Routine Services
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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.
- 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.
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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.
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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.
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Caesarean Sections in Dogs – Post Operative Care
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.
Signs of whelping (delivery of puppies)
- Mammary gland enlargement (turgidity) and milk secretion -1-2 weeks prior to delivery.
- Restlessness, seeking seclusion, anorexia, nesting -12 to 24 hours prior to delivery.
- Rectal temp decreases to less than 99F -8 to 24 hours prior to delivery.
Indications of potential abnormal gestation:
- Gestation longer than 68 days.
- Past history of needing a C-section.
- Bull dog or other brachio-cephalic breeds.
C-section Surgery:
- The patient is shaved prior to anesthesia
- Anesthesia is induced with safe anesthetics to both the mother and her unborn puppies
- A midline incision is made to expose the uterus.
- The puppies are removed from the uterus.
- The uterus, abdominal wall and skin are sutured.
- The sutures on the skin are all internal so that the puppies are not irritated by the knots.
Risks and Complications of C-sections?
- The overall risk of this surgery is low. The major risks are those of general anesthesia, bleeding (hemorrhage), postoperative infection, and wound breakdown (dehiscence) over the incision.
- Overall complication rate is low, but serious complications can result in anesthetic death of mother or puppies.
- Profound bleeding of the uterus
- Still born pups – this complication most often is due to the C-section not being performed in a timely manner.
- Sub-involution of the uterus – evidenced by bloody vulvar discharge for weeks after surgery.