than I used to be. I still have to take an oral antihistamine when the spring and fall pollen is really terrible. The same is true for our allergic dogs. We can’t expect allergy shots to solve everything, but my experience with my own dog has been very positive.
Below Lucas Midnight is helping me type up his exam. He came to see me for an annual exam today.
Spread the word!
Dr Mo is now seeing our exotic pets!
Happy End of Summer!
Happy full moon gazing!
Remember your monthly heartworm and/or flea and tick prevention!
– Dana