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GROTON CITY ANIMAL HOSPITAL
"Caring For Pets And Their People"
Providing Care For Horses, Alpacas, Llamas, Goats, Sheep, Dogs, Cats & Pocket
Pets
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The dogs in our lives are often
companions, friends, work partners and part of our family. At the Groton
City Animal Hospital we understand the bond that many of you share with
your canine companion and strive to provide comprehensive medical and
surgical care for him or her. We feel very strongly that preventive care
is the foundation for keeping your friend healthy well into their
"golden" years.
We encourage
our clients to come in for yearly thorough physical exams in addition to
updating vaccines on a regular basis. Our vaccine recommendations have
changed over the past several years as we learn more about vaccines, how
long the immunity to certain diseases last and most importantly
evaluating your individual animals risk factors for getting a disease.
The time when all dogs got the same vaccines on the same schedule is
gone. We now tailor our recommendations to your pet. A comprehensive
physical exam is also important in identifying any problems that your
pet might have from simple things like skin issues to more major
problems such as heart disease. In addition to our doctors using their
skills to exam your pet, we may also recommend blood screening to help
identify some diseases at an even earlier stage than might be apparent
on a physical exam. Some of the things we might test for would be
anemia, kidney disease, liver dysfunction, heartworms and thyroid
function. We also might recommend testing your pet’s urine to identify
things such as bladder stones, bladder infections, kidney disease or
early stages of other diseases. Testing your pet’s stool for internal
parasites on a regular basis is a very important part of general
wellness care. Internal parasites can cause a variety of physical
problems from weight loss to diarrhea and vomiting. Individual tests
would be recommended based on your pet’s age, physical signs and the
doctor’s exam. Many of the blood tests can be run here at our office and
we also have the capability of doing radiographs and basic ultrasounds
here.
The most
important part of your visit to our hospital with your pet is the time
that we spend talking with you about your pet, his or her lifestyle, and
getting information on anything that may be a concern to you about your
pet and especially spending time educating you about health care for
your dog. Educated clients are our best clients and make better pet
owners! We encourage owners to ask questions about their pet on every
subject from diet to behavior. You can also rest assured that if at any
time, your pet’s health care needs are beyond the scope of the equipment
available at our hospital, you will be informed of options for referral
for additional diagnostics or more advanced medical and surgical care.
Situations where this might arise include complicated orthopedic cases,
seriously ill medical patients that require round-the-clock intense
monitoring, and the need for advanced diagnostics such as abdominal
ultrasounds, MRI or CT scans.
Our office does
not currently offer adjunctive therapy in areas such as acupuncture or
chiropractic but we are happy to provide referrals to other local
practitioners that do provide this type of care. In many cases these
modalities provide symptomatic relief for things such as arthritis in
addition to treating with traditional medicine.
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