Services

Examinations

Wellness Exams: Having your pet examined annually is an important part of keeping them healthy. Our doctors will give your pet a through once over. Their ears, eyes, teeth, heart, lungs, skin, hair and general body condition will all be evaluated. We will do whatever vaccinations are needed at your pet’s annual examination.

Illness or Problem Exams: If your pet is experiencing a problem or an issue that needs to be addressed by the doctor, we can help you with that! These exams are scheduled a little longer, so the doctor can give your pet a full physical exam, then concentrate on the specific issue you feel needs to be addressed. The doctor will need to evaluate the problem and make recommendations to you about where to go from there. Discussion with you is paramount to devise a plan you will stick with, so your pet’s problem or illness can be resolved or managed properly.

Vaccinations

Adult Dogs: Our vaccination protocol for adult dogs is an annual Rabies vaccination (per Ellis County Law) and Leptospira vaccination boostered annually and the distemper/parvo vaccination done every three years once properly boostered in a series. We also recommend an annual heartworm test and heartworm prevention for all our Canine friends.

Puppies: For new puppies, we offer a vaccination protocol to ensure your puppy will be properly protected from viruses and diseases. For a first puppy visit, we will run a stool test on your puppy to make sure they do not have any intestinal parasites. If your puppy is between 6-8 weeks, we will do their first Distemper/Parvo combo vaccination. They will need to come back in 3-4 weeks for their next round of vaccinations. At this second visit, they will receive a Distemper/Parvo and a Leptospira vaccination (if they are over 5 pounds). Depending on how young your puppy starts their vaccines and the time between boosters, they will require anywhere from 2-4 sets of vaccines. It is important not to stop vaccination series until your puppy is AT LEAST 16 weeks old. The timing of these vaccines is very important and must be scheduled 3-4 weeks apart! We recommend scheduling your next appointment before you leave each time we see your pet during a puppy series! Once through the puppy series, they are all boostered in one year from the Rabies vaccination. After that, your adult dog will receive a Rabies and a Leptospira vaccination annually and the Distemper/Parvo every three years.

Adult Cats: We recommend vaccinating your cat for Feline Leukemia, Feline RCP, and Rabies. For indoor only cats; once they have had all three vaccines and a booster of both Leukemia and RCP, we can change them over to a Rabies only and annual exam protocol. If they go outdoors at all; we recommend cats have all three vaccines with boosters and then annually we alternate their vaccination protocol. This means they will get the Rabies vaccine every year and alternate between the Leukemia and the Feline RCP every other year (two vaccines every year: rabies/leukemia one year and rabies/distemper the next year).

Kittens: When you are bringing a new kitten (or a new adult cat) into your family, we always recommend a Feline Leukemia Virus, Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, and Feline Heartworm combo test (Yes! Your kitty can get heartworms!). This will test your new family member for these diseases, which are contagious to other cats. A positive result for any of these diseases will also alter the vaccine protocol, home environment, and prognosis of a new kitty. If your new kitten is negative for these diseases, we start vaccinations and perform a stool test to check for intestinal parasites. The first set of vaccinations is a Feline Distemper vaccine and a Feline Leukemia vaccine. Then we see your new kitty back for boosters in 3-4 weeks. At this appointment, your kitten will receive their last booster of Feline Distemper and Feline Leukemia as well as their Rabies vaccination. We recommend scheduling your booster vaccine appointment before you leave your first appointment during the kitten series. Once through the kitten series, all the vaccines are boostered one year from the Rabies vaccination. After that, your adult cat will receive a Rabies vaccination with their annual examination and the other vaccinations as needed, based on their home environment (indoor vs. outdoor).

No need to worry about these complex schedules, we keep track of everything!

Heartworm Policy

We require an annual heartworm test for all dogs that are receiving heartworm medication through our clinic (physically or through a written prescription). This is a requirement for several reasons:

1. Dogs can be sneaky and not actually ingest the prevention.

2. If you do miss a dose or are late administering a dose, your dog is exposed to heartworms for the time you were late giving the medication. Heartworm preventions only target a specific part of the life cycle of the heartworm (enter link to life cycle for heartworms here). Annual testing would catch a heartworm infection before the parasites had time to cause extensive damage.

3. Heartworms are serious. If left untreated, they can kill your pet. 4. The antigen test we use also tests for several other diseases caused by ticks.

Microchipping

We currently offer Home Again Microchips. When the microchip is paid, we register it for you, so you don’t have to worry about forgetting to register your pet. Microchipping is important to make sure your pet is found if lost and offers a way to identify ownership. This important service is something we strongly recommend! Most people elect to microchip their pet at the time of a spay or neuter, but we can microchip a pet at any visit.

Diagnostics

Our hospital offers diverse types of diagnostics. From cytologies done by our veterinary technicians, to a complete blood chemistry work up or ultrasound, we house all the tools necessary to help you provide your pet with the best care possible. Most results will be available before you leave our office!

Dental Cleaning

Your pet’s mouth is actually an important aspect of their overall health! Other than smelly breath and gross looking teeth, your pet’s dental health can affect other organs in the body. We offer a full dental cleaning service that will get your pet’s kisses back to cute! Our dental service is an anesthetic procedure where the teeth are cleaned and polished, just like a visit to your dentist. Once cleaned up, the doctor evaluates the health of each tooth individually. Ask one of our doctors if it is time for your pet to have a dental cleaning!

Surgery

We offer a variety of soft tissue surgeries. Our surgery suite is equipped to handle a routine spay or neuter, or something more involved like a c-section or exploratory! Each pet is given IV fluids and monitored throughout any anesthetic procedure! While surgery is a necessary risk when chosen, we want to make sure it is as safe as possible for all pets. In addition to support offered to your pet during any anesthetic procedure, we also offer pre-anesthetic bloodwork that will ensure your pet is in tip top shape to handle the anesthetic.

Laser Therapy

We have a cool laser therapy machine that has been helping us manage the discomforts of getting old! Arthritis is an ugly word and can make any pet lay around and sleep more than we would like them to. Our laser therapy machine helps by increasing blood and lymph flow in the areas of treatment. It also helps deaden nerve endings in the area, so the pet is not ‘feeling’ the pain as much. We have seen dramatic results in some of our older, arthritic pets. They are getting up and moving around more. They are happier and more active with their owners. Ask us if this is an option for your pet!

Ultrasound

Our veterinarians are well versed in the use of ultrasound. They use this tool when necessary, to get a better look at things going on with different organs. They can look at the liver or the spleen and have used it in evaluation of cardiac patients. If needed, this treatment option may be presented to you as part of the treatment plan for your pet.

Hospitalization

If needed, we can hospitalize your pet to help maintain their health. While some emergent situations are better handled by a veterinary emergency hospital, we can handle most situations where your pet needs to be hospitalized. In some cases, we can hospitalize your pet if needed and transfer to the emergency hospital after our business hours or over the weekend.

Blood / Plasma Transfusions

When your pet needs a transfusion as a life saving measure, we are equipped to handle the situation. This is not a common treatment option performed, but we are one of the few non-emergency clinics in the area that performs this service.

Prophylactic Gastropexy

As a preventative measure for large breed, deep chested dogs, Dr. Fritz offers Gastropexy surgery as a prophylactic. This means during a routine surgery or as a scheduled surgery, Dr. Fritz can perform this surgery on your healthy pet. This surgery can save your pet’s life. It ‘tacks’ the stomach to the body wall to reduce the ability of the stomach to ‘twist.’ This can be a life saving measure for your large breed, deep chested dog.

Health Certificates

Both Dr. Fritz and Dr. Bell are USDA certified and can offer both interstate and international health certificates. If you are travelling internationally with your pet, call us for a consult on the timeframes and needed treatments to get your pet to your destination on time to enjoy!