American Pet Hospital | Modesto Veterinary Clinic | Services

Spay & Neutering
Microchipping
Vaccinations
Artificial Insemination
Dental Work
Ear Cropping
Other Services

Spayed and Neutered Pets live a healthier and longer life!

At American Pet Hospital we believe in the importance of spaying/neutering puppies and kittens to provide them with a long and healthy life.

Spaying or neutering your dog or cat will reduce common problems such as:
- A pyometra, or uterine infection, is a potentially life-threatening condition which can cost thousands of dollars to treat. Occurrence is 100% preventable if your pet is spayed.
- Over one half of all mammary tumors are malignant and can spread to other areas of the body. Early spaying, prior to your pet beginning its heat cycles, significantly reduces the incidence of tumor formation.
- There are more puppies and kittens overpopulating shelters than there are people willing to provide them with love and care. Sadly, many are euthanized.
- Testicular cancer can be eliminated and prostatitis, an infection causing malignant or benign swelling of the prostate, can be greatly reduced with early neutering.
- Unwanted behavioral problems such as dominance aggression, marking territory and wandering can be avoided with early spaying/neutering.
Microchipping Services for Pets

At American Pet Hospital, we believe that properly identifying your furry family member is essential to the health and happiness of you and your pet. Should your dog happily run off after a squirrel or go for an adventure around the neighborhood, microchip identification will give you peace of mind that they will return home.

Microchip identification is the absolute best way for you to recover your best friend if you become separated. During this quick and affordable procedure, one of our trained veterinary staff members will insert a tiny transponder (approximately the size of a grain of rice) below the animal’s skin above the shoulder. The implantation process is similar to a routine shot, requiring no anesthetics and causing your pet little to no pain. If your pet ever goes missing and is taken to a vet, animal hospital or shelter, the microchip number can be easily scanned. The data identifying your pet is readily available on both regional and national databases and allows for a quick and safe return home. As the microchip requires no battery or power source, this is a one-time procedure that will last for your pet’s whole life. We can’t imagine any of our patients without this new technology.

The staff at American Pet Hospital would love to talk with you about microchip identification options for your pet! For questions or to schedule an appointment, please call us at (209) 549-8387. Walk-ins are always welcome!
The Importance of Vaccinations

At American Pet Hospital in Modesto, we want pet owners to understand the importance of vaccinations for their beloved pets. If you want your dog or cat to live a long and happy life, you must keep it immunized against the many common diseases that threaten it on a daily basis. A thorough and regular course of immunizations, administered by our experienced Modesto veterinarians, plays a huge role in your animal’s overall wellcare.

Protect Against Common But Deadly Diseases

While dogs and cats require different kinds of vaccines, in some cases they face a common enemy. Rabies, for instance, affects a wide range of mammals, including humans. This deadly virus, usually contracted through a bite from an infected animal, can cause behavioral changes, brain damage, and death. To make things worse, our Modesto veterinarian can often only confirm a diagnosis of rabies through an autopsy of a deceased animal. If you have not kept up a regular routine of rabies shots for your pet, you may also be at risk for contracting Rabies should your dog or cat become infected. Distemper is another easily preventable disease that can also affect both dogs and cats.

Other common diseases our Modesto animal hospital can protect your dog against include leptospirosis, Bordatella coronavirus (the cause of "kennel cough"), adenovirus, hepatitis, Lyme disease, parvovirus, and parainfluenza. Cats require protection against feline viral rhinotrachetus, feline calicivirus, and feline panleukopenia. Our veterinarian can advise you on which vaccines your pet must always have and which others may prove wise for your pet’s particular wellcare needs.

Most of the "core," or essential, vaccines should be given as soon as the puppy or kitten is old enough to receive them. Puppies and kittens typically receive their first set of immunizations at the age of 7 weeks. Rabies shots should begin at the age of 16 weeks. the immunity from vaccines has a limited lifespan, so boosters every 1-3 years are required to keep the immunity going. Cats require protection against feline viral rhinotrachetus, feline calicivirus, and feline panleukopenia. Feline leukemia – unlike humans, feline leukemia is spread by a virus, and isn’t simply a cancer.

At your wellcare visit to our Modesto veterinary office, our veterinarian will discuss with you your pet’s lifestyle and history. We carry a variety of vaccines to cover different illnesses (and even rattlesnake bites!), but will pick and choose only the ones your pet needs. Instead of pushing every possible vaccine into your pet, we will set a schedule of those vaccines your pet realistically needs to maintain best health.
Canine Reproduction Services

Artificial Insemination

Artificial insemination is commonly performed in dogs as either fresh artificial insemination where the bitch and stud dog are present in the examination room or as chilled semen artificial insemination in which the stud dog’s ejaculate is mixed with a buffering and extending solution and shipped to our clinic for insemination into a bitch.

Artificial insemination facilitates breeding between uncooperative pairs of dogs or dogs separated by long distances. Shipped semen can be an economic benefit when the dogs are located in different states and/or when temperature extremes do not allow for shipping. Chilled semen can be shipped year round. There are a number of shipping containers and many different extenders used in this process. A test extension should be performed on the ejaculate to ensure that the semen will survive during the collection, extension and shipping process.

We offer vaginal insemination, transcervical insemination using video and endoscopy and surgical insemination. Frozen semen inseminations are most successful when the semen is placed into the uterus during a brief surgical procedure. Chilled semen or fresh semen breeding is performed with semen deposition in the vagina, transcervically or using the surgical procedure.

Transcervical Insemination

Through the use of a Stortz laparoscope, a small catheter is passed through the cervix. Semen can then be directly deposited into the body of the uterus.

Semen Freezing

After a complete semen evaluation, an individual’s sperm can be frozen in pellets and stored in liquid nitrogen. This process involves extending the collected semen in an appropriate media, chilling the semen for four hours via refrigeration, dropping 100 microliters of the extended semen on the dry ice to form pellets and plunging the pellets into liquid nitrogen.
Our veterinarians provide veterinary dental services including routine cleaning and polishing (dental prophylaxis), dental x-rays, gingival pocket treatment, local block for pain management, and surgical extractions to manage and treat severe oral disease conditions.

Routine dental cleanings for pets, just like for people, are an important part of keeping them healthy. Our veterinarians and technicians can advise you on how often your pet should have routine care.

When dental problems and oral diseases are diagnosed, sometimes an advanced dental procedure may be necessary. American Pet Hospital is equipped with state-of-the-art oral surgical equipment and the latest technology to provide your pet with a safe and advanced dental procedure.

Our veterinarians perform basic oral exams on all our patients during their comprehensive physical exam. Puppies and kittens will be examined to detect any problems related to the deciduous (baby) teeth, missing or extra teeth, swellings, and oral development. Senior pets will be evaluated for developmental anomalies, the accumulation of plaque and tartar, periodontal disease, and oral tumors.
Ear cropping is a common surgical procedure which involves removing a portion of a dog’s ears in order to achieve a specific look. Many dog owners choose to have their companions’ ears cropped, either to remain consistent with the breed or simply out of preference. The breeds most often associated with cropped ears include Boxers, Great Danes, Schnauzers, American Pit Bulls, Staffordshire Terriers, Dobermans and Miniature Pinschers.

Whatever the reason for the surgery, it’s important that ear cropping is handled by a skilled professional that is specially trained and experienced in performing these delicate procedures.

At American Pet Hospital, we offer professional ear cropping services for dogs between the ages of 8-12 weeks. Our doctors and care team will take every precaution to ensure that your pet’s procedure is carried out as safely and successfully as possible. This includes conducting thorough pre-surgical screening and pre-anesthetic testing to ensure that your dog is well enough to undergo the procedure. More importantly, we’ll be there to provide guidance and support during your pet’s recovery.

Have a specific cut and style in mind? Feel free to bring in a photo of your preferences and we’ll do our best to accommodate your requests. Call today to learn more about our professional ear cropping services.

Click Here to Read About the Misconceptions of Ear Cropping
Pain Management
In recent years, veterinarians have made great progress in understanding how animals feel pain and the best ways to manage that pain. Many animals will instinctively hide their pain as a survival mechanism which in the past led to incorrect assumptions about the ability of dogs and cats to feel pain. Because we now understand more about how pets feel pain, we know how to recognize it and manage it. Pain management has become an important issue in veterinary medicine.

The American Animal Hospital Association along with the American Association of Feline Practitioners recently released the AAHA/AAFP Pain Management Guidelines for Dogs and Cats. These guidelines show that pain management helps improve the recovery process, whether from illness, surgery or injury. Because it reduces stress and increases a sense of well being, pain management may even help your pet live longer. Understanding pain is an important part of pain management. There are two different types of pain in pets – acute pain and chronic pain. Acute pain comes on suddenly as a result of an injury, surgery, inflammation or infection. It can be extremely uncomfortable for your pet and it may limit her mobility. The good news is that it’s usually temporary and goes away when the condition that causes it is treated. We offer pain management with every surgical procedure for both the comfort of the patient, and to speed the recovery process. This may involve a preoperative injection which lasts a minimum of 24 hours, so that the patient is comfortable upon waking, as well as ensuring a restful night’s sleep at home.

When deemed necessary by the doctor, medication for the next few days is also included. Chronic pain is by definition pain that lasts longer than two weeks. It can result from acute pain that goes untreated or it can develop more slowly. Common sources of chronic pain are osteoarthritis, dental disease and cancer. Animals that suffer from chronic pain often have subtle clinical signs that collectively make them appear older than they really are. And the longer the pain goes on, the harder it is to control so we always want to treat this pain early.

Anesthetic Safety
If surgery is suggested, you can feel comfortable knowing that our hospital only administers anesthesia in the utmost safe and cautious manner. Your pet’s safety and comfort are always our primary concerns whenever anesthesia is involved. Our veterinarians tailor the anesthetic procedure to fit the needs of each patient. All of our surgery patients have an IV catheter in place and receive intravenous fluids throughout the procedure and during the postoperative period. An IV catheter allows us to administer emergency medications quickly if needed. IV fluids help maintain normal blood pressure and keep your pet well hydrated.

Declawing
Our top priority is providing the highest-quality of veterinary care to each pet we treat. Every policy and medical procedure supported by our practice has been put in place with the health and wellness of pets in mind.

Our veterinarians perform a surgical onychectomy if they believe that a cat cannot be trained to refrain from using its claws destructively in the home, or poses a danger to family members. Unfortunately, all cats are not amenable to behavior modification and we believe that this surgical procedure will result in fewer cats being abandoned or euthanized. Once declawed, it is recommended that your cat live indoors since the ability to defend itself is compromised.

We also believe feline onychectomy should be performed only with the medically appropriate use of anesthetics and analgesics and adherence to careful surgical and post-surgical protocols. If you are shopping around for a competitive price on this procedure, be sure to question the type of anesthetic used, the type of pain management provided, and the monitoring equipment and procedures followed. All of our surgery patients have IV catheters placed and receive IV fluids. We use several monitoring devices during your pet’s anesthetic. A veterinary technician continually assesses your pet’s vital signs during the procedure. Your pet’s safety and comfort are our primary concerns when performing a declaw. We use advanced pain management techniques in conjunction with anesthesia to make sure your pet is as comfortable as possible during the procedure and after they are discharged. Our declaw patients receive 2 or 3 injectable pain medications during the procedure and go home with oral pain medication. We perform nerve blocks of the feet that provide additional pain relief immediately after the surgery. Our declaw patients stay with us overnight so that we can be sure they are comfortable, to remove their bandages in the morning, and to assess the surgical area before going home. It is very common to see these kitties pawing playfully through the kennel door following this surgery.

Pet Euthanasia
Deciding to euthanize a pet is an agonizing process. You will likely experience a wide range of complicated emotions as the time comes. It is important that you are prepared for this event and deal with the feelings as they come. There is great fear in not knowing what will occur on the day of the euthanization. Discuss this with your veterinarian and ask questions.

Our veterinarians are very familiar with the experience and are able to talk with you about the process and feelings that go with it. Spend time with your pet in the weeks or days leading up to the euthanasia. This will be a very special time for both of you. You will undoubtedly feel very emotional and sad but try to remain in control. Your pet will sense your feelings and you want this time to be as enjoyable as possible for them. Decide whether you would like to be there during the euthanasia. Some people wish to be with their pet and officially say goodbye during the final moments.

Others feel that the experience would be too much to handle. Whether you choose to be with your pet or not, be re-assured that you have given him a lifetime of love. Either decision you make is appropriate. Arrange time to spend with your pet directly before the procedure. If you choose to be in the room, you can still have some private time with your pet beforehand. It is sometimes helpful to say goodbye in this final setting. Talk to your family about euthanasia. Everyone should be able to share their thoughts and feelings on the process, and ultimately decide if they would like to be present or not. It can be a traumatic experience, so fully consider the outcomes prior to deciding. Say goodbye to your pet.

Take a few final moments to express your feelings. Do whatever you need to do to say goodbye. You are not alone. There are many others experiencing similar grief. Pet loss can be very challenging, and there are pet loss support groups available throughout the country. If you have specific questions or concerns about euthanasia or you would like more information regarding the diagnosis or treatment of your pet’s disease, please contact our veterinarians.

Dermatology
Skin problems are among the primary reasons to bring a pet into the veterinarian. A general veterinarian can identify and treat a variety of common skin conditions. Certain diseases and injuries may require a veterinary dermatologist in order to ensure your pet receives the optimal level of care. A veterinary dermatologist’s concentration is upon the diagnosis and treatment of disorders related to the ears, skin, mouth, hair, and nails, in addition to allergic disorders in pets. No matter breed-type or size, any dog or cat can be susceptible to the risk dermatologic problems and may require the help of a specialist. These include skin problems associated with allergies, skin cancers, parasite infections, infectious diseases, systemic diseases, hormonal diseases, nail diseases and ear infections.

Ultrasounds
An ultrasound is a non-invasive imaging procedure that enables an in-depth view of your pet’s organs. Many times x-rays, which reveal the size, dimensions and position of the organ, will be utilized in combination with an ultrasound. The ultrasound allows for the evaluation of internal organs and is a highly useful tool in evaluating heart conditions (referred to as echocardiogram), detecting alterations in abdominal organs and assisting in the recognition of cysts and tumors. With the ability for real-time monitoring, ultrasounds are also utilized for pregnancy diagnosis and development monitoring. Anesthesia or sedation is not usually necessary to perform an ultrasound on the heart or abdomen. With the ability to obtain real time information, outcomes can often be determined immediately.

Deworming
In order to ensure the health and well being of our pets, stool examinations for parasite eggs have been part of the veterinary routine for decades. Although stool examinations have become routine, a new procedure has recently been presented that has drastically improved the quality of the results.
Depending on the parasite involved, this new procedure can dramatically influence the quality of the results. Previous methods for hookworms only revealed half the number of parasites as the new method. For roundworms the new method reveals about 100 times more parasites, for whipworms we can now detect infections where the parasite remained undetected before. Detecting the actual parasite burden of our pets is important to the pet’s health, but to protect human health as well. Undetected infection can lead to animal and human illness.
C-Sections
A caesarean section or c-section is major surgery performed to remove puppies from the uterus. This is most commonly performed as an emergency procedure when there is difficulty with natural birth. Most dogs recover quickly from this procedure; however, if your dog was in labor for several hours before surgery was performed, her recovery will be slower, and she will need extra attention and help with her puppies.