Mid-Peninsula Animal Hospital™ Blog

It's that time of year to focus on heartworm prevention, and we sweeten the deal with (not one, but) two special offers available only through Mid-Peninsula Animal Hospital. 

Each offer makes an important point, but first a little context. We've written before about the dangers of heartworm. As you may know, heartworm is transmitted by mosquitos. In our geographic region, the culprit is the tree hole mosquito. If you are unfamiliar with the topic, our previous blog posts and our Heartworm information page are recommended reading.

Heartworm disease is one area where an ounce of prevention is truly better than a pound of cure, particularly since the cure is not 100% sure. What is guaranteed is the prevention medication, literally. 

Unlike some online or theoretically discount sources, our preventatives come with a full medical care guarantee**, backed by the drug maker themselves. When you work directly with your Vet, you get the highest quality medication, adhering to strict handling and storage protocols, a known chain of custody, and a known provenance, all of which combines to facilitate the guarantee. 

The first offer: Now, when you get your year's worth of heartworm prevention medication, you get two free doses. 

This means you can get the assured high quality medication, handled and stored properly, with the manufacturer's guarantee at a decent savings per dose. 

The second offer: When you get a full year's worth of heartworm medication, we will waive the cost of the heartworm test needed to purchase the medication. 

For dogs, your veterinarian may recommend Interceptor Plus, but they may recommend something else. We carry multiple products, some of which take care of multiple parasite types. 

Cats experience heartworm differently, are far more challenging to diagnose, and if they get it, can only be managed, not cured. Thus, cats should also be on a heartworm preventative, which is fairly new within the last couple of decades as feline targeted preventatives have been developed.

Whether dog or cat, each case is different and your doctor will take everything into account on a case-by-case basis, plus explain the logic for the choice they recommend. You and your veterinarian will decide together. 

To recap both offers combined: come in for a heartworm test, and when you get a year's worth of heartworm prevention medication, you get two bonus doses and we'll waive the cost of the test.

Clearly, proper heartworm prevention is truly very important to us. Getting the heartworm test and consulting with the veterinarian about which prevention treatment is right for your animal provides the quality of care your animal deserves and provides peace of mind for you.

**Unlike a guarantee that refunds the cost of your prescription, a full medical care guarantee means that with our documentation of annual heartworm testing and the appropriate medication dosing, if your animal tests positive, the manufacturer will cover all of the costs of treatment. They stand by the medication to work.

With drive-in and drop-off appointments, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people are using the Appointment Parking garage more than ever. We thought you might want to know about the improvements we've made since opening the garage. 

We're very pleased with one change in particular -- the displays that let you see the sidewalk and street traffic before exiting the garage.  From within the garage, when you stop your car at the Stop signs, the displays are positioned on each side of the exit at a height which should be comfortable for sadans and SUVs alike. That said, it's not a typical habit to look at the side of the door opening; the habit requires practice to develop. The moving images on the display may help in this regard.

The Stop signs may also help in this regard. To adequately view and evaluate the oncoming traffic on the displays, one must stop at the Stop sign. Getting in the habit now, while the pedestrian traffic and street traffic are low, will have you in the habit when the street traffic returns to normal. 

Under normal conditions, we've noticed the typical street traffic consists of "big waves" of very heavy traffic, punctuated by welcome breaks which are reasonably long with low traffic. This pattern is caused by the traffic lights on the corner. For typical street traffic conditions, it always helps to pack one's patience. While you're stopped and checking the display, you can also admire the refreshed paint on the curb. Parking cars should be able to see the different zones better, and behave accordingly. If they do, they won't park too close, and it will continue to give you a good line of sight once you have moved past the traffic displays.

If you haven't been in the garage lately, you may not have seen the lovely waiting bench. If you are bringing in a dog, you'll notice the hospital dog leads hanging on the walls. We always request you add one of those, along with your own leash. It's a "belt-and-suspenders" approach, to go along with the other classic wisdom: "stop, look and listen."
 

We have the best clients in the world! Here goes your proof:

It's impossible to put into words, how much this means to us. We're not immune to the increased anxiety and stress caused by this pandemic, which is hard on everyone. As an essential service, we want to stay open, and be there for the community. This gesture has put wind beneath our wings, encouraged us, and we greatly appreciate it.

People are asking us if pets can get the virus that causes COVID-19. The question really breaks down into two parts: "can our pets get it from us" and "can we get it from our pets?" The gist is whether one can put their pet at risk, or whether a pet can become a spreader?

Medicine is often about consensus. Mid-Peninsula Animal Hospital is a member of the Amercan Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) and The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) who have joined the preliminary consensus, based on the available information. AVMA states on their COVID-19 page: "Infectious disease experts and multiple international and domestic human and animal health organizations agree there is no evidence at this point to indicate that pets become ill with COVID-19 or that they spread it to other animals, including people."

As such, we encourage normal interaction with your pets, unless you yourself are sick. Ours is a belt-and-suspenders approach to advising, out of an extreme abundance of caution, until more is known about this pandemic. The logic behind avoiding your animal if you are sick is to avoid creating a situation where one could cough or sneeze on the animal directly. 

With multiple people in a household, the CDC recommends that symptomatic family members avoid contact with animals whenever possible, adding "If you must care for your pet or be around animals while you are sick, wash your hands before and after you interact with them"

When we need to run laboratory testing, the company we partner with is a world leader, as you might expect. The company, IDEXX, has labs all over the world. When we draw samples to be tested, we always send enough fluids to run the test, to run it again if needed, and a little extra. Everyone follows this standard procedure.

During their research work to validate a new veterinary test system for COVID-19, IDEXX evaluated thousands of canine and feline specimens, and found "no positive results in pets to date of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus strain responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) respiratory outbreak in humans."

None in dogs. None in cats. It seems like our advice to hand-off the care of your cat or dog to a family member if you get sick is potentially overkill, but we'd prefer to err on the side of caution. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also echoes our advice to avoid pets if you are sick. If it's too late, and if you can manage it, bathing the pet should reduce the risk to others.

If you are not sick, the scientific community has given you one less worry in that COVID-19 is spread between humans and not to, or from, our companion animals. This is good news if you need to bring your animal in for care. While people exercise social distancing of 6' between ourselves, you can cuddle and interact with your animal as normal. This is particularly good news at a time when we need to cuddle our companions, get out and take more walks, and generally find comfort where we can. Stay healthy.