The veterinary toxicology specialists at Pet Poison Helpline have seen a 100 percent increase in the number of calls from concerned pet owners about the potential misuse of common cleaning items including hand sanitizer, bleach and wipes on or near their pets during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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They made a helpful video for pet owners that can be viewed HERE.

The Pet Poison Helpline provides an inexpensive and invaluable reference service for both pet owners and their veterinarians in the case of toxic exposures. We use them every year to help guide the treatment of poisoned pets. You can also call them directly, 24-7 if your pet gets into something. They are available at 800-213-6680.

The wonderful team at Bridgeworks Construction is making great progress for us, and our new facility is really coming together.  We will keep you updated about our expected move-in date later this summer!

We have all been there - the creepy, crawly feeling when you are petting your dog or cat and you feel the unmistakable blip of a tick pass under your fingers.  It's spring - and we know they'll be out there!  The removal of ticks can be a pain, but if done properly you will minimize complications secondary to tick attachment and reduce the risk to your family.

• Remove the tick as soon as you find it.  The longer a tick is attached, the more it will feed, and the larger it's body will be.  A small, flat tick is newly attached.  A large, swollen tick has been there for a long time.  The longer a tick is attached, the more likely it is to transmit the diseases it carried like Lyme disease.
• Use fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin’s surface as possible.  When the tick is in deep thick fur, we often have to yank some fur or pinch the pet's skin just a bit.  The goal is to grab just the point of attachment, and not the body of the tick.
• Pull upward with steady, even pressure. Don’t twist or jerk the tick; this can cause the mouth-parts to break off and remain in the skin.  If this happens, remove the mouth-parts with tweezers.  They will appear like tiny black dots at the bite site.  If you are unable to remove the mouth easily with clean tweezers, leave it alone and let the skin heal.​  We have seen many tick bites where the owner has gone a bit overboard trying to remove a tiny possible tick fragment, causing much more trauma than was necessary!

COVID-19 has turned a lot of us into internet and connectivity specialists on the spot, but there are still folks out there who have issues making technology do what they need it to do!  Don't worry - if that's you - you're not alone. 

One of the issues we are seeing families have right now has to do with when they try to send us pictures of issues their pets are having.  We often receive pictures of pets via email and Facebook.  The problem is that many times we cannot even tell which end of the pet the picture is of, or if it is even a picture of a pet at all!  Follow these pointers to help get pictures that will clearly identify what is going on for us.  It will help expedite our response to you, and improve our understanding of your situation!

• Make sure the photos is in focus.  We can't fix this on our end!
• Don't go in too close.  Most phones and cameras cannot focus if you're too close to the subject.  We can almost always zoom in to see better, but we can't un-zoom.
• Include something in the picture we can use to judge scale - your finger, a quarter, something of known size
• Tell us where on the pet the image is from - it helps us find our way around the image
• Double check your attachments before sending - we get many messages with no attachments
• If you're sending from a different email or Facebook profile - tell us who you are and how we can identify you in our system

The better the image quality we get, the more valuable our response will be!  The best bet is to take a lot of photos, check them over, and then send the best ones you have.