Hollywood FL Vet Explains Importance of Regular Pet Dental Screenings

Importance of Regular Pet Dental Screenings Explained by Hollywood FL Top Vet

Your pet’s dental health is very similar to yours. The difference is you wouldn’t go months without brushing your teeth or even years without visiting the dentist. 70% of cats and 80% of dogs have some form of dental disease by 3 years of age according to the AVMA.  Dental disease can lead to:

• tooth loss
• eating problems
• bad breath

Oral disease can also affect the functioning of your pet’s vital organs, including the kidneys, liver and heart. The good news is as a pet owner there’s a lot you can do.

Here are a few tips to help safeguard your pet’s oral health.

1. Provide your pet oral chews designed specifically for oral health, it’s an easy and effective way to help reduce the build-up of tartar on the teeth.
2. Become familiar with your pet’s teeth at an early age. Examine their mouth regularly and check for sensitive painful areas or lesions.
3. Use pet friendly toothpastes and rinses to reduce tartar and bacteria build-up.

The Importance of Regular Dental Consultations

To ensure your pets oral health, have your veterinarian complete a dental consult on a regular basis. A vet can determine if your pet requires a non-anesthetic dental cleaning or more extensive work under general anesthesia. Your pet remains awake during a non-anesthetic dental cleaning and it can be a great way for preventative care. A non-anesthetic dental procedure is a dental cleaning completed without anesthesia. However, not all pets are suitable candidates for this procedure, and your veterinarian will determine which is the best option for your pet based on their overall health condition. Anesthetic dental cleanings are often recommended when your pet is showing indications of more advanced oral disease. They may include; polishing, scaling, antibiotics, x-rays, extractions and blood work. Ask your vet which one is right for your pet

Pet dental work can be a serious medical procedure so always be sure that it is performed in a veterinary hospital, by a licensed vet. At DPC Veterinary Hospital in Davie Florida we offer full dental packages for your pet including a FREE consult. Call us today at (954) 989-9879 more information.

Hollywood FL’s Top Vet Explains Brain Tumor Treatment

Hollywood FL’s Top Vet Explains Why Brain Tumors in Cats and Dogs are So Challenging to Treat

While brain tumors occur in both dogs and cats, particularly those over 5 years old, tumors are more common in dogs with some breeds, boxer, Boston terrier and golden retrievers actually being predisposed to the disease.

Brain tumors in both species are identified as primary or secondary. Primary tumors are those where the tumor originated within the brain or its membrane and include meningioma, glioma, choroid plexus papilloma, and pituitary adenoma or adenocarcinoma. Secondary tumors are caused by cancer that has metastasized to the brain from some other area in the pet's body. Examples of secondary tumors include hemangiosarcoma, mammary carcinoma, and melanoma. Unfortunately, these tumors have a very poor prognosis because they’ve already spread through the body.

Symptoms and Treatments for Dog and Cat Brain Tumors

Symptoms associated with brain tumors in both cats and dogs are caused by pressure exerted by the cancer mass on the brain. Symptoms may vary depending on what part of the brain the mass is affecting. Symptoms are typically progressive and get more pronounced as the size of the tumor increases but not always.

Symptoms that are common in both dogs and cats include:

• Decline in mental alertness
• "Drunk" gait
• Head pressing
• Going in circles
• Seizures
• Loss of vision in one eye
• Increased vocalization by cats and less purring
• Loss of appetite but increase in thirst

The most effective treatment is removal of the entire tumor by surgery but unfortunately that is rarely possible. Of course in the case of secondary tumors, removing the brain tumor does nothing to mitigate the effects of the other cancers in the body.

Chemotherapy is an option for some types of cancer providing the pet is healthy enough to survive the general anesthesia required to administer it. Radiation is another option that can be used to slow the growth of the tumor but is rarely able to eradicate it.

Controlling symptoms is a common approach to dealing with brain tumors and there are a number of options to relieve the pressure on the pet's brain. At the end of the day, pet brain tumors can be treated but rarely completely cured.

If you have questions about pet brain tumors we encourage you to contact Hollywood's favorite veterinary hospital DPC today!