Sad news about our clinic cat Lilly

We all love our Lily.  Today she was scheduled for her dental cleaning.  Before putting her under anesthesia, we performed routing blood work as we do for all patients before anesthesia.  That blood worked showed some major changes.  Her hematocrit (packed cell volume-a measurement of red blood cells) turned out to be only 17%.  The normal range for a cat is 30-52.   The low number indicates anemia. 

Dr. Remick and the technicians reviewed slide of her blood under the microscope and discovered that her red blood cells are indeed very low and clumping together (agglutination). These factors led to a diagnosis of Autoimmune Disease.  The rest of the blood work all looked normal.

This shows how important it is to do blood work on our pets, even our seemingly healthy pets at least once a year.  Lily is our clinic cat, very healthy, no signs of illness at all.  She is only 6 years old and bounces around this places like a mad cougar.  We are so thankful we did the blood work and discovered her illness.  She has been started on cortisone as the primary treatment which will likely continue for the rest of her life. 

As for Lily and her teeth?  She had one tooth that troublesome that was cleaned since she was already sedated and we did the best we could with the rest of her teeth for now.  She will still need to have her teeth cleaned in the future, but that will wait until we are certain that she will be a good candidate for anesthesia. 

Lily’s Likes and Nora’s Nopes

My cat Phoenix recently had his teeth cleaned at Edmonds Veterinary Hospital. I enjoyed his sparkly white teeth and his fresh breath. My vet told me without daily dental care at home, the fresh breath and the white teeth would not last forever. I wanted what was best for my beloved Phoenix. The technician talked to me about a few options I had of things I could do at home to keep up on his dental health.

She first told me about brushing his teeth. Phoenix was not a good candidate for this option. He does not like his mouth handled and I was kind of nervous about putting my fingers in his mouth.

The next option we discussed was using dental treats but once again Phoenix was not a good candidate for that option either. He has never been a cat that likes treats, not even catnip!

Finally the technician suggested one more option, the C.E.T AquaDent drinking water additive. This product I just simply put in his drinking water and the enzymes do all the work for me. The enzymes keep the particles that form plaque from even sticking to his teeth: they don't even have a chance to turn into the hard smelly tartar. As soon as I heard this, I was sold and very excited…no work on my end and my pet gets to keep beautiful white teeth and no bad breath.

It sounded almost too good to be true. I purchased some of the C.E.T. AquaDent as his dental discharge and added it to his water right away at home. It was an easy transition adding this product to my daily routine. I simply added it to his water every day when I changed his water dish. Phoenix never even noticed something was different.  I love C.E.T. AquaDent water additive and I recommend it to all my friends to keep the pretty white teeth and fresh smelling breath.

Katee and Phoenix

Lily Likes;
Nora’s talking about it!

MAY PET OF THE MONTH - EINSTEIN

Einstein is a Golden Retriever, known as Einar to his close friends.

He is the most friendly, happy, playful and mischievous boy always ready for fetching tennis balls or searching for them in the bushes. Einar loves swimming, usually at Edmonds Off-leash Park, and whenever he is along on a boat trip.  Without even a bark, he is playful with other dogs and most willing to give a hug to anyone person he meets.  Typical of Goldens, he is a wonderful family companion and in particular he has made us members of his pack.  Like a child he has dog toys around the house, pillows for napping, and a jar of dog treats. We are proud to honor Einstein as our May Pet of the Month!

Weather or not to leave your pooch in the car….

Here in Western Washington, it’s uncommon for us to experience unseasonably warm weather and today is sure to be one of those days.  While running errands for the clinic earlier this week (cooler than today, overcast and in the morning) I sat in my car while returning phone calls and answering email.  In the 20 minutes that I was doing so, the temperature in the car rose and was uncomfortably hot.

When I left the car to run my next errand and walked through the parking lot, I was dismayed to see the number of pets in their owner’s cars-windows up, them yapping wildly, panting, hot and frantic.  And it’s only MAY!

This isn’t about what I did, but what you should do with your own pets. 

We urge you to consider that the interior of your car can warm up dramatically even on cooler days.  In just 10 minutes on a 70 degree day the interior of the car can warm to 90 degrees; on an 85 degree day the interior can reach 130 degrees in 30 minutes…with the windows cracked open!  Most the heat increases in the first 10-20 minutes.

So what should you do when you see a distressed pet in the car?  You can go into the business the car is parked and ask the manager to page the person that owns the car (have the license plate) providing the animal is not in severe distress.  Otherwise, call Animal Control or 911 if you don’t know the number for Animal Control.

You can also visit www.redrover.org search for ‘my dog is cool’ and you can read more and download flyers to raise awareness.