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Nutritional Counseling
Dietary Counseling: We will provide guidance regarding your pet's nutritional needs for each life stage, including dietary requirements for growth, weight maintenance and performance.
Comprehensive Examination
Today's modern anesthetic monitors have made surgery much safer than in the past. Here at Northwest Corner Veterinary Hospital, L.L, we do a thorough physical exam on your pet before administering anesthetics, to ensure that a fever or other illness won't be a problem. We also adjust the amount and type of anesthetic used depending on the health of your pet. The handout on anesthesia explains this in greater detail.
Heartgard: Administer once a month to prevent Heartworm disease and to treat and control Roundworm and Hookworm infections in dogs. (Beef flavored Chewables)
Pain Management
Anything that causes pain in people can be expected to cause pain in animals. Pets may not show the same symptoms of pain as people do; they usually don't whine or cry, but you can be sure they feel it. Pain medications needed will depend on the surgery performed. Major procedures require more pain relief than things like minor lacerations.
Vomiting Treatment
Skin Condition and Allergy Treatment
Because of this we do NOT recommend feeding your dog grain free food unless it's medically necessary because of an allergy. For those dogs with food allergies we would like to point out that limited ingredient diet does not have to be grain fee. If your dog has a food allergy, he or she is not necessarily allergic to the grain component of the food. Try to find a food he or she can tolerate with grain in it.
Recent studies have found that grain free food has been linked to a very serious type of heart disease in dogs. Fortunately, this seems to happen rarely. Unfortunately, we do not know why there is this correlation. Is it that grain free food is missing something dogs need? Or is it caused by the unusual ingredients sometimes found in grain free food? For now, there are many theories, but nobody knows for sure.
Spaying or neutering can be done at approximately 6 months of age. Your pet is given an exam prior to surgery to help determine whether your pet is healthy enough to undergo the surgical procedure. Current vaccinations are required at the time of surgery. Also a pre-anesthetic blood screen is recommended prior to undergoing anesthesia and surgery.
We offer three levels of in-house blood testing before surgery, which we will go over with you when you bring your pet in. Our doctors prefer the more comprehensive screen, because it gives them the most information to ensure the safety of your pet. For geriatric or ill pets, additional blood tests, electrocardiograms, or x-rays may be required before surgery as well.
Dr. Shupenis received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia. Four years later she graduated from North Carolina State University's College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Shupenis worked as a small animal veterinarian in East Hartford for four years before joining the Northwest Corner Veterinary Hospital in July of 2002. She especially enjoys internal medicine and ophthalmology.