Be sure to give your dog and cat its monthly heartworm and flea and tick treatment

AND THEN THERE WERE THREE new associates with the addition of BRENT COUTS, DVM. Dr. Couts started at SylvaniaVET on May 14. He is a graduate of Ross Veterinary School , St. Kitts and Washington State University Veterinary College . He has 1 ½ year's experience and a strong interest in high quality medicine and surgery. He is already proving to be a great asset to the staff and has been well received by the clients he has met. Dr. Brent is being married in October. He brings advanced computer knowledge to SylvaniaVET and we have charged him to help make the office paperless. He and Dr. Karissa are planning to advance our ultrasound expertise over the next couple years. Now that we have introduced our new doctors, Drs. Michelle Backlund, Melanie Bender and Brent Couts, it is necessary to inform you that Drs. Sarah and Laci are leaving the practice. Dr. Sarah's last day is scheduled to be June 8. Dr. Laci's last day was May 31. We wish them both luck in the next stage of their career.

SYLVANIAVET WAS HONORED by NW Ohio Better Business Bureau as a finalist for their annual Torch Award. The torch award is based on our standards of ethics in doing business. We were one of the finalists that included Rudolf-Libby and Medical Mutual of Ohio and SylvaniaVET in the group of businesses with over 50 employees. Finalists were selected by a group of independent judges that evaluated applications submitted by nominated business. Even though we did not win it was a great honor to be selected as a finalist for a Torch Award.

JUNE 24 ADOPT-A-THON IS A MUST ATTEND EVENT. The hospital and parking lot will host up to 20-rescue organization and several vendors for the 12-5 PM mother of all adopt-a-thons. In addition to dogs, cats, rabbits and ferrets for adoption there will be a display of several reptiles. Chappy Snappy hot dogs will provide refreshments. Pet jewelry and pet supplies by Shure Pets will be displayed and sold. Moonwalk chamber, face painting, snow cones, popcorn and pony rides will be available. A donation from the pony rides will be made to the Memories Live on Animal Foundation. The highlight of this summer's event will be the DUNK DR BOB DUNKING BOOTH. Proceeds from soaking Dr. Bob will be donated to the Memories Foundation. Bring the kids, neighbors, friends and grand kids whether you are looking for a pet or not. DON'T FORGET SUNDAY, JUNE 24 12-5 PM ADOPT-A-THON.

MEET DENNIS WEIGEL our newest Aloha, our adult volunteer program. Dennis is a retired university math professor and an accomplished magician. Dennis is always willing to help clients and pets into or out of the hospital. He entertains kids while they wait with his slight of hand magic. Dennis is available for parties and business entertainment for a very reasonable fee. If you would like to become a member of our Aloha program ask any front desk team member for details.

WWW.AVMA.ORG is your best source for information on the pet food recall. They update the site almost daily so you can stay currant about what is safe to feed your dog or cat. We are going to learn that the Chinese glutens were purposely contaminated to with melamine to increase the protein analysis of the product. Higher protein makes the product more valuable. The method of analysis is to test for nitrogen content, which in a pure product must come from protein. If fertilizer nitrogen is added the lab equipment cannot tell the difference. Until the Chinese step up and accept responsibility, accept the legal and financial consequences and punish the companies responsible for this greedy act we should consider a boycott all Chinese made products.

FOODS WE SELL OR RECOMMEND, that contain corn gluten, are safe to feed. We have researched everything on our shelf and have determined that gluten included on the food is from USA suppliers and is safe. Glutens of all types should be low on the ingredient list, as vegetable protein is not as good as meat protein for our pets. Other than foods we sell or recommend we would suggest you avoid any food containing any form of gluten.

MEET NORA the piano-playing cat at www.ravenswingstudio.com . A friend, thinking everyone would find it interesting sent us this link. The studio is the creation of artists Burnell Yow and Betsy Alexander and Nora is the studio cat. Nora has become quite famous even having a spot on network TV. We hope you enjoy the site and learning about Nora.

DID YOU KNOW that Dr. Bob is a member of the American Association of Feline Practitioners? This reflects his commitment to advanced feline care and a recognition that a cat is not a furry dog. This recognition of cat's special needs caused us to design the nationally unique cat hospital within the building. Only cat only practices have a more isolated separation of cats from dogs. Cat only hospitals run the risk of over exposure of the patients to the common feline viruses. Our size enables us to isolate cats from other cats as well as dogs when contagion is a concern. The AAFP has a series of great handout that will help you enjoy your cat. Over the next few issues of FYI we will introduce you to the highlights of each publication. Many cat owners want a second or an additional cat. Simple precautions should be taken to introduce the established cats with the new roommate. Introductions must be slow and gradual. Isolate the new cat in a room until everyone is used to the new presence. Be sure we have examined and completed any wellness procedures before direct interactions are allowed. When you feel all the cats are ready place the new cat in a carrier and place it in the middle of a common living area. Progress to allowing all cats to be free in the room but supervised. Do not leave cats together until you are sure everyone is well adjusted. Using Feliway pheromone can help reduce the anxiety of adding a new cat to the house.

TWO NEW MICROCHIPS have been introduced by the AKC and Bayer. The AKC chip is compatible with all existing scanners and should be easy to read. The concern will be whom to call if a AKC chip is found. The Bayer chip uses a different wavelength and will not be recognized by existing scanners. This is a problem and makes no sense to us. It may reflect that Bayer is a foreign company and European chips are the same as the new US chip. By last count there are now five microchip companies. Competition is the American way but we do not know how all the companies will remain viable. We recommend the Homeagain chip, which is the most popular and best. Our universal scanner will read all chips except the new Bayer chip.

SYLVANIAVET APPOINTMENT HOURS ARE THE MOST of any practice in the area. We have regularly scheduled hours with at least one doctor seeing appointments 72.5 hours per week. A 24/7-week is 189 hours. This means that we are available at regular times and fees 38% of all weekly hours. Of course we are also available to you and your pet the other 116.5 hours when our techs field your calls and our doctors are on-call. Did you know that you are never shuffled to an answering service or answering machine when you call SylvaniaVET? A SylvaniaVET team member answers your call 24/7/365. You are never given an electronic message menu or a rambling voice message prompt. We are working to always answer your call by the third ring and never leaving you on hold for more than three minutes. Let us know if we fail to meet this level of service.

JOHNNY CARSON'S WIFE Joanne Carson, Ph.D. is donating a portion of a two-DVD box set of “The Johnny Carson Show” to Hemopet's Animal Restore Health Center . The center is a component of Hemopet Center for Greyhound Rescue and Pet Animal Recovery. A $10 million dollar facility is planned in California . We don't know anything about the Hemopet center. If we learn more we will be sure to pass information along.

SPEED KILLS WHEN IT COMES TO FLEAS BUT STAYING POWER IS MORE CRITICAL. There are three well-known topical flea control products, Frontline, Advantage and Revolution, that veterinarians sell. By far the best is Frontline Plus. However, you may see advertising that Advantage works faster than all others. This may or may not be true but should not a factor in selecting which product to chose. Both Frontline and Advantage act topically where Revolution must be absorbed before it can provide flea control. Revolution's protection may take 36 hours before it is effectively killing adult fleas. The speed difference between Frontline and Advantage is a few minutes. The few minutes' difference is not significant when treating a flea problem. Of greater importance is how long will the applied product kill fleas. Frontline wins this contest. Frontline is less affected by environmental facts, sunlight and bathing than is Advantage. If a dog or cat has fleas we do not count on an applied topical to kill the fleas. Rather, we give a pill, Capstar, which will kill all adult fleas with in 2-4 hours after being swallowed. Another product being advertised is Sentinel. This chewable tablet is a combination of a heartworm preventative, Interceptor and a flea birth control product, Program. It does not and will not kill or prevent adult fleas from setting up house keeping on your pet. Program is an environmental treatment that sterilizes flea eggs before they fall off the pet and contaminate the ground or house. Your pet must have fleas for Program and by extension Sentinel to work. We do not recommend Sentinel or Program.

FELINE TRIAD DISEASE OR TRIADITIS is a recently recognized multi-system disease of cats. Affected cats have liver, pancreatic and bowel inflammation or infection. We have diagnosed triaditis as well as the individual diseases many times. The combination of the liver disease, cholangiohepatitis, pancreatitis and inflammatory bowel disease is severe and requires extensive diagnostic testing. Both lab blood tests as well as biopsies are necessary to make the diagnosis. Treatment involves aggressive care and tube feeding. SylvaniaVET's 24/7 care and commitment to advanced treatment makes it possible to save cats affected with the three triad diseases individually or the combination known as Feline Triad Disease.

WWW.TOLEDOAREAPETS.COM IS A NEW pet friendly publication for area pet lovers. Dr. Bob has published a short article in each of the first issues. You can pick up a free copy at the office.

OVER 50% OF USA DOGS are mixed breeds. It is not unusual for a client with a rescue owner to ask, “what breeds do you think my puppy is”. We make our best guesses on overall appearance, head shape, ears and hair coat. It's anybody's guess if we are right. Mars Veterinary has developed a DNA analysis test that will be able to identify the breeds that were mixed to create the dog. The test is called Wisdom Panel MX and requires a simple blood sample submitted in a special container. The test will be able to determine between over 100 breeds of dog. The test will be available this summer.

VACCINE COMPLIANCE is important to the long-term health of your pet. Our vaccine protocols have been developed to provide the best protection for your dog and cat against serious viral and bacterial disease. In many cases we meet the most current standards of the profession. In two cases we chose to modify the standard recommendations because our local experience indicated to us more frequent protection was needed. All our vaccine recommendations are not required but encouraged. You have control of your pet's wellness and we will accept if you chose to not follow our recommendations. If you chose to not follow our recommendations we will ask you to sign a waiver acknowledging our decision.

FIRE DEPARTMENTS ADD PET OXYGEN masks to their list of equipment. Around the country organizations are working with a Best Friends sanctuary program called Cause of Paws to donate oxygen masks to fire and rescue organizations. We have one of our employees looking into this program to see if there is a need in NW Ohio for this program. Look to future FYI's to see if we will be launching a drive to supply oxygen masks to local fire departments.

FDA DETECTS SALMONELLA in a brand of raw cat food. The serious bacterial contamination was found in raw, frozen Wild Kitty Cat Food. Three varieties of the food were found to be contaminated. The food was voluntarily recalled by the company. No only could this have been a health hazard to the cats fed the food the handling of the food by family members could have created human illness. We do not recommend feeding raw food to any pet. You can learn more about this food recall at www.fda.gov/cvm .

THOROUGHBRED RACETRACKS nationwide are replacing traditional dirt with synthetic surfaces. It is felt the new surface will be safer and give a horse more secure footing. The new surfaces can cost up to $10 million dollars to install. At least four tracks nationally have made the conversion from dirt to synthetic surface.

MARK MORRIS, DVM the founder of Hills Pet Nutrition has died. Dr. Morris was the developer of special diets designed to aid in the treatment of chronic diseases. The Hills company and their prescription diet line of foods are a leader in nutritional and medical research of animal diseases. Our profession has lost a great and innovative leader.

SYLVANIA ADVANTAGE a local BI-weekly newspaper spotlighted SylvaniaVET in their second May issue. The newspaper editor asked Dr. Bob to comment on the development and success of his practice. When you talk about yourself and what has made you successful the challenge is to not sound too boastful. For Dr. Bob he wanted his success to be an inspiration to anyone that has dreamed of owning a business and making it successful. We think he accomplished his mission. If you would like a copy of the Advantage article feel free to ask.

TWO VACATION WEB SITES can be accessed to find animal related vacations. Great Animal Encounters can be found at www.jonesadventures.com or 909.923.8933. Northern California Riding Vacations can be found at WWW.horse-vacation.com or 888.873.5777. Don't enjoy the gambling and shopping of a traditional Vegas trip but still want to enjoy Nevada , try the Lowe's at Lake LasVegas . There is boating, golf, beach time, spa time and of course a casino. Only 15 miles from the strip you can still “go to town for shows and sight seeing.” Dr Bob and Carol celebrated her retirement and their 37 th anniversary at this slightly non-traditional Nevada vacation. Other unusual vacations can be found in a hand out we would be happy to supply, if you ask.

STRAY HUSKY RECEIVES ground breaking surgery at Alameda East in Denver . The dog was found in Adana , Turkey with both lower hind legs cut off. A Knoxville woman adopted the dog and sought the help of Dr. Taylor at Alameda East. The hospital is the one featured in the Animal Planet show Emergency Vets. The prosthetic legs were implanted into the bones if of Triumph's rear legs. The prosthetics are now a permanent part of the dogs rear legs. He can run and jump like a normal dog. The surgery to fit the prosthetics was featured on a recent Animal Planet show.

ATOPICA is a highly effective medication used as an alternative to cortisone to treat dogs for severe allergy. The Cyclosporine formulation has found a place in the treatment of severe environmental allergies. The side effects are minimal and the product is safe. The major drawback to Atopica has been the cost. The manufacturer, Novartis, has reduced the cost of Atopica by 34%. Given the rising prices of gas, milk and utilities this reduction in price is welcome.

CONCERTA, a popular human medication used to treat ADD can cause problems of pets. Recently, a 60-pound dog ate two full strength tablets. The time from ingestion to discovery was several hours. Concerta has a stimulating effect on a dog's nervous system. When presented our patient was panting, restless and in a word hyper. Its heart rate and BP were elevated. Overnight hospitalization, IV fluids and mild tranquilization enabled our patient to recover.

WEIMARANERS are a beautiful gunsmoke gray color with an enthusiastic and energetic outlook on life. This breed should only be owned by a family prepared to give firm, consistent guidance and lots of exercise. The breed requires special attention to vaccinations because there is the potential of a severe painful reaction to modified live Distemper vaccine. We have been using the more highly purified Continuum vaccine or the Merial Distemper vaccine. Since using these products we have not had a reaction. Once the dog is fully-grown the reactions do not occur.

OUR MAY EVENTS were a mixed bag of success. We encouraged you to help PAWS by playing in the Janice James Memorial Golf Tournament. The attendance was not great but those that attended had a good time. PAWS needs a committed golf lover with a desire to ramrod next years event into a must attend outing. If you have an idea for a golf event and would like to make it come true call Dave at PAWS and tell him you will run next year's tournament. Without a spark plug the event will probably be dropped from PAWS fund raising schedule. Our Sarra did a great job trying to promote attendance at the Arthritis Walk. Unfortunately, she may have been the only one as only 30 people attended the May 19 event. Carty, Toledo 's mayor, was there and was interested in our hydrotherapy program for his dog. The turn out for the Humane Society's Bark in the Park was terrific. Hundreds of walkers and their dogs attended. The most unique walker was a gentleman and his pet goat. We spent many hours introducing SylvaniaVET to area dog owners. Don't forget June 3 for the Heart Walk at 5/3 field. We will have an agility demonstration as well as an educational booth.

SOUND CONTROL PANELS are being installed in the dog kennel and hospital. When we are full the noise level from barking dogs is louder that a jet engine. All kennel staff wear headphones to protect their hearing. We are also testing new head sets and phone jacks to improve communication between different areas of the hospital. You will see several members wired for sound when you next visit.

URINE SAMPLES to test for infections must be collected by cystocentisis, needle puncture of the bladder. Caught or catheter collected samples are not sterile and will not give an accurate assessment of the urine health. It is considered the standard of the profession to collect sterile urine by cystocentisis. We frequently use our ultrasound to safely guide the collection needle into the bladder. Only licensed techs and doctors do cysto collection at SylvaniaVET. Other practices allow unlicensed assistants to collect blood sample, collect urine samples and perform other professional duties. This is a violation of Ohio law but no practices are inspected by the state of Ohio . SylvaniaVET is inspected and certified by AAHA. Only SylvaniaVET and the emergency clinic are inspected by AAHA.

ANN BONDY, SYLVANIAVET'S MASSAGE THERAPIST is back to work following a short medical leave. Ohio law prohibits anyone from practicing any form of massage, chiropractic, physical therapy or other holistic or medical surgical care on an animal unless the person is a licensed veterinarian or a licensed veterinary technician under the direct supervision of a veterinarian. As of now Ann is the only licensed technician in NW Ohio that can legally massage animals. Ann is both a licensed veterinary tech and a soon to be licensed massage therapist. Other persons in our area are performing pet massage but are violating the law when they do so. Call the office 419-885-4421 to schedule a time to have your pet massaged. Stop in for a free brochure on pet massage. Ann will be at the June 24 Adopt-a-thon demonstrating the benefits of pet massage.

“YOUR PRICES ARE BETTER THAN PET MED EXPRESS” was a recent comment from a long time client, Mike B. He had done price comparison shopping between SylvaniaVET and PME and found our prices on Heartguard and Frontline to be better. This came as no surprise but we were thrilled to hear an unbiased, independent and unsolicited endorsement of our pricing and marketing of these important products. In addition, he was not aware that on-line sources are not authorized sellers of these products. The manufacturer will not extend discounts, free goods or guarantees if Heartguard and Frontline are purchased on-line. To save you time and effort here are the prices for Heartguard and Frontline from SylvaniaVET and PME.

	Sylvania Vet	PME
Heartguard
12 sm	40.25	44.99
12 med	57.50	59.99
12 lg	71.75	74.99
Frontline
6 sm	74.00	79.99
6 med	76.50	82.99
6 lg	80.75	87.99
6 XL	81.75	89.99

PME will try to switch you to a generic product that is priced about 10 dollars per box less. The products are not identical. Heartgard comes with a 5-dollar rebate coupon and a guarantee that says if your dog gets heartworm, roundworm, hookworm or whipworm while taking the product year round they will pay for diagnosis and treatment. The generic does not have these features

PME will try to push Advantage. This is not a comparable product for many reasons. Frontline is the leader in topical flea and tick control products. When you buy Frontline from SylvaniaVET we give you a 7 th dose free.

Purchasing from SylvaniaVET helps pay all our bills, employees NW Ohio residents and enables us to keep our fees lower overall. If you cannot save significant money, why would you purchase on line? We will ship product to you at no cost if the convenience of postal delivery is critical.

PBS TO AIR DOCUMENTARY ON FERRETS July 18, 2007 from 8-9 PM on local channel WGTE. Mark Lewis a well-known maker of documentaries filmed the one hour show on ferrets. At least two of SylvaniaVET regulars, Peg Fransisco and Sherrie Lewis were included in the filming. We encourage you to watch and learn about the fun and joy ferrets can bring to a family. Our practice has a strong interest in ferrets. Ferret rescue will be at the June 24 adopt-a-thon.

NO HOLIDAYS IN JUNE SO CELEBRATE THE SUMMER SOLSTIS WITH ENTHUSIASIAM

THE CARING STAFF OF SYLVANIAVET

SEE YOU JUNE 24 FROM 12-5 PM