He’s a highly energetic young man who would do best in a home without small children for fear he might accidentally knock them over. He likes cats but sometimes is a little more curious than the cats may like. He gets along great with other dogs.

Pink is a 1.5 year old domestic shorthair cat. Pink had been living with a homeless person who passed away. She was picked up by animal control and brought to us to find her a new, safe, loving home. She appears to have been well cared for and is in good health.

Hi, my name is Pepper, I’m a beautiful black and white pit bull terrier, and I am approximately 15 weeks old. My foster mommy says that I am going to make someone a wonderful pet. I love to play and have lots of energy, but she is teaching me good manners. I am a very fast learner! I know how to sit and stay. I’m learning not to jump on you and sit at your feet. As soon as you give me the sign, I am ready to sit in your lap and lavish you with tons of pittie kisses! Once I get that out of my system I will lay my head on you and love you unconditionally. I love to play with my foster dog sister, and I have foster kitty sisters too, but I haven’t quite learned not to chase them yet. I’m working on that. I am also working hard on my potty training and crate training. My foster mommy is so proud! If you want to meet me and give me my forever home, contact my foster mom, Rachel, at (636)262-5585.

February is Dental Month and we’re excited to offer a special on a complete dental prophylaxis treatment all month long!

How often do you go to the dentist? How often do you brush your teeth? Taking care of your teeth is important but so is taking care of your pets’ teeth. They don’t make doggie dentures!

And it’s not just dogs who need routine dental care: cats can have just as bad, if not worse, dental disease. Most dental problems cannot be seen on a routine physical exam because most pets don’t like strangers poking around in their mouths! The only reliable way to fully investigate your pets’ dental health is when performing a routine dental prophylaxis treatment. This is the same as when you go to the dentist for a “cleaning” every 6 months.

How do your pet’s teeth look?

Ideally, any pet with Stage 1 periodontal disease should have a dental prophylaxis performed to ensure there are no more severe issues and to prevent further disease. Certainly, every pet with Grade 2-4 should have teeth cleaned,  dental x-rays, and severely diseased teeth removed.

Our routine dental prophylaxis treatment includes:

• Pre-surgical bloodwork to ensure that your pet can physically handle anesthesia
• Anesthesia with a dedicated, trained anesthetist to make anesthesia as safe as possible
• Scaling with an ultrasonic scaler and hand scaling to clean debris from below the gumline.
• Polishing to smooth any roughness or grooves to help prevent further tartar buildup
• Fluoride treatment
• Pain medication to go home for any sore gums (especially important for those with severe dental disease)

While your pet is anesthetized and all that rock-hard tartar is off their teeth, we can fully examine each tooth to make sure it’s healthy and not damaged. If there are deep pockets in the gumline around a tooth, that can indicate deeper dental disease. Some teeth are only held in by tartar which we can’t know until that tartar is gone.

A thorough scaling and polishing gets rid of the tartar and the bacteria that created it. The bacteria concreted to your pets’ teeth can cause even worse damage than a loose or rotten tooth. Although a rotten tooth is painful and needs to be addressed in an urgent manner, the migration of bacteria from the mouth to other areas of the body (such as the heart and kidneys) can create an even more life threatening problem.

We see many older, small-breed dogs with severe dental disease who also developed a heart murmur due to vegatative endocarditis (bacterial nodules on the heart valves and elsewhere inside the heart). This causes the heart to not function properly and makes anesthesia unsafe. What happens if that pet has a tooth abscess due to the severe dental disease? It’s no longer as safe to anesthetize them as it would have been prior to the development of the heart disease. This is why having a cleaning done yearly to every 2 years is almost a must for many small-breed dogs. They’re also the ones who are less likely to allow tooth brushing so that the owner can keep up with teeth cleaning at home. If they allow tooth brushing, this can reduce the frequency that they need professional dental prophylaxis treatments.

I have also heard of some places offering “anesthesia-free teeth cleaning”. As wonderful as that sounds, it’s just not effective and is, truthfully, a waste of your money. It’s also lovely if the groomer will brush Fluffy’s teeth while she’s there but if you’re not doing it at home, one tooth brushing every 2 months isn’t going to do a whole lot of good in the long term. I don’t even want to think about what our teeth would look like if we only brushed them once every 2 months!!!

Because of the special pricing we’re offering to celebrate Dental Month, now is a great time to get your pets in for the dental care they need!

Spodieodiedopalicious was found by a client of ours running around outside. Her family could not be found and the people who found her could not keep her even though they loved her very much. Spodieodie is a very active little puppy who loves to run and chew on her toys.

Maple came to us because her original owner could no longer take care of her and the home he sent her to ended up being less than ideal so dad brought her in to us to rehome. When she came here, she had a horrible skin infection and was missing almost all her hair on her hind end.

Since then, after weeks of treatment, her hair is returning!

At The Pet Doctor, we recommend that cats be treated as indoor pets.  There are so many ways that our furry friends can get in trouble outside. 

We realize that there are some circumstances that make it difficult to do this.  I have a couple of “barn kitties” of my own, including one feral boy that was a recent addition.  He runs and hides whenever he sees a person, but luckily I have noticed that he is spending more time inside the warm barn now that the weather has gotten colder.  I have been worried about him, so I wanted to pass on some tips to keep outdoor cats safe.   

With temperatures in Missouri finally dipping, outdoor cats will need a little special attention to stay warm, happy, healthy and safe in winter. Follow these helpful tips to keep an outdoor cat at their best during the cold months ahead.

• Watch for signs of frostbite. It’s seen most often on ears, the tail and footpads, and look for pale, glossy or white skin. Better yet, prevent frostbite all together by providing a warm, inside place for them to go.
• Feed your cat a nutritionally-complete food and plenty of it.  Caloric needs can increase when they are using energy to keep warm.   ALWAYS always keep plenty of fresh water available at all times. Nutrition and water are important because a well-nourished and well-hydrated pet is better equipped to cope with harsh weather.
• Cats love curling up in a warm place for a nap. Prevent potential burns and fires by protecting an outdoor cat from open fireplaces, wood stoves and space heaters. Warm engines are also a hiding place for outdoor cats and this can be a life-threatening habit, so honk the horn or bang on the hood before starting your car.
• Antifreeze has a sweet taste that animals like but it is toxic enough to cause serious illness and even death. Make sure your car isn’t leaking any fluids and keep containers safely locked away.  You can also purchase types of antifreeze that are considered to be more “pet safe”.
• Give an outdoor cat a cozy place to sleep by offering some bedding in a warm place, free from drafts. Raise the bed off the floor, too, cats love that feeling of hiding in their own special den.
• Preventative deworming is important in outdoor cats because they are likely to come in contact with parasites.  Having the burden of parasites can make them unable to handle the weather extremes.  We recommend deworming every 6 months for outdoor cats! 
• Contact us immediately if you notice changes in your cat’s behavior, such as decrease in energy level or appetite.

While going with the cheapest option may make your pocketbook happy, it may not mean the best care for your pet. Many “low-cost” clinics are very nice and do a good job with the financial constraints that they’ve placed on themselves. But how do they keep those prices so low? It may mean they aren’t providing all the services and care a moderately or high priced hospital routinely provides.

You may be able to have your pet spayed or neutered for $99 at a low-cost clinic but there are several questions to ask about their protocols. Do they perform full pre-surgical blood-work (a chemistry panel and a complete blood count) to ensure your pet is healthy enough to undergo anesthesia? Sometimes blood-work is the only way to tell if the liver and kidneys are functioning sufficiently to metabolize the anesthetic drugs properly. Do they place an IV catheter and endotracheal (breathing) tube in every patient to ensure instant venous access in case of an emergency? While anesthesia on a young, healthy animal is generally safe, if your pet was to have a problem such as low heart rate or blood pressure, it would be important to be able to correct it rapidly and effectively; an IV catheter ensures that. Likewise, is there a dedicated, trained technician or doctor monitoring anesthesia? The doctor performing the operation does not count, they’re busy performing surgery and cannot be effective at both tasks. Although monitors are wonderful but they aren’t always 100% accurate. It takes the eyes, ears and experience of a trained anesthetist to double check the monitors to make sure anesthesia is safe.

Surgery isn’t the only place that people may choose a low-cost clinic. When your pet is due for vaccinations, it may seem silly to spend more money at a moderately priced hospital when any doctor is qualified to give shots, right? Most hospitals have a recommended protocol for vaccinations, but will they take the time to talk to you to see what your pet really needs? Some older pets can skip vaccines or decrease the frequency. Other need more than what the general protocol calls for. But it’s not even just about vaccinations. Does the doctor perform a physical exam on all patients coming in for vaccines? We can give any animal shots but will they be safe and effective? Without a physical exam, the doctor has no way of knowing. For this reason, we never recommend vaccinating without a physical exam.

Furthermore, when your pet is ill, would you prefer a clinic with in-house blood-work and x-ray capabilities or one that has to send it out and wait for results? In cases of extremely ill patients, the time it takes to send out blood and receive results could truly be the difference between life and death. Less expensive clinics may not have in-house blood-work or x-rays because they cannot afford to keep them around with as low as the hospital’s prices are.

Coupons, discounts and low prices are nice but at what cost? It’s one thing to use a coupon for a box of cereal at the store because you know it’s the same thing whether you use a coupon or not, but are you sure it’s the same treatment when you are getting discounted care at the vet?

This litter of puppies was found on a country road hiding in a hollowed out tree trunk huddling together to keep warm. They were foraging for any scrap of food they could find.

They have been cleaned up and are much happier receiving regular meals and in a warm place! Of course, they’d be even happier if they found a wonderful home for the holidays.

This litter includes Boomer, Tod, Widow Tweed, and Copper. Widow Tweed and Boomer are girls, Tod and Copper are boys. Please call us if you would like to meet them!

This litter of puppies was found on a country road hiding in a hollowed out tree trunk huddling together to keep warm. They were foraging for any scrap of food they could find.

They have been cleaned up and are much happier receiving regular meals and in a warm place! Of course, they’d be even happier if they found a wonderful home for the holidays.

This litter includes Boomer, Tod, Widow Tweed, and Copper. Widow Tweed and Boomer are girls, Tod and Copper are boys. Please call us if you would like to meet them!