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Volume
III, Issue IV May 2007 IN THIS ISSUE •
Finding a Lost Pet
– The Best System Ever Introduced •
Equine Dental
& Oral Health (full-size and mini-horses) • Pet Food Recall Update • Iron Mountain Trail Riders – New Website |
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Upcoming Events |
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FREE
Deworming Clinic Tuesday, May 8, 2007, 9AM to 6PM Free fecal exam to detect worms 10% Discount on Drontal® Plus dewormer Call to schedule a FREE appointment: (276) 236-5103 |
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Microchip
Day Saturday, May 19, 2007 To help introduce the new Advanced Pet Recovery System now offered in
conjunction with HomeAgain microchips, Healing
Springs will hold a microchip day. See
the article below to learn how the Advanced Pet Recovery System improves the
odds for lost pets better than ever before.
For this day only, the cost of a standard microchip implant and the
Advanced Pet Recovery System will be reduced to $40
(no limit on number of pets). This
will include the implanting of the chip, initiation fee, and first year
member ship. (Cats
sometimes require sedation. Sedation
not included in the $40.) |
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Saddle
Up for St. Judes: May 12, 2007 Ride, Meal, Music, & Camping All proceeds go to St. Judes
Children’s Hospital For more information, see the announcement at the
bottom of the April bulletin. |
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Yard Sale Fundraiser for HELP fund. Donate and shop! Healing Springs HELP fund will hold its
Second Annual HELP Fund Yard Sale Fund Raiser on Saturday, June 16,
2007. Items may be donated at Coordinated by Jen Roberts Work Phone (Healing
Springs): (276) 236-5103 Home Phone: (276) 236-0904 |
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Finding a Lost Pet – The Best System Ever
Introduced
Healing Springs can implant
your pet with a microchip that is about the size of a grain of rice. It’s a simple procedure
that resembles a vaccination.
The chip contains a unique identification code that functions like a
social security number or a vehicle identification number. Animal shelters and others with scanning
equipment can scan a found pet for the existence of the chip and retrieve the
unique ID code. They submit the code
to the American Kennel Club’s Companion Animal Recovery database, and receive
your contact information. Unlike a dog
tag, the chip cannot fall off, and someone who attempts to steal your pet
cannot remove the chip. With the new Advanced Pet
Recovery System, you can notify HomeAgain that your
pet is lost, and they will initiate a number of services designed to ensure
your pet’s recovery. ·
Within a 25-mile radius of where your pet was
lost, they will e-mail shelters, veterinarians, and their network of
volunteers to be on the lookout for your pet. If a shelter or veterinarian has not been
scanning all incoming pets, the e-mail reminder that a chipped pet in the
area has been lost will increase the likelihood that scanning will occur when
your pet arrives. The e-mail will
contain a description, photo of your pet, and your contact information, so
even facilities that do not have the scanning equipment can contact you when
a pet matching the description shows up.
Animal control officers on patrol and PetRescuer
volunteers will be on the lookout for a pet matching the photo. ·
The Advanced Pet Recovery System also enables
you to store online your pet’s relevant medical data and emergency medical
instructions. This data becomes
accessible to facilities that have scanned your pet’s microchip. In urgent situations, this may enable facilities
that have found your pet to begin important health care. If your pet has
bitten someone, being able to immediately demonstrate that the pet is rabies
vaccinated can save the pet’s life. ·
The Advanced Pet Recovery System will give
you on-call support from trained pet recovery counselors who will assist you
until your pet is recovered. ·
The Advanced Pet Recovery System will even
design and send to you a “lost pet poster” complete with your pet’s photo. For current pricing or to
learn more about mircochipping and the Advanced Pet
Recovery system available through Healing Springs,
simply call during normal
business hours (the most convenient hours around). |
Order Pet ID Tags
Online through Healing Springs You can sign-up to
receive lost pet e-mails and be a PetRescuer
volunteer with HomeAgain. |
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Equine Dental & Oral Health (full-size & mini-horses)
Hipsodant Teeth: Unlike human teeth, a
horse’s teeth grow constantly. Horses
need constant teeth growth because the necessary grinding of food wears down the
teeth. The teeth can wear unevenly and
result in sharp points, hooks, or malocclusions (mal = bad, occlusions =
contact). Poor
dental condition can result in a number of problems: ·
Bleeding in the mouth ·
Responding poorly to a bit: Sharp points often form on the outside of
the molars or pre-molars (cheek teeth).
Pulling back on the bit bunches cheek tissue against these points, and
the cheek gets lacerated by the teeth. The discomfort distracts a horse from its
job. ·
Malnutrition:
Poor dental condition can prevent proper nourishment in a horse in two
ways. One, if the teeth are painful,
horses may choose not to eat as much as they should. Two, if horses cannot properly chew their
food, they swallow pieces of food that are too big. The digestive system cannot break down food
that is not chewed well enough, and a lot of the
nutritional opportunity is lost as the hay or grain passes through the
digestive system. ·
Higher feed expense: More
efficient utilization of feed decreases feed expense. ·
Poor demeanor, low energy, bad body
condition: from consistent pain and/or malnutrition ·
Uncontrolled tooth decay, abscesses, and lost
teeth ·
Systemic organ problems: This is theoretical
in horses at this point, but it makes a lot of sense. It is already well known
that in humans, dogs,
and cats, that tooth & gum disease spreads bacteria into the rest of the
body and causes problems with vital organs. While we are not aware of any research that
has studied this directly in horses, it makes sense that serious bacterial
growth in the mouth would spread through a horse’s body as well. Signs
that your horse may be suffering from dental problems: ·
Reluctant to eat: Pain from sharp teeth can
dissuade horses from eating ·
Poor body condition despite access to enough
food: see malnutrition above ·
Drops a lot of food when eating: “Quidding” is the term sometimes used to refer to when a
horse drops more than it eats ·
Chews excessively on its bit ·
Difficult to bit ·
Tosses his head when under a bit ·
Bad breath ·
Bats its hay around:
when horses cannot effectively use their teeth to bite and grind hay, they
may bat it around to separate it and then swallow pieces whole. As noted above, this results in
malnutrition. Floating the teeth: A veterinarian should examine your horse’s
mouth at least annually, starting at birth. Those enrolled in Healing
Springs’ Equine Wellness Program will receive dental examinations every
six months as part of the routine visit.
With your permission, the veterinarian will float the teeth as
necessary. “Float” is a term that
refers to smoothing something out or a tool that’s
used for smoothing. Decades ago,
dental procedures in horses focused primarily on removing points – “floating
the teeth”. While we
often still use the phrase “float the teeth” to refer to an equine dental
health visit, a float from Healing Springs is actually a modern,
comprehensive exam and dental management procedure that will include an exam
of all teeth, an exam of all soft tissues in the oral area, smoothing of
teeth, correction of molar malocclusions, and correction of incisor
malocclusions. Our new
power float: Healing Springs now uses a power float to make our
veterinarians more efficient. Despite
the claims of some manufacturers and the claims of vets who have invested a
few thousand dollars in power floats, the power float does not necessarily
result in better dental corrections. A
patient and skilled veterinarian will perform excellent dental care with the
right manual equipment. A power float does, however, speed up the procedure. With the ever growing
popularity of Healing Springs’ large animal services and with four vet trucks
on the road many days, equipment that makes our vets more efficient also
makes them more available when you need them.
Having six veterinarians experienced in and dedicated to large animal
medicine also makes Healing Springs a good choice for horse owners and
farmers. Does
Floating Hurt? Healing Springs often administers torbugesic for floating horses’ teeth. Torbugesic
sedates the horse and provides pain relief.
However, horses’ teeth are not as sensitive as human teeth. Their nerves end close to the gum
line. Horses do not have nerves where
the work on the tooth is being done. Start at age two or younger. It is a myth that only older horses require
attention to dental health. Small
problems that occur in younger horses such as hooks on the molars result in
big problems in older horses such as deep transverse ridges, temporal
mandibular joint disorder, and spaces between molars that result in
periodontal disease and lost teeth. When to
call: |
_____ The Vets of
Healing Springs Recommend Purina Gentle Snackers – HypoAllergenic Canine
Treats Purina Dental
Chews – a tasty dog treat that cleans teeth and freshens breath Flea, tick, and bot spray for horses, cats, and dogs _____ New mutant
form of Equine Herpes Virus |
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Pet Food Recall Update |
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The pet food recall has now
expanded beyond Menu Foods to include hundreds of brands and various
manufacturers. The problem was originally linked to tainted batches of wheat gluten
imported from The wheat gluten problem has
proved pervasive. Despite Menu Foods’
assurances last April that they had nipped the problem in the bud, they have
recalled multiple additional brands and lot numbers on multiple occasions
over the past month. Many people are taking the reasonable
step of discontinuing use of any product containing wheat gluten until this
situation is fully resolved.
This situation is not currently resolved. Products containing wheat gluten are required
to name it in the ingredients list.
The rice gluten problem has proved much more limited than the wheat gluten
contamination. Science Diet has recalled
one specific brand due to wheat gluten, Science
Diet Savory Cuts. No other Science
Diet products contain wheat gluten (see
company statement). Science Diet was not affected by the rice gluten recalls. While four Science Diet products do contain
rice gluten, the company does not use the suppliers involved with the
contaminated ingredients (see
company statement). |
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While the suspected
contaminant, melamine, should not have been in the imported ingredients,
scientists are still not sure why melamine would have caused the pet deaths
in question. Melamine has been shown to be relatively non-toxic. There have been no reported pet deaths in Regardless of whether
melamine is responsible for pet deaths, the discovery of undisclosed melamine
in protein sources may have uncovered a despicable fraud conducted against
American and Canadian companies for years. When buying gluten, pet food
manufacturers pay for its protein value, and when buying pet food, the cost
of your brand is determined in part by the protein
concentration. Melamine resembles a
protein, and in product testing will show up as a
protein. However, melamine is not a
protein that the body can use and has no nutritional value whatsoever. If Chinese producers deliberately laced their
product with melamine, they could have artificially raised their prices. The extent to which this would have
affected the nutritional value of some pet foods (especially the very cheap
pet foods already low in protein) has not received much comment yet. What to do and what not to
do: 1. Know if anything you
are feeding your pet contains wheat gluten.
Some people are recommending completely discontinuing the use of
products containing wheat gluten until the situation is
fully understood. 2. Make Springboard
your homepage to stay abreast of the breaking news. Rice gluten was only
implicated very recently, and rumors from other countries suggest that
some corn gluten may have been contaminated.
More brands and more ingredients may be implicated
as the investigation continues. 3. Scan the list of
recalled brands for brands that you use.
Springboard
keeps a list and updates it as new announcements are made. 4. Do not begin feeding
your pets foods from a human diet.
This may be more likely to cause health problems than randomly
selecting a pet food. Feeding foods
from a human diet to pets has resulted in abnormal tooth decay, pancreatitis, and other pet health problems. 5. The ASPCA recommends
against feeding your pets a raw food diet.
If you are considering cooking your pets’ food, understand the time
and resource commitment that needs to be made. (If
considering cooking all your pets’ food, please review this article from the
ASPCA.)
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The Vets of
Healing Springs Recommend Science Diet. Buy Science Diet directly from Healing Springs Online Dental Treats with unique properties to neutralize stomach odors |
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Iron Mountain Trail Riders Club – New Website
Upcoming Events
•
Photos • Contacts www.ironmountaintrailriders.org |
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The Animal Health Bulletin is a FREE service of Healing (276) 236-5103 Visit our website at www.HealingSpringsAnimalHospital.com |
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Administrative: Request an article topic. Click
Here. To ask questions about a
specific pet, call Healing Springs at (276) 236-5103. You have permission to forward this bulletin in its
entirety to a friend. If you did not receive the Animal Health Bulletin
directly and would like to begin receiving them, simply enter your
information for a free subscription: Click here to subscribe,
update your e-mail preferences or unsubscribe. The Animal Health Bulletin is developed and
distributed with the assistance of Brazzell Marketing Agency specializing in healthcare marketing. © BMA 2007 |
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