We recommend annual or semi-annual exams based on your pet’s age and medical conditions. Because our pets can’t verbalize their health concerns and often hide symptoms of illness or pain, these visits are crucial in keeping pets healthy and identifying any underlying issues. Wellness exams include a complete physical examination and health assessment, diagnostic testing, and preventative care.
Physical exams
A physical exam is a nose-to-tail checkup. We will evaluate your pet’s eyes, ears, teeth, heart, lungs, skin, mobility, and mentation. We will also obtain vitals including weight, heart rate, temperature, and respiratory rate.
Annual lab tests
Routine blood work and urine testing helps to give us a full picture of your pet’s health. These tests can aid in early disease detection, which leads to better success rates in both curative treatment and chronic disease management.
Parasite Screening
To help keep your pet and family healthy, we recommend yearly heartworm testing and intestinal parasite screening. We also recommend year-round heartworm and intestinal parasite prevention.
Vaccines
Vaccinations are the easiest way to prevent potentially deadly diseases, including rabies, distemper, and feline panleukopenia. In addition to core vaccines, we can make recommendations based on your pet’s age and lifestyle to make sure they’re fully protected.
Microchipping
Every year, thousands of pets go missing. Microchips are an electronic device that can be placed quickly, easily, and relatively pain-free in your pet. In the unfortunate situation that your pet becomes lost, the microchip will allow your pet to be identified and returned to you if found.
Sick Appointments
If your pet is sick, we will obtain a history and perform a full physical examination. We will discuss potential causes and work together with you to tailor a diagnostic and treatment plan for your pet. We will continue to be here for you once your pet is discharged by following up on their progress at home and answering any of your questions or concerns.
Senior and Geriatric Patients
It's important to remember that age is not a disease. While our older pets may encounter age-related challenges, you can ensure that your pet enjoys a happy, healthy, and active life during their senior years by addressing their physical, mental, and healthcare needs.
Senior and Geriatric pet care includes bi-annual wellness visits, routine lab work and diagnostics, chronic condition management, and chronic pain management.
Many clients assume that mobility issues and pain are a part of their pet’s normal aging process; however, this doesn’t need to be the case. By using a combination of Western medicine and integrative veterinary medicine, we can help to improve your senior pet’s quality of life by managing their pain, improving their mobility, and building their strength.
Dentistry
Recent studies show that 70% of adult cats and 80% of adult dogs show symptoms of oral disease. Clinical signs of dental disease include bad breath, red gums, discolored teeth, bleeding from the mouth, loose or broken teeth, pawing at the mouth, dropping food, and excessive drooling. To prevent painful oral disease and infections, we recommend routine dental exams.
If we determine your pet needs a dental cleaning or extractions, we will schedule them for surgery. All dental cleanings require anesthesia to keep your pet safe and comfortable, and to allow for a complete examination and cleaning. During the process, we will probe and chart each tooth to look for any abnormalities, use an ultrasonic scaler to remove plaque and tartar, polish the teeth to prevent further build-up and smooth the enamel, obtain full-mouth dental x-rays to evaluate for issues below the gum line and perform extractions if indicated.
Soft Tissue Surgery
At Washington Park Veterinary Clinic, we perform a number of soft tissue surgeries, including spays and neuters, prophylactic gastropexies, mass removals, intestinal foreign body removals, intestinal resection and anastomosis (removing part of the intestine), exploratory laparotomies (looking in the abdomen to try to determine the cause of symptoms or abnormal lab work), and organ and/or intestinal biopsies, just to name a few.
Most surgical procedures (as well as dental cleanings) require the patient to be under general anesthesia. There are inherent risks associated with anesthesia, and we understand that this can cause stress and anxiety for the owner. To ensure that each patient is healthy enough for anesthesia, a full workup including an exam, and blood work is performed on each patient prior to surgery. On the day of surgery, each patient will be monitored and cared for by a team of three, including a veterinary assistant, veterinary technician, and veterinarian. This team is devoted to making sure your pet is as comfortable as possible, and to monitor your pet during and after anesthesia.
After the pre-surgical workup, an IV catheter is placed, and the surgery patient is given an injection of medication to help calm them down prior to induction of anesthesia. An injection of medication is given to initially anesthetize the patient. At that time, a breathing tube is placed into the airway, which helps to ensure that the patient has an open airway during the procedure. Anesthesia is maintained using an inhaled gas that is administered through the breathing tube. Every pet who is under general anesthesia is given IV fluids during the procedure to help maintain blood pressure and to ensure that they do not become dehydrated.
During anesthesia, we use a monitor to keep track of the patient’s respiratory rate, oxygenation percentage, EKG, heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature. Readings are recorded every 5 minutes, but monitoring is constant. Any changes in any of the parameters being measured can be addressed, if needed, by adjusting IV fluid rate or amount of anesthetic gas being delivered, or by administering additional medications. After the procedure is complete, the patient is slowly awakened by the surgery/anesthesia team. The pet remains here at our hospital for several hours afterward so we can ensure that their recovery is smooth and that they do not go home until they are awake enough to do so.
If your pet has surgery scheduled with us, it is important that they be fasted after 10 pm the night before the surgery (this means no food or treats, but they can continue to have access to water). They should also not receive any food or treats on the morning of surgery. They should be dropped off for surgery during their designated drop-off time, and you should expect to spend 10-15 minutes with the surgery technician to complete the surgery check-in process. Most pets who have elective procedures at Washington Park Veterinary Clinic may go home that same afternoon. The veterinarian will contact you once the procedure is complete and your pet is in recovery.
Here at Washington Park Veterinary Clinic, we do everything we can to ensure that the surgery experience is exceptional for you and for your pet. We welcome any and all questions before surgery.
Laparoscopy
Laparoscopic surgery consists of a small laparoscopic camera and a light source that is inserted in an incision (less than 1 inch long) that displays images on a monitor to allow veterinarians to view the inside of the animal. The abdomen is inflated with carbon dioxide to create a larger space for working and viewing. Once the area has been viewed with the laparoscopic camera, the veterinarian uses specialized tools to perform the procedure.
Laparoscopic surgeries have many benefits including the reduction of pain and healing time. Due to the small incisions, there is less bleeding, scarring and soft tissue trauma is minimized for an altogether less painful recovery period.
The most common laparoscopic surgeries are:
Laparoscopic Ovariectomy (OVE) – A surgical removal of the ovaries via two small - three incisions.
Laparoscopic Assisted Gastropexy – A surgical attachment of the stomach to the abdominal wall to prevent Gastric-Dilatation and Volvulus (GDV), a severe life threatening surgical emergency. Recommended for large and giant dog breeds. This procedure can be done at any time, but is typically performed at the time of spay and neuter.
Laparoscopic Assisted Cyrptorchid neuter - A less invasive way to surgically remove retained testicles in male dogs.
Laparoscopic Biopsies - A minimally invasive way to collect organ samples for biopsy, culture and further analysis in patients with metabolic diseases.
Ask our staff if you have questions about our laparoscopic surgery services.
Board-Certified Specialty Care
We utilize mobile specialists to provide the following care in our hospital:
Cardiology/echocardiograms
Ultrasonography
Advanced surgical procedures, including orthopedics
Internal Medicine
Digital Radiology
Our facility is equipped with advanced digital radiology (x-ray) technology, enabling us to accurately diagnose and manage a wide range of medical conditions. Additionally, we have the capability to utilize external board-certified radiologists to examine our radiographs (x-rays) and deliver comprehensive analyses.
Pharmaceutical Services
We carry a variety of pharmaceuticals, heartworm preventatives, flea and tick medications, prescription foods, shampoos, and supplements in our in-house pet pharmacy.
You may also take advantage of our online pharmacy, Vetsource, which provides the convenience of placing orders from the comfort of your home, with products being shipped directly to your residence.
We work with safe and reliable manufacturers to ensure your pet is not receiving any counterfeit medications.
Laser Therapy
Laser therapy (photobiomodulation) uses near infrared wavelengths of light which go into the tissue and are absorbed by the cells. It affects blood flow and local cell metabolism, resulting in a reduction of pain and inflammation and faster wound healing.
In veterinary medicine we can use laser for a variety of conditions including arthritis, soft tissue injuries, sprains, strains, incisions, ear infections and wounds. We also use laser post-operatively for inflammation and healing.
Rehabilitation
What is rehabilitation and how can it help?
Physical rehabilitation for your pet is like physical therapy for people. Rehab helps to maintain or improve daily function by reducing inflammation and pain, improving joint range of motion and muscle flexibility, strengthening muscles, improving balance and body awareness, and building endurance. Rehab helps pets recover more quickly from surgical procedures or injuries and helps to promote functional independence.
Rehabilitation includes therapeutic exercises, joint mobilizations, medical massage, stretching, passive range of motion, laser therapy, neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) and pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEMF).
Common injuries and issues treated with veterinary rehab include:
Post-operative recovery from a TPLO/extracapsular repair, FHO, fracture repair, total hip replacement, amputation, and spinal surgery
Conservative management of cruciate (ACL) disease/tear, hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia, patellar (kneecap) luxations, angular limb deformities, carpal hyperextension injuries
Soft tissue injuries such as muscle strains (iliopsoas), tendinopathies, shoulder instability, Achilles injuries
Osteoarthritis
General mobility and muscle loss issues
Weight loss
Conditioning and injury prevention
Medical Acupuncture
What is Acupuncture?
Acupuncture involves the insertion of thin needles into specific points on the body. Needling causes biochemical and physiological changes through stimulation of the nervous system. These changes result in pain relief, decreased inflammation, and improved blood circulation and nerve function. The application of electrostimulation may also be used, which involves applying a slight electrical current to select needles that are already in place. This provides a heightened signal to the cells which can enhance the results.
What to expect?
Acupuncture is non-invasive and most pets relax and enjoy their treatment.
Thin needles are placed into specific points on your pet’s body and left in place for 10-30 minutes as tolerated. Because the therapeutic effects of acupuncture are cumulative, we usually start with weekly treatments for 4-6 weeks. Treatments are then tapered, and maintenance care is continued as needed. Some patients will show improvement in the first 24-48 hours of treatment while other patients take longer to respond.
Making end-of-life decisions for our pets is one of the hardest things we do as pet owners. We will work with you to ensure you understand all of your options, and to help you do what is best for your pet.
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