Services.
Whatever she needs, we can probably help.
If we can’t, we can point you in the right direction.
- Thorough Physical Exams
- Vaccinations
- Affordable vaccination and spay/neuter packages for kittens and puppies.
- Wellness Plans for adult cats and dogs: Our affordable prepaid health packages include the essentials:
- annual health exam,
- vaccinations,
- heartworm testing,
- intestinal parasite screening.
- Plus, additional exams if you need them.
- Senior Care: Senior pets are a special interest of Dr. Yavitz. Discover simple ways you can help your pet live a longer, healthier life.
- Dental Care: Your pet’s dental health is vital to her overall health — just like yours.
- General Anesthesia: General anesthesia and its attendant risks are a concern of pet owners that Dr. Yavitz understands. To achieve the goal of a rapid and uncomplicated recovery, Dr. Yavitz uses a balanced anesthesia protocol. By combining complementary drugs, less anesthetic is used, thereby improving cardiovascular stability. To further insure a safe anesthetic experience, a computerized system continuously monitors your pet’s vital signs during every procedure.
- Nutrition:
- Nutritional Planning and Specialty Diets:
- Check out our full line of Purina Veterinary Diets.
- Heartworm Preventative and Flea Control Solutions: We recommend
- Simparica TRIO
- Revolution, and other high-quality products we obtain directly from the manufacturer.
- House Calls: Believe it or not, we do! So you can get care for every member of your big pet brood — or Princess Fussyclaws, who refuses to get in the carrier or the car.
- Cat Boarding, Grooming and Bathing: If you can get her here, we’ll hang onto her.
Thorough Physical Exams
The current standard of care in veterinary medicine calls for a physical exam every six months. Because dogs and cats age at a much faster rate than their human companions, it is vital to recognize that your pet’s health status can change dramatically in a short period of time. Of course, lots of things could prompt a few extra looks: your pet’s
- age,
- current health status,
- potential exposure to parasites and other animals
- and the amount of time she spends outdoors.
Kittens and puppies should have a routine checkup every three to four weeks for the first four months, then every six months for the rest of her life.
According to current guidelines from the Companion Animal Parasite Council, we should screen your adult pet for intestinal parasites at least once a year.
Kittens and puppies may need testing more often.
Dogs need an annual test for heartworms, a potentially deadly parasite. Heartworm disease is easily preventable, though, with a monthly dose of medication given all year long.
Your cat can also get heartworms – there’s monthly medication for him, too.
We recommend screening for kidney, liver and heart disease at his regular checkup, and we require it before general anesthesia.
We believe these tests are vital to keeping life with your pet happy and healthy for as long as possible. Here’s why.
- Early detection gives your pet a head start on treatment — and a better chance of beating — a host of potentially serious ailments.
- While your pet is young and healthy, it’s a good idea to establish normal (baseline) values. Later on, if she gets sick, we’ll be able to compare her numbers and get a better idea of what’s going on.
Once we have your pet’s first exam in the can, she’ll be well positioned to get appropriate, evidence-based treatment for any problems we find, now or later.
Vaccinations
Vaccinations are one of the more effective forms of preventive medication. However, there are some vaccines that are not medically appropriate or sufficiently effective, and, as such, cannot be recommended. Core vaccines, on the other hand, are generally administered to all healthy patients regardless of lifestyle. Dr. Yavitz can develop a disease prevention program uniquely tailored for your pet.
Vaccination Schedules
At Spoede Animal Hospital, we follow standard care protocols. All guidelines listed have been compiled by the Vaccination Guideline Group (VGG) of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA), American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), American Animal Hospital Association (AHAA), and the American Associaton of Feline Pracitioners (AAFP).
Here’s how these work for vaccinating your pet(s).
Puppies
Your new puppy will get a thorough physical exam before her first vaccination at 6-8 weeks.
Core vaccines protect him from
- canine distemper virus,
- adenovirus/type-2,
- parainfluenza,
- parvovirus
- and rabies.
The vaccine is given as 2 separate injections — one is for rabies, given once at 3-4 months of age; the other, called DA2PCPV, that combines all the other core vaccines — is repeated every 3-4 weeks until your puppy is 16 weeks old.
Non-core vaccinations provide protection against Bordetella, canine influenza, and leptospirosis. Puppy will get them twice, three weeks apart. Dr. Yavitz will help you determine which of these optional vaccines would be appropriate for your dog.
One year after the last puppy shots are completed, we recommend rabies and DA2PCPV boosters, and then every three years thereafter; booster vaccinations for Bordetella, canine influenza, and leptospirosis are given annually, if needed.
Kittens
You’ll want to bring in your new kitten for his first exam as soon as possible to make sure your he brings your family a clean bill of health. If he has any problems, you’ll want to take care of them now.7
We’ll test him for
- Bartonella,
- feline leukemia virus (FeLV)
- feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV)
- intestinal parasites
Your healthy kitten should get his first core vaccination at 6-8 weeks, for feline panleukopenia and the viral respiratory diseases caused by herpesvirus-1 and calicivirus (all three agents are combined in a single injection).
We’ll give him a booster at 3-4 week intervals until he’s 16 weeks old.
The vaccine that protects against feline leukemia virus (FeLV) also falls into the CORE category for kittens. The reason is as follows: cats under a year of age are at much greater risk for getting infected with FeLV than adult cats. Almost 100% of all kittens infected with FeLV at 6 weeks of age or younger will remain persistently infected for life. The risk drops to about 30% at 6 months and 5-15 % after a year of age when cats develop a natural resistance to the disease. FeLV vaccine is given in two doses, three weeks apart, starting at 8 weeks of age – or as soon as possible after that age.
Rabies
Your kitten will get his first rabies shot when he’s three months old. We use Merial® PUREVAX® Recombinant vaccines.
One year after the completion of the kitten shots, he’ll get a booster for FVRCP, rabies and FeLV (if needed). After that, he’ll get the FVRCP booster and FeLV booster (if needed) every three years and an annual booster with the Merial feline rabies vaccine.