Digital Radiography
Westview Animal Hospital now offers Digital Radiography! Our new equipment is state of the art, and is the same system used by many veterinary colleges and teaching hospitals. Our old system can be compared to a Polaroid camera and our new system to a digital camera, in terms of image quality and speed of attainment.
Before After
Why is this such big news you ask?
There are several benefits to having digital radiography in our hospital. The most important advantage being the dramatic increase in image quality, which improves our ability to make an accurate diagnosis. A second advantage is that the process which used to take 15-20 minutes now takes 2-3 minutes!! This is huge in terms of less stress on the pet, less radiation due to fewer retakes, and less anesthetic time in sedated patients. With these new digital radiographs we are able to get a second opinion from a specialist in less than an hour, if needed. Before our upgrade, the films would have to be sent to a specialist through the mail, leaving patients and their owners waiting for days for the second opinion.
Puppy Seminar
A big thank you to all our puppy parents who came out to our seminar on the 12th! We hope it was informative to everyone and we will keep you posted on upcoming seminars here at Westview!
February is Pet Dental Health Month!!
We would like to take this opportunity to educate our clients a little more on the importance of pet dental care. According to the American Veterinary Dental Society, a shocking 80% of dogs and 70% of cats show signs of oral disease by age 3! It is now recommended that pet owners begin training kittens and puppies to tolerate having their teeth brushed. Approach this job with a positive attitude! Think of it as quality time you spend caring for your pet. It may take some time for the pet to get used to it, but take it slow and easy and then follow with something the pet likes, such as playtime, petting, or even a treat. Brushing needs to be done at least 3-4 times a week in order to make a difference in your pet’s oral health. It is important to be comfortable examining the inside of your pet's mouth. Lift the lip and look at the teeth, especially the back teeth. Open the mouth and look at the inside of the teeth and the tongue. This exam should be done routinely on pets of all ages so early signs of dental problems (oral masses, bad breath, missing teeth, gum redness) can be quickly addressed.
There is little difference between our human teeth and the teeth of our furry friends. We all begin life with a set of baby teeth that come in and fall out to make room for our adult teeth. We all have nerves and blood vessels in our teeth surrounded by dentin, which is encased in a hard coat of enamel. The enamel is bathed in saliva and then quickly covered in plaque (bacteria mixed with saliva). If we do not regularly disinfect our mouths and brush away the plaque, the plaque will mineralize into tartar (also called calculus-the gritty material the dental hygienist scrapes away). This tartar blocks oxygen from getting to the tooth and thus changes the nature of the bacteria that can live around the tooth. The bacteria that can withstand the oxygen-poor environment (anaerobic bacteria) are more harmful to the bone and tissues of the gum. The periodontal ligament becomes damaged, the bone around the tooth is literally eaten away, and the gums become more sensitive. Eventually the tooth is lost and, if the bone damage is severe enough, the jaw can actually break. Worse still, the bacteria in the mouth can seed other areas in the body leading to infection of the heart, liver, kidneys, or almost anywhere the bloodstream flows.
Do's and Don'ts of Brushing Your Pet’s Teeth
Don't use human toothpaste on your pet.
Do use a toothbrush without any paste at first so that your pet may get used to the object in the mouth before having to contend with flavor.
Don't attempt to clean the inner surface of your pet's teeth. Natural saliva cleans this surface on its own.
Do try to perform dental home care at least once daily.
Don't perform dental home care during the first week after a full dentistry in the hospital as your pet's gums may be tender.
Don't consider dental home care as an alternative to full dental cleaning if your pet has more advanced dental disease.
A note on: Dental Diets
There is a common misconception that simply feeding a kibbled diet will protect teeth from dental disease. Consider what it would be like to attempt to replace brushing your own teeth with eating crunchy foods and it is easy to see how ineffective this method would be. When it comes to pet foods, much of the kibble is swallowed whole and not chewed at all.
Clearly, there must be more to a dental diet than simple kibbling and in fact there is. Dental diets on the market today use several techniques to help reduce plaque. The first is that the kibbles are very large, which means the pet must chew them before swallowing them. These diets are high in fiber, which means the kibbles do not shatter when chewed but instead the tooth sinks into the kibble allowing plaque to be essentially scrubbed away. The large kibbles may pose an acceptance problem for the pet, leading the owner to use them as treats or mixed with other kibbles. The smaller the percentage of the diet these kibbles represent, the less benefit will be reaped. It is also important to realize that these diets are helpful only in cleaning the molars and premolars (i.e. the chewing teeth) and do not help the fangs or incisors.
Retrieved from http://veterinarypartner.com , Feb. 2012.
