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Laser surgery is one of the newest surgical innovations available to veterinary medicine. It uses surgical CO2 laser light to cut and cauterize tissue instead of a scalpel blade. It literally vaporizes cells to separate the tissue planes for incisions or vaporize the unwanted cells. While common in human medicine for plastic surgery and other medical procedures for many years, it is now available economically enough for veterinary medicine to benefit. It has been invaluable to veterinarians for such common procedures as feline declaws to decrease bleeding, decrease post-operative pain, minimize nerve trauma and swelling, and to improve all around post-operative recovery. Experience shows us however, that we can use the laser for many other procedures with the same benefits: mass removals, spays and neuters, orthopedic repairs, soft palate resection, and many others. Small warts, common in many dogs, can often be vaporized even without anesthesia, to minimize patient risk and discomfort. Ask our veterinarians or staff if you would like your pet's procedure done with laser surgery. back to top
If your pet is sick with contagious disease, Willamette Valley Animal Hospital can accommodate them in our state of the art isolation ward. We have the capacity to provide oxygen, intravenous fluids, and inhaled medications, all in a ward that is completely isolated to prevent the spread of infectious disease to our other patients, yet close enough to allow intensive monitoring. The facility is even ventilated to outside to keep its airspace isolated. back to top
Our hospital has most of the medicines that we require for treating your pet right at our location, so there is rarely a need to travel to another pharmacy for medicine. We continue to try to be competitive with large multi-national internet pharmacies for products such as shampoos, flea control, and chronic medications. We want you to continue buying your product from us, your neighborhood small business, rather than an unknown corporation, to help us keep our cost for other services to you as low as possible, and support our employees and business. back to top
In-House Diagnostic Laboratory and Surgical Monitoring
Diagnostic Testing is so important when your pet is sick. While physical examination can help us, because our patients can't talk, we often need to have a look inside - with blood or urine testing being the most common tests we run. Large diagnostic laboratories provide accurate testing routinely, but sometimes you need answers immediately.
At Willamette Valley Animal Hospital we have the capacity to test urine, blood chemistries, hematology (red blood cell, white blood cell and platelet assessments), and feces while you wait if needed, so we can move forward quickly with treatment. In the surgery suite, we have state of the art monitors for blood pressure, patient body temperature, oxygen saturation, electrocardiogram, and respiration. All patients are maintained on a mechanical ventilator to ensure good oxygen saturation, the lack of which is one of the biggest causes of anesthetic death. Our surgery table is equipped with a hot air blanket system to keep your little one warm during surgery. back to top
In veterinary medicine, ultrasound is becoming more common in general practice to look at internal organs, especially abdominal structures. We use the ultrasound to assess organ texture, size, and position, and assessing the hearts function. While specialists are sometimes needed to perform advanced ultrasound procedures, we can use it to help with diagnosis of your dog or cat's problem much more quickly. By using the ultrasound to guide a fine needle biopsy of the abdominal organs without the need for a general anesthetic or surgery. Especially in older or sick patients, the advantage of not needing an anesthetic or surgery can be a big benefit in a diagnostic tool. Ultrasound is also used for pregnancy detection in our pets and is very moderately priced. A pregnancy can be confirmed as early as 21 days after conception. back to top
Our veterinarians are ready at all times to perform x-rays on your pet should the need arise. X-rays are very helpful to look at both bone and soft tissue structures in the body. While they are less accurate than the more advanced tests of MRI and CT scanning, they are very affordable for sick or injured patients and can help your veterinarian narrow the list of possible problems when your loved one is sick. More advanced contrast studies can also be performed such as dye injections into the bladder to look for bladder stones, or dye into the stomach or intestines looking for ingested objects. Radiographs can be quickly performed and interpreted to help to get a quick assessment of your pet. back to top
Two of the most common questions we get are, "What is pain management" and "Why does my pet need it?" Two questions that were not often asked ten years ago but are commonplace today because of advancements in veterinary medicine. Today pain management is an integral part of any surgical procedure at Willamette Valley Animal Hospital. Research shows that our pets feel pain just like we do, they are just better at hiding it (remember that law of the jungle thing - if you show pain or weakness you become someones next meal).
What is Pain Management? It is the art of assessing pain, either existing or anticipated and formulating a comprehensive plan to keep our patient comfortable and pain free. It usually involves the use of multiple classes of analgesics or pain medicine to work together for effective pain control depending on the circumstances.
Why is Pain Management Important? In recent years there have been huge gains even in human medicine in improving pain control. As a human you understand that people feel and express pain in a variety of different ways. Similarly, in veterinary medicine, we have come a very long way over the last 10-15 years in understanding the fact that animals feel pain. Animals have very similar nerve pathways to humans, so we need to address the anticipated pain in disease and surgery and try to preemptively treat it. Why? It has been shown that pets with good pain control go back to normal activity sooner, eat sooner, heal more quickly, damage the surgery site less, have less stress, etc. It is also our goal to alleviate suffering by effectively controlling pain. Therefore, all patients, will be assessed with a "Pain Score" to try to quantify pain, and use one or multiple types of medicine, physical therapy and treatment to minimize discomfort. back to top
The veterinarians at Willamette Valley Animal Hospital believe that the most under utilized of veterinary service is dentistry. Most owners only rarely look at their pet's teeth, and even fewer perform routine at-home dental care to prevent disease.
It is clear that many chronic conditions in older dogs happen or are worsened by dental disease. Over the years, tartar and calcium based calculus build up on teeth, causing progressive gum irritation, then gum disease. Infection of the mouth can start as early as one year of age in some pets, and progresses over time to tooth loss, but also bacterial infection showering to the blood and subsequently to the major organs as well. It is well known that conditions such as heart valve infections are primarily caused by mouth infections, and often lead to valve leakage and eventual heart failure in older dogs. Tooth infections also shower the kidneys with bacteria that can damage them and lead to kidney failure. These infections also can go to the liver, and cause liver cellular damage.
So routine dental home care and periodic professional cleaning won't just make your pet's breath smell better, it can help him to live longer and be happier, and certainly avoid tooth root abscesses that are extremely painful. The first step is the annual examination to monitor dental health, then learn more about home care from our veterinarians or staff.
The staff at Willamette Valley Animal Hospital perform routine dental prophylaxis under general anesthetic. While sedated we clean, polish and seal your pets teeth; assessing for infected or bad teeth that should be removed. We use a dental radiograph to ensure all roots are healthy. If extractions are necessary, multi-modality pain medication will be given to your pet, local nerve blocks (freezing), and pain medication and antibiotics to go home. Because most of our dental patients are mature or older individuals, we require pre-operative blood screening before general anesthesia. If it is anticipated that the procedure will be a long one, we will make recommendations for intravenous fluid support through the procedure for the benefit of your pet. back to top
Preventive Health Care and Nutrition Counseling
At Willamette Valley Animal Hospital we carry Purina Veterinary Diets, and Royal Canin Veterinary Diets to help to treat nutritional problems in your pet associated with disease (such as kidney failure, diabetes mellitus, intestinal problems, allergy) or with other conditions (such as obesity) that can affect your pet's health. Computer assisted programs are available to help tailor weight loss programs to your pet. Many dogs and cats suffer from allergies, some of them environmental, some food allergy. There are diet options available that can help you as an owner manage these problems effectively. back to top
Advanced Orthopedic Procedures and Repair of Broken Limbs
Many general practitioners perform very few major orthopedic procedures because of either lack of equipment, or unfamiliarity with the procedure. Others, such as our veterinarians at Willamette Valley Animal Hospital, have extensive training and experience in many orthopedic procedures. So we can repair many congenital problems or traumatic injuries without the necessity or cost of referral to specialist surgeons. Very difficult procedures may still be referred. Surgery of fractures in small animals is generally recommended because bandages and splints are extremely difficult to deal with for both the pet and the owners at home. With surgery most pets can enjoy less pain, and a much earlier return to almost normal use of the affected limb with much fewer complications.
Anterior Cruciate Ligament Rupture is one of the most common rear limb lameness problem in the dog. Our doctors have the equipment and hundreds of cases of experience in performing extracapsular repair for cruciate ligament tears. Most dogs can go back to 80% plus function after recovering from this surgery. It is performed by laser to improve early return to function.
Fracture Repair can in most cases be handled at our facility. We can perform bone pinning, plating, external fixators, and interlocking nail repair, depending on the type of fracture in dogs and cats.
Medial Patellar Luxation is a patella, or knee cap problem, often seen in small breed dogs that is a genetic problem where the knee cap slips out of its groove at the knee and can cause severe lameness and malformation of the entire rear leg. We routinely repair these problems with very good outcomes for 95% return to function.
Tibial Tuberosity Advancement is a newer method of repair for a cranial cruciate ligament rupture. Tibial Tuberosity Advancement (TTA) is now performed at our clinic. Similar to the referral TPLO surgery, but more moderately priced, TTA get faster return to function for medium to large dogs. While a fairly new procedure, TTA's results have been very exciting with better recoveries for our furry family members.
See our new DiA software for animations of these various procedures and many more! back to top
Regenerative Stem Cell Therapy Now Available!
Dr. Sheri Morris, our owner, and a Diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners (Canine and Feline Practice) has recently become credentialed in Regenerative Medicine to perform stem-cell therapy on our canine patients.
Regenerative stem cell therapy is an exciting new field of study and therapy in both human and animal medicine. The therapy uses adult stem cells collected from any individual animal’s own fat deposits, and concentrates those cells to be injected into the same patient to help in several types of chronic diseases. Stem cells are primitive cells that are self-renewing, present in many tissues, and can be easily harvested by the veterinarian. These cells can differentiate into many different tissues when injected into an area of injury. They produce growth factors, and anti-inflammatory mediators, they block scarring, and help to decrease scarring that is present. They can modulate the immune system, and are potent natural anti-inflammatories. They can even go to distant sites of injury.
Chronic diseases that are currently treated with stem cell therapy include osteoarthritis, fractures, tendon injuries, and non-healing wounds in dogs and horses. Potential exciting new applications include chronic hepatitis, and autoimmune diseases like immune polyarthritis.
Stem cell therapy, used in horses and dogs, offers the hope of pain control in our osteoarthritis patients that are non-responsive to traditional therapy, those that are too sick for surgical intervention, or ones that surgery has failed to make pain free. The procedure comes with almost no side effects. In studies, more than 80% of dogs showed improved quality of life after treatment according to owners and veterinarians.
Ask us about regenerative therapy for your dog.
Spaying or Neutering is one of the best veterinary health care choices you can make for your cat or dog and it is more than just a population control measure. Now let's dispel some of the many myths about neutering your dog guys. No he won't get fat; yes he will still protect the home and family. A dog's personality is formed more by genetics and environment than by sex hormones. I know I owned a 125lbs neutered Rottweiler and he was more than protective enough.
But the question persists, "Why should we spay or neuter our pet?" The benefits are numerous and here are just a few: for male dogs and cats it eliminates behavior problems such as the urge to roam in search of a mate, fighting and marking. The physical benefits are also significant. The sterilizations of male dogs helps to significantly reduce prostate related problems, and in females the risks of uterine and mammary cancer.
The next most important is at what age should this be done?. We recommend that female dogs be sterilized before their first heat, depending on the breed this means at 4 to 6 months of age. For cats we recommend both males and females be sterilized at 4-6 months of age. Un-neutered male cats may spray and this may become a behavioral problem that can be difficult to eliminate, so neutering at a young age before this behavior starts is highly recommended.
For more information about "Why You Should Spay or Neuter Your Pet" or the "Myths and Facts About Spaying and Neutering" visit the links below.
What is spaying or neutering (also called sterilization)? In female cats and dogs it involves the complete removal of both the ovaries and uterus. This procedure involves major abdominal surgery under general anesthesia and post operative pain medications are highly provided at no additional cost. In males sterilization involves the removal of the testicles. This procedure is also performed under general anesthesia and pain medications are also provided. In this procedure the testicles are removed through a small incision in front of the scrotum. While most dogs do not lick or nip at their surgery site, some do. Consult your veterinarian if your dog does and ask about an Elizabethan collar. back to top
Wellness or Routine Health Exams
Why do we recommend an annual wellness examination for your pets and why do they need them? Well you've heard the old saying, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" it also happens to be true for the health of your pet. Annual exams can help determine the general well being of your pet and help identify potential problems. Early detection of problems is particularly important as prompt action may solve a problem before serious consequences occur.
Puppies and kittens need wellness exams to ensure they're; growing properly, getting appropriate vaccinations, parasite control, and checking for any congenital defects or abnormalities. The routine annual wellness exams can act as an early warning system to help catch health problems before they become a serious health problem in adult pets. Just like grandma, older pets require routine wellness exams to either prevent or manage the onset of many age related chronic diseases, such as heart trouble, diabetes, kidney or liver disease, cancer or arthritis.
When your pet visits Willamette Valley Animal Hospital a weight and temperature will be taken (if they don't object too much) by a trained veterinary technician. One of our doctors will then get a brief health history of your pet and then proceed with a complete physical. This includes a check of the heart and lungs, ears, eyes, nose and mouth. Our doctors will also check for lameness, pain or weakness in the limbs and spine, muscle tone and joint function, along with palpating the abdomen to assess the condition of internal organs and to detect tumors or other irregularities.
We will also ensure that your pet is current on routine vaccinations and recommend updating lapsed vaccinations. In addition we recommend annual fecal examinations to check for intestinal parasites such as tape worms the come from the ingesting of fleas. Depending on the season heartworm testing and prevention and flea control may also be suggested for your pet's health and comfort. So you see there are lots of reasons we recommend an annual wellness exam for your pet and any one of them can be reason enough for you to bring your pet in to see one of or veterinarians. An annual physical exam is not just about receiving vaccines, its about making certain your pet is happy and healthy, giving them the best chance to live a long and happy life with you. back to top
Wellness or Routine Health Exams
Regenerative Medicine - Stem Cell Therapy
Advanced Orthopedic Procedures and Repair of Broken Limbs
Preventative Health Care and Nutrician Counseling
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