~~~ ANNOUNCEMENT ~~~                                         8/10/10

IMPROVING YOUR PETS' PREVENTIVE HEALTH CARE                                            

To continue to bring you the best in preventive medicine for your pets, Dr. Ducor has revised the following treatment frequencies which will appear on your next pets' reminders.

1)  Each year your pet will be reminded for an annual (0-11 years) or biannual (12+ years) physical exam. 

This is SO IMPORTANT for early detection of medical problems.  Don’t wait ‘til it’s too late!

Initially a kitten or puppy, a pet then enters adulthood followed by senior and finally geriatric phases.  During their lifespan pets go through many often unapparent changes internally as well as externally.  Of course, a thorough physical exam has been part of a pet check up for years but veterinary medicine provides us with many new tools and tests that we continually integrate into our examination to help us

A) diagnose current clinical (visible signs) or subclinical (no visible signs) medical conditions and

B) prevent potential problems with the sole purposes of keeping your pet healthy and happy for a long time.  We have lots we can share with you so give us a few moments and we will help educate you about what is the best for your pet.  For example, a complete physical exam, blood, urine, thyroid tests, and sometimes x-rays can reveal much about your pet’s medical condition.  If results of our exams and testing are “normal” of course these are desirable findings!

2)  After an initial canine or feline distemper vaccination series, the interval for distemper revaccination will change from annually to once every 3 years (unless likelihood of exposure necessitates a more frequent protocol).  

Veterinary medicine continues to evolve bringing us new treatments and products, revising the old.  As discussed above, the new emphasis is on your pet’s life stages.  We look for changes in your pet’s physical condition with the goal of early detection of and make recommendations to prevent common problems. 

Vaccination protocols for only canine and feline distemper vaccination will change.

Initially all felines and canines require a series of distemper vaccinations.  Following this series, traditionally, distemper vaccination for canines and felines was recommended annually but currently, with good control over this disease and learning that duration of immunity (the length the immunization lasts) likely persists for a longer time, the interval between vaccination will be extended to 3 years.  Other vaccinations remain very important in your pet’s health and vaccination intervals remain unchanged.