Top Veterinary Articles of the Week: Pricing of Dental Care, Anal Glands Impaction, and more ...

How To Treat Your Pet’s Dental Disease Without Getting Ripped Off
Vet Harmony


Oral health often escapes proper attention. Many dogs are living with infected mouths and often nobody is even aware of it. Having the teeth and mouth checked is definitely one reason why everybody should take their dog for annual exams right there.

But what happens when your dog is diagnosed with dental disease? How much should dental work for dogs cost? I remember how shocked our daughter was when she got quoted $1,200 for her Chihuahua whose mouth was in horrible shape. We recommended Jasmine's vet and that's the quote she returned with. Needless to say, she didn't get the work done there and found a place that did it much cheaper. Too much cheaper ...

I don't like paying $ 1,200 (or more) for my dog's dental work either. BUT I pay it. Why? Because of things that I get for that price. I know that my dog is going to get the best care, including pre-anesthesia blood work, IV catheter and fluids, endotracheal intubation, oxygen and inhaled anesthetic, full anesthesia monitoring, pain medications, full set of dental radiographs ... and all that before anybody even touches the teeth.

For me, doing it right is worth it.


3 Dr. Google horror stories that reflect the veterinary profession's new normal
dvm360

Here is the thing with Google. It's a tool. Nothing more, nothing else. With any tool it all depends on how it is used. I use Google all the time. I research the living daylights out of everything and I found many great ideas that way. Mostly, I go to Google looking for questions, not answers. And then I take my questions to our vet.

The other issues is reliability of sources. There is some great information out there and some that is pretty horrible or right down wrong. The trick is being able to tell the difference.

I think one of the biggest problems is that people turn to Google, or internet in general, in order to find easy answers and fixes, to replace the need to see a veterinarian. That might work SOMETIMES. I'd say quite rarely. I think there are two issues that need to be worked out. One, for people to understand the place any found information should have in their process and two, for veterinarians being willing to discuss such things.

For some people, I suppose, it will always be like letting kids play with matches.


Anal Glands and Impaction – Don’t Make Things Worse
Dr. Christopher G. Byers/CriticalCareDVM

Over time we dealt with all kinds of health issues but anal glands, thankfully, were only a minor, transient problem. It seems, though, that often groomers automatically express anal glands as part of the routine care every time a dog shows up. That never really made sense to me. Normal, healthy anal glands take care of themselves and don't need routine help. Why keep fixing something that wasn't broken? Messing with something that is fine just means risking actually breaking it in the process.

I can't help but think of Home Improvement and Tim's constant desire to keep improving everything within reach.



The trick is to learn to see when there is a problem and leave things well alone the rest of the time. Unwarranted expression can actually break perfectly functional glands. Just don't do it.

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