Veterinary Medical Services
offers a full suite of services to make sure your pet stays as healthy as possible.
Here are the major services North Churton Animal Hospital provides:
Dermatology
Pet Dermatology covers anything wrong with your pet’s skin, hair, ears and feet, including nails. Here are some signs your pet may need dermatological services:
- Licking, chewing, or biting the skin
- Shaking or scratching at the ears or head
- Foul odor coming from your pet’s ears or skin
- Hair loss or excessive dandruff
Endocrinology
Think of endocrinology as your pet’s hormones and internal chemistry. Some common endocrinology problems we see are diabetes, hyper and hypothyroidism, Cushing’s Disease and Addison’s Disease. If your pet is showing hair loss, change in appetite or is more tired than usual, a visit to North Churton Animal Hospital is in order.
Ophthalmology
Taking care of your pet’s eyes means watching for infections, especially in dogs that like to ride with the window down or on the back of a pickup truck. Older animals can also develop cataracts. Diabetes can create glaucoma. If your pet is more hesitant than usual, unwilling to go into dark places or the eye is cloudy, a checkup is in order. Any time your pet’s eyes stay red and runny, bring him in.
Cardiology
Just like people, pets can suffer from cardiovascular problems, including heart disease and high blood pressure. Our doctors will listen to your pet’s heart and lungs at every visit and will discuss any findings with you. For example, if your pet has a heart murmur, we may recommend further diagnostics such as chest x-rays or a heart ultrasound, and/or start your pet on medications to prevent heart failure.
We also recommend that all dogs are screened for heartworms yearly, and that dogs and cats stay on heartworm prevention year-round, as heartworms are a major cause of heart disease in pets here in the south.
Symptoms of heart disease can include coughing, tiring easily, and rapid or difficult breathing, so please bring your pet in to see us if you notice any of these signs.
Oncology
Pets may not understand what cancer is, but unfortunately, they can get it. Treatment options available are much the same as for people and can include surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy depending on the type and severity of cancer.
At Durham Animal Hospital, we can check suspicious lumps or bumps on the skin and surgically remove them for a biopsy if necessary. We can also look for and sometimes diagnose internal cancers or tumors with x-rays and bloodwork, and we have several high-quality referral hospitals in the area for owners who would like to pursue advanced treatment such as chemotherapy or radiation. Some symptoms of internal cancer that an owner might notice early are unusual and rapid weight loss and loss of appetite.
Mature Wellness Packages
Our mature wellness packages (recommended for pets 6 years and older) includes everything in our junior packages, as well as a more extensive bloodwork panel that includes a thyroid check and a urinalysis. Thyroid disease is fairly common in middle-aged and older pets, and the urinalysis helps us monitor kidney function and check for low-grade urinary tract infections that can occur in older pets as well.
Junior Wellness Packages
Your pet needs an annual check-up, just like you do. When you bring your pet to Durham Animal Hospital for a check-up, one of our doctors will do a complete exam on your pet. That includes looking in the eyes, ears, and mouth, listening to the heart and lungs, checking the skin, and feeling the pet’s limbs, joints, and abdomen for any abnormalities.
For our younger pets (less than 6 years old), we offer a comprehensive wellness package that includes an exam, core vaccines for their species, a heartworm test, a fecal check, and some basic bloodwork to evaluate blood cell counts and organ function. It’s very helpful to check this bloodwork yearly even in younger pets, as it can identify some diseases before they start to cause problems for the pet, and also gives us baseline normal values for your pet that we can compare to in the future.