Just like people, the medical needs of pets change over time. In fact, our pets age at nearly 7 times the rate humans do. As your pet gets older they require different nutrition programs, exercise routines and are prone to a variety of new diseases.  We always pride ourselves on preventative care at San Marin Animal Hospital, and during the months of February and March we want to make it as easy as possible for you to ensure your pets well-being by offering a special discounted rate on our senior wellness package.

Common Age-Related Diseases:

• Kidney and liver disease
• Intestinal disorders
• Diabetes
• Joint and bone disease
• Cancer
• Cognitive difficulties

It is important to consider these changes throughout their lives. Separating the natural aging process from emerging medical disorders becomes increasingly difficult with senior pets. Diagnoses and treatment are often adjusted based on patient age and other factors. Routine veterinary visits are the best way to identify, track progress and treat problems early on.
At San Marin Animal Hospital we offer comprehensive senior wellness packages that are recommended as part of your routine senior pet care. With one of the recommended diagnostic packages below you can be proactive with your senior pet care while also saving money. 
The Senior wellness package is tiered into basic and comprehensive and includes:

• A comprehensive exam
• A thorough dental examination
• Blood pressure testing
• Bloodwork including CBC, Chemistries and Thyroid testing
• Urinalysis and urine culture
• Radiographs of Chest and spine
• Dilated retinal examination
• Comprehensive package also includes sedated abdominal ultrasound

Laser Treatment: Pain control without medication!

ChuChu was having a great day playing at the park.  Her owner was tossing the ball for her and she was having a grand time running to catch it until she yelped and then suddenly could not use her rear legs.  Her owners rushed her into the clinic where we found that she had paresis of her hind legs (they were not able to move as much as normal) and severe mid back pain.  We took X-rays of her spine which showed a collapsed disk space.  We discussed what this meant for Chuchu.

When disks in the spine get inflamed and either bulge or rupture they put pressure on the spinal cord. This causes pain as well as motor function problems such as inability to use the legs and/or empty the bladder.  In a worst case scenario a ruptured disk can cause permanent paralysis resulting in the need for a pet to live in a wheel chair or be euthanized.

We recommended that ChuChu’s owners take her up to a Veterinary Neurologist for evaluation and further testing including an MRI.  While they wanted to pursue this it was not within their financial means and so we had to try to make ChuChu as comfortable as possible and try to get her on the road to recovery.  We recommended strict rest, pain medications, anti-inflammatory drugs and laser treatment.

Many people are unfamiliar with laser therapy, but we feel that it is a very beneficial treatment modality for many diseases, especially those causing pain or inflammation.   Laser therapy provides a non-invasive, pain-free, surgery-free and drug-free treatment that is used to treat a variety of conditions, and can be performed in conjunction with existing treatments. Our class four laser treatment employs deep-penetrating light to promote a chain of chemical reactions known as photobiostimulation. This process helps relieve pain through the release of endorphins, and it stimulates injured cells to heal at an accelerated pace.

ChuChu was started on our treatment plan which included aggressive laser therapy every 3 days.  For about a week Chuchu was still completely unable to hold her hind end up or walk, but on day 8 she was standing for short periods of time, and by day 14 she was able to walk unassisted.  She continued weekly laser therapy for an additional month at which point all treatments were discontinued as she was back to normal.

We were so happy to see how well ChuChu did, and we feel that this was largely due to her laser therapy.  We have also seen great success in treating hot spots, ear hematomas, chronic arthritis pain and post-surgical pain with our laser.   Please call us to set up an appointment if you think your pet might benefit from laser treatment!!