Dentistry

Here at Grant Veterinary Care, we recommend each pet should have annual dental cleaning with surgical extractions if needed. Prior to scheduling a dental cleaning under general anesthesia, we recommend a consultation with our veterinarian so she can assess your pet’s mouth and discuss what degree of periodontal disease your pet has as well and an in depth conversation of what the dental cleaning will entail. Depending your pet’s periodontal disease your pet may have a few to several teeth surgically extracted. Periodontal disease is the most common dental condition in dogs and cats.

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Heartworm

Silent and Deadly

Heartworm disease begins silently, with no symptoms, when an infected mosquito bites your pet and transfers the larval stage of the heartworm into your pets blood stream. Untreated, the larval worms bury into the lung tissue and slowly grow to occupy the chambers of the heart. At day 74 of infection, the worms begin to damage your pets heart; however, testing cannot identify the infection until day 180. An untreated adult heartworm can grow up to a foot in length.


Prevention is the Best Defense

Heartworm prevention kills the larval stages (L3 and L4) of heartworms. With no heartworm prevention, these larval baby worms will grow into adults and then wreak havoc on the heart and lungs before eventually killing your pet. We recommend re-testing every 6 months from each negative heartworm test they receive. 

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Important facts:


1) Hampton Roads is classified as a “Heartworm Hotspot” which due to its temperate climate is defined as having mosquitoes year-round.


2) Mosquitoes do not discriminate. No breed is safe and they feed an everything from the fancy Frenchies to Great Pyrenees


3) Heartworm tests only detect adult worms.  This means the disease is destroying your pet's heart and lungs for at least 6 months before you see a positive test.


4) Heartworm is expensive to treat. It typically costs $1500-$3500. This is pretty pricy, especially when you consider that prevention is typically less than $15 per month.


5) Treatment is hard on your pet. The main active ingredient used to kill heartworms is arsenic, a well-known poison, and while it kills the heartworms, it is also very taxing on your pets health. 


The GOLD Standard of Treatment 

The American Heartworm Society is comprised of a group of veterinarians who are dedicated to studying this disease and creating the gold standard protocol on how to treat the disease. They recommended performing the three immiticide injection protocol. 


Questions? Give us a call 

Have more questions? Please schedule your appointment with us so we can test your pet for Heartworm disease and get your pet started on Heartworm prevention. We carry a wide range of prevention options and will happily make recommendations based on your needs.