Wellness Exam

• A wellness exam is a complete physical examination, which is a nose-to-tail inspection for any abnormalities, along with diagnostic testing that may include blood work, urinalysis, and checking for parasites.

Dentistry

• Dentistry for your pets entails professional scaling and polishing of the crown, or visible part of your dog or cat’s teeth.  Teeth cleaning does require scaling or scraping the tooth to remove plaque and calculus.  Scaling is completed to remove plaque and tartar build-up on the tooth crown.  Last, the teeth are polished leaving a completely smooth surface of the tooth which discourages plaque and bacteria from adhering to the rough tooth surface.

• We perform dental under general anesthesia.  It would be impossible to clean under the gum-line where periodontal disease lurks on an awake dog or cat.  General anesthesia is what often worries most pet owners, however, under proper protocols, anesthesia is very safe.  Your pet will have blood drawn for analysis to identify any potential problems that the doctor needs to be aware of and to determine if your pet is healthy enough to undergo anesthesia.  Click on following link for CONS of non-anesthetic dental cleaning: https://afd.avdc.org/what-is-an-anesthesia-free-dental-cleaning/

• Under general anesthesia, a complete oral exam and radiographs (x-rays) are taken to identify any problems beneath the gum line.  Common painful problems that could be identified with radiographs are broken teeth and roots, periodontal disease, dead teeth, abscesses or infected teeth.

Before dental cleaning:

Notice the red, swollen gums as well as the build up of tartar and calculus on the tooth.

After cleaning:

Notice the much better condition of the gums as well as the cleaner tooth.

In some cases, your pet will need to be seen by a board certified veterinary dentists for following complex cases:

1. Jaw Fracture Repair.
2. Oronasal Fistula Repair.
3. Removal of complicated oral tumors and masses.
4. Periodontal therapy.
5. Root canals.
6. Complicated extractions.
7. Treatment for Feline Stomatitis and Feline Tooth Resorption.
8. Pet Dental Cleaning for higher anesthesia risk pets. 

Diagnostics

• Comprehensive lab tests to evaluate organ function, endocrine disease and infectious diseases.
• Digital X-ray.
• Dental (Digital) X-ray.

(This is a Feline Odontoclastic Resorptive Lesion, which can cause pain, discomfort, hypersalivation and decreased appetite.  Dental x-ray can be used to identify and diagnose this condition)
(This is a root abscess (canine), that can be diagnosed with dental radiograph)

• Ultrasound.
• Some of the diagnostics may require a specialty consult and the doctor will inform you of this if indicated.

Emergency

• We are not a 24-hour facility, but the doctor on duty can perform initial stabilization for your pet(s) and will discuss with you about the transfer process to a 24-hour emergency/specialty facility
• If you suspect or know that your pet has eaten or been exposed to a toxic substance or product, contact your veterinarian, emergency veterinary clinic or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center (888-426-4435) immediately.  A fee may apply.

Microchip

• A pet microchip is a tiny device about the size of a grain of rice. Contained within glass that’s designed to be placed in your pet’s body, the microchip holds a small computer chip. The microchip is implanted between your pet’s shoulder blades with a needle. This computer chip stores your contact information.

Pain control

• We offer a wide range of pain control for both chronic and acute pain. The doctor will discuss with you in more detail at the time of consultation.

Health Certificates

• Domestic and International Health Certificates.
• Some countries may require preparation and planning 6 month to 1 year in advance, so we highly recommend that you do your research prior to scheduling for your pets’ health certificates.  You may call if you have any general questions.

Surgery

• Pre-anesthetic blood and/or urine test and/or radiographs is highly recommended or required depending on your pets’ age and condition prior to any surgeries/procedures that require anesthesia.
• The doctor on duty will discuss if you pet(s) will require a specialty consult with a board-certified surgeon.  To learn more about board certified surgeons, please click on this link: https://www.acvs.org/ 

Prevention of endo- and ecto-parasites.

• We offer a wide range of preventives for endoparasites (heartworm, roundworm, hookworm, whipworm, tapeworm, etc) and ectoparasites (fleas, ticks, mites, etc). The doctor will discuss with you in more detail and recommend the best preventive option according to your pets’ needs.

Vaccine

• Vaccine schedules
  Rabies vaccine is administered between 12 and 16 weeks of age, is boostered in 1 year, and then every 3 years.
  Core vaccines (DA2PP for dogs and FVRCP for cats) generally start at 6 to 8 weeks of age, and are boostered every 3-4 weeks until your pet(s) is 16 weeks or older. Then the boosters are administered every 1-3 years depending on your pet(s) environmental factors.
  Non-core vaccines (Bordetella, Canine Influenza Virus Bivalent, and Leptospirosis 4-serovar) generally start at 9 to 12 weeks of age, and are boostered in 3-4 weeks. Then, the next boosters are administered annually.
  

Dogs

• Rabies.
• Distemper, Adenovirus-2, Parainfluenza, Parvovirus.
• Bordetella.
• Canine Influenza Virus Bivalent (H3N2/H3N8).
• Leptospirosis 4-serovar.

Cats

• Rabies.
• Feline Viral Herpes, Calicivirus, Panleukopenia.
• Feline Leukemia.
• Cats are a unique species in many ways.  One of the more harmful of these is their tendency to develop injection site reactions.  Therefore, when given certain types of injections, cats may react at the site of injection.  Adjuvanted vaccines are the type of injection with the most risk for your cat.  Adjuvanted vaccine contains an adjuvant or irritating chemical along with the virus or bacteria.  These adjuvanted vaccines are essential for some types of vaccines to boost the immune response and ensure protection.  They are quite safe and effective in humans, dogs and other species.  However, in cats, they have been shown to cause a malignant and often fatal cancer known as vaccine site sarcoma (VSS).  Vaccine site sarcomas are cancerous tumors that occur at vaccination sites in cats caused by vaccines that contain adjuvant.  Approximately one to two out of every 10,000 vaccinated cats develop this condition.  If you notice swelling at the vaccination site with any of the following, contact us immediately: Grows larger after 1 month; Bigger than 2 centimeters; Persists for more than three months.  Diagnosis of vaccine site sarcoma is made via a surgical biopsy (tissue sample).  Treatment usually requires wide surgical excision (removal) often followed by radiation or chemotherapy.  We recommend keeping your cat current on vaccines.  This is because the risks of contracting a serious infectious disease are greater than the risks of developing a tumor.  If you are concerned about the risks, we can discuss the benefits of getting your pet vaccinated.
• The risk of vaccine site sarcoma is almost completely eliminated by the use of non-adjuvanted vaccines.  These vaccines are specially formulated to eliminate the need for an adjuvant.  Therefore, they allow for safe inoculations with little to no risk of tumor formation.  Also, they are just as effective as their adjuvanted counterparts.  Here at Belmont Heights Animal Hospital, we are proud to use only non-adjuvanted vaccines in all our feline patients.  We also avoid the use of any other drugs known to cause injection site reactions.  We strongly believe in providing only the best quality care for our patients.

Health Certificates

• Belmont Heights offers both domestic and international health certificates.
• Please refer to https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/home/ for a detailed information about the requirements for the destination country/state to plan/prepare in advance