Recognizing February as Pet Dental Health Month
You may have seen signs around advertising that February is Pet Dental Health Month. At North Portland Veterinary Hospital, we honor Pet Dental Month all year long. When you bring in your pet for their wellness check-up, our doctors assess their dental health. Sometimes we recommend an anesthetic dental cleaning, sometimes we simply talk to you about what you can do at home to improve your pet’s dental health. If an anesthetic dental cleaning is recommended, we give you a coupon for $50 off that procedure if it is performed in the next 3 months. We even are able to make payment arrangements in most cases. These deals are available all year long, you just have to follow your veterinarian’s recommendations!
Dental health is important!
Bacteria in the mouth is part of what makes bites so dangerous.
Bacteria build up turns to plaque and than to calculus. Each stage is more difficult to remove from teeth than the last.
Did you know that your pet can get cavities?
Gum inflammation (any chronic inflammation) can lead to heart disease.
Did you know that the best thing that you can do for your pets teeth is to brush them every day?!
(Please don’t sting me up, I’m just the messenger!) We know that this is a hard task to accomplish. Developing good habits takes time, yes. But overall, you should be able to reach a point where brushing your pets teeth takes less time than brushing your own.
Need help getting started?
Give us a call, we can schedule appointments with the technicians for demos, or with your veterinarian for an oral check up. We also have goodie bags that take you through the steps to brush on your own.
Or you could check out these links:
The American Veterinary Medical Association has a great video on brushing. Cornell University also has a great video on Brushing Cat Teeth, and how to get your cat to like it!
New Drug Gives Hope To Ferret Owners
Any ferret owner knows about adrenal disease, a common affliction in ferrets. Adrenal tumors cause symptoms like weight loss, hair loss, difficulty urination, swelling of the vulva and aggression. Although treatable, this disease is a progressive, debilitating illness that seriously affects their quality of life. Up until now, treatment options have been limited to frequent and expensive Lupron injections or costly surgery. For many ferret owners, both options are out of reach.
To say we are excited about this new drug, Deslorelin that helps treat and prevent the onset of adrenal disease, would be an understatement. We’re ecstatic. This new treatment, a timed release drug implant, is now available. Your veterinarian will place this small implant just below the skin, similar to the way we place a pet ID microchip. Deslorelin is then slowly released into the ferret’s body for approximately twelve to eighteen months. The Deslorelin implant is an effective preventative measure against adrenal disease for ferrets over three years of age, even if they are not yet showing signs of the illness. We’ll need to give your little ferret a thorough exam first to make sure they are a good candidate for this drug and will benefit from this procedure.
Deslorelin has been approved by the FDA and once your veterinarian determines they are a good candidate, we’ll order an implant for your ferret. With the use of Deslorelin, we know we can provide a more convenient, less expensive medication option for your ferret. In some cases, we might even be able to reduce the need for surgery in aging ferrets.
If you have any questions or would like to make an appointment to have your ferret considered for the Deslorelin implant, please give us a call or send us an email. We’d love to hear from you.
