Veterinary Services
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Emergency Services

As much as we try to prevent them, accidents happen. When they do, we are here to help get your pet back on his or her feet as soon as possible. We are available for emergency care during regular business hours. If your pet requires emergency care after hours, we recommend seeking emergency care at Northwest Veterinary Specialists and Emergency Service or DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital.

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Diagnostic Services

Elective surgeries such as spays and neuters receive the same high quality care and careful anesthetic monitoring as exploratory surgeries and complicated mass removals.

• Blood Pressure Monitoring
• Laboratory Services
• Radiology and Ultrasound
• Electrocardiography

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Blood Pressure Monitoring

We offer Doppler blood pressure monitoring for anesthesia patients, outpatients, and senior pets. High blood pressure in dogs and cats is typically related to an underlying disease. High blood pressure can result in sudden or gradual blindness as a result of retinal detachment, and also increases the risk of embolism, or tiny blood clots that can lodge in the brain and other locations.

There are numerous diseases in pets that are associated with high blood pressure:

• Chronic renal (kidney) failure In one study, 93% of dogs with chronic renal failure and 61% of cats with chronic renal failure also had systemic hypertension.
• Hyperthyroidism In one study, 87% of cats with untreated hyperthyroidism had systemic hypertension. (Note: hyperthyroidism is a feline disease only.)
• Glomerular disease is a disease of the kidney filtration system in which protein is lost in urine. It is important to screen pets with high blood pressure for urinary protein as control of protein loss is important to survival time.
• Cushing's disease (an adrenal cortisone excess)
• Diabetes mellitus (inability to properly reduce blood sugar)
• Acromegaly (growth hormone excess)
• Polycythemia (an excess in red blood cells)
• Pheochromocytoma (an adrenaline secreting tumor of the adrenal gland)

Most cases of high blood pressure in pets are identified by screening. If a pet has one of the above conditions, blood pressure is generally checked. It has recently been recommended that older pets have their blood pressure checked whenever they have a physical examination. We recommend blood pressure screening for all senior patients.

If high blood pressure is found, we will look for the underlying cause. If treatment of the underlying condition does not resolve the hypertension, then medication may be necessary to control the blood pressure. Hypertensive patients should be rechecked every 2 to 4 months to keep their blood pressure in a healthy range.

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Laboratory Services

We offer both in-house and reference laboratory services to meet your pet’s diagnostic needs. In-house laboratory equipment is used to get fast answers about your pet’s health, including blood serum chemistry, complete blood counts, urine and stool evaluations, as well as heartworm, feline leukemia, feline immunodeficiency virus, and parvovirus testing. We use our reference laboratory to provide our clients with the best prices for routine monitoring and specialty tests.

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Radiology and Ultrasound

We offer on-site diagnostic radiology services providing us with more information about what is going on inside your pet. We can evaluate the chest, abdominal cavity, bones, and limbs to aid in the proper diagnosis of your pet’s condition. All of our radiographs (x-rays) are reviewed and evaluated by a board-certified radiologist, with complete reports available within 24 hours.

We also can arrange for a board-certified radiologist to ultrasound your pet. Ultrasound imaging is a another painless way to look inside the body. Ultrasound sound waves are transmitted from the end of a transducer into the body and are bounced off objects in their path and travel back toward their source as a sound wave. Each tissue within the body contains a different property enabling the sound wave to be displayed as a different shade of gray. Once the resulting pattern of sound reflection is obtained it is then processed by a computer to produce a moving image or still image on a display screen. Ultrasound provides us with another tool to “look inside” your pet without being invasive.

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Electrocardiography

The E0CG is often used to assess the heart muscles of your dog or cat. This is a noninvasive test that records the electrical activity of the heart and aids in the diagnosis of heart problems. We have a service that allows us to consult with a board-certified cardiologist on your pet’s ECG with results in just a few hours.

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