This month - Heartworm Society Website

Wow—here it is—March already. Where does the time go? Of course, when you are so busy like I am here at Canyon Lake Veterinary Hospital, the days go fast.

Did you know that I am in charge of dusting the tops of the cabinets now? I really like to do the one in the hallway outside of the exam rooms. I jump from the counter up there and when I’m done dusting I can scrunch down so no one can see me, then when people walk by I can reach out and whap them on the head. It is so funny because they never know it’s coming—I usually only do this to the staff. You’d think they would learn that I am lurking up there, but they fall for it every time! This is one of my favorite hiding places at the end of the day, too.

I like to play hide and go seek when it’s time for the staff to go home. They always put me in a kennel at night and I would like to see what goes on around here when everyone is gone, so I try to hide at closing time, but they always find me. So, you can see that I am one busy boy here at the hospital.

And speaking of busy, the staff has sure been busy. They have been cleaning lots of teeth, giving lots of vaccinations and packing up lots of samples to send to the lab. Now I have been hearing about heartworm disease. That’s a bad one—those little worm things live in the hearts of dogs (and sometimes cats) and cause all kinds of problems. So, my staff is getting all ready to start doing heartworm tests on all your pets to make sure that they are not carrying those worms around.

It’s a quick little test; they just draw a tiny bit of blood from your pet and run the test. It doesn’t take very long and when the test is negative, the staff then gives you the go-ahead to start giving your pet the Heartgard preventative. And I am here to tell you, that is some tasty stuff! They have some treats without the medicine in it and every once in awhile I snag one. Yummy in my tummy!

Since I’m telling you everything I have learned about heartworms, I guess I should fill you in about fleas and ticks too. I hear that those little buggers are on the way. We don’t see very many fleas here in good old South Dakota because they don’t like our winters (imagine that-those tiny little things are pretty smart). But oh my, those ticks can be nasty! They latch on and bite your pets, feed on their blood and are just icky. Then they can move on to you—how disgusting. But once, again, my staff has the answer for you—it’s called Frontline. You just put it on your pet and it takes care of those pests for about a month. And your dogs can even go swimming or take a bath and it will still work. Isn’t that amazing? Cats know that getting wet is not a good thing, but those dogs—they seem to love it. I think it’s because they are too lazy to give themselves a bath—slackers.

So, that’s all the news from Canyon Veterinary Hospital –where the doctors are all smart, the technicians are cheery and the cats are above average!