New life is in full swing, and many livestock producers are making their way through another season of lambing, kidding, and calving. The mild winter has been working in their favor. We are fully stocked with supplies to help with these processes. There have been new backorders this season, but we have alternate products to help. If you experience an emergency after hours, you can call the Tracy Clinic number and leave a message, the on-call doctor will return your message.
If you are new to the business, we are happy to schedule a consultation and get you established with our clinic.
New Product. For those that use castrating bands on lambs and calves, there is a new product out called lidoband. The castrating bands are impregnated with lidocaine, which continues to give pain relief 3+ weeks after being applied. These are for use in lambs under 50 lbs and calves under 250 lbs.
If you are adding a herd of puppies or kitties.... just a few reminders. As always (and listed in previous blog), make sure your new additions are vaccinated appropriately. We recommend keeping your dogs on flea/tick and heartworm/internal parasite preventative all year round. Cats, especially indoor/outdoor, should be kept on flea preventative and dewormed regularly. If you are ever concerned about an internal parasite problem, we can always check a fecal sample. With the milder winter, ticks are already emerging, and fleas did not take much of break this year.
For those of you that have pets that suffer from environmental allergies, the short winter has also caused pets to start itching again. Allergies are a pain to manage, in some of our pets. The two products we recommend quite often are cytopoint and apoquel. These are injectable and tablet form, respectively. They can give extended relief for allergies. Other options include medicated baths, for topical relief. If they have skin infections along with the itchiness, oral antibiotics are also warranted. Some pets may have food allergies as well, these respond best to hydrolyzed protein diets (these are prescription). The grain free diets are well known from the extensive advertising, but these are not recommended. Grain free diets are linked to heart failure. They lack essential amino acids that are required.
Food recommendations. In general, Science Diet, Royal Canin, and Purina Pro Plan are our go-to food recommendations. They carry good quality over-the-counter dog and cat food, as well as many prescription options. Many other brands are well advertised, but do not have the science behind their products. If you are making your our food, there are lots of recipes and options as well. We can help point you in the right direction, for quality information.
If you decide switch foods, realize that for a food trial to be reliable, all other foods must be stopped. Meaning, all treats must be eliminated during this period, also all table scraps.
Another thing to consider..... allergies tend to be genetic.... so if you have a pet that struggles with allergies, their offspring will also likely suffer from these issues. These are not good candidates for breeding animals.
