March 2011 Newsletter

Heartworm & Flea Prevention in One!

The cold days of winter are behind us and the warmer days of spring have come bringing the green grass, blooming flowers and lots of leaping fleas! Year round flea prevention is a must in the great state of Texas and if you have lapsed, now is the time to get started again! Prevention is always easier than treating a flea infestation.

This spring, we are excited about the latest product for flea and heartworm prevention.

Trifexis is the newest product to be released to veterinarians that has combined the once monthly, fast acting flea tablet Comfortis, with our monthly heartworm and intestinal parasite preventatives. Trifexis treats and prevents more intestinal parasites than Iverhart, Triheart and Heartgard.

Your pet will now only have to take one pill each month to prevent fleas, heartworm disease, and 3 types of intestinal parasites!

The benefits of the Trifexis tablet include:

• Starts killing adult fleas within 30 minutes
• Kills 100% of fleas in 4 hours
• Kills fleas before they can lay eggs
• Prevents heartworm disease when used monthly
• Treats and controls adult hookworms
• Treats and controls adult roundworms
• Treats and controls adult whipworms

Please call our office and on of our friendly staff members will answer any questions regarding this new and exciting product!

Prevent Pet Overpopulation

Spring is also a time of year within the veterinary community that we begin to see many unwanted litters. We encourage you to take an active role in helping the national pet overpopulation problem by having your pet spayed or neutered. Your pet can be spayed/neutered as early as 4 months of age. Neglecting this very important part of your pet's medical welfare may have many unfavorable outcomes that are not good for your pet such as unwanted puppies/kittens; behavioral problems such as inappropriate urination/defecation associated with "marking their territory," and aggression. Other medical problems associated with not spaying or neutering your pet include mammary and reproductive cancer and urogenital problems for both male and female pets.

Here at Turtle Creek, our goal is to make your pet's spay/neuter experience (or any surgical procedure) as safe, comfortable and pain-free as possible. Our veterinary staff are highly trained on the most current anesthetic protocols that are safest for your pet, patient care and monitoring, pain management protocols, and state-of-the-art equipment that ensures your pets safety and well-being,

We are pleased to offer our clients the cutting edge technology of laser surgery. This technique has decreased recovery time for our pets after surgery by decreasing inflammation, swelling and pain at the incision site. Our patients do not have the need to go home with the "lamp-shade" collar, nor do they return for a suture removal post surgery. Dr. Rocky takes extra special care of your pet by using a suture technique that buries all sutures under the skin, which becomes absorbed by the body after a short period of time. No ugly sutures to look at or for your pet to chew. Laser surgery is by far the best option for any surgical procedure and subsequent recovery.

Call our office to schedule your pet's spay or neuter visit to take advantage of this service, or to speak with one of our friendly veterinary staff members for more questions about the spay/neuter procedure and/or the laser surgery technique.

Why use a Topical Flea & Tick Preventative?

With all the great oral products, why would there be need to continue with the topical preventatives often recommended by your veterinarian? Firstly, the topical products are over-the-counter, meaning you don't need to have a prescription from the veterinarian to purchase them. These products can be purchased anytime from your veterinarian.

Secondly, topical products are the best for prevention of tick infestation. Our oral systemic products do not protect our pets from ticks. The best product for protecting your pet against ticks is Vectra 3D. Our practice not only recommends this product, but our staff members use it on their pets too. Click here to view a comparison to other topical flea/tick products.

Vectra 3D also has these great benefits:

• Quick onset within 2 hours of application (compared to 12-24 hours with other topical flea products)
• Quick drying, non-greasy and water resistant
• Month long prevention of fleas and ticks

Traditionally, over the counter flea preventatives that are available at your local retail stores have proven to be ineffective and often times promote adverse biochemical reactions to your pet that may be fatal. These types of treatments are effective at killing the adult fleas that may be crawling on your pet, but they do not interrupt the flea life cycle. The flea life cycle consists of four stages, egg, larva, pupa and adult. An adult flea lays up to 50 eggs a day and these eggs will hatch over a 2 week period and develop into larvae. The duration of this stage is only 5-18 days before it will develop into pupae. Flea pupae can lie dormant for up to a year waiting for the ideal host and environment conditions before emerging as an adult flea, therefore, using a product that is an adulticide only is not sufficient in treating a flea infestation. The following are just a few examples of common flea products found in retail stores and their potential side effects:

• Flea collars emit a toxic gas that is absorbed into the fat layer just below the skin and is usually only effective in the areas where the flea collar is making direct contact. Cats are especially sensitive to chemicals, and flea collars have been known to cause severe toxicity resulting in seizures and chemical burns around the neck.
• Flea shampoos, dips and powders are great for the initial attack against fleas, but most will only last 2-3 days. Because these products are being absorbed through the skin into the fatty layer of tissue, there is always a increased risk for severe adverse effects.
• "On the spot" treatments available at most retail stores can also be very effective for the initial attack against fleas, but again, will not be effective in the overall prevention and eradication of the fleas. More importantly, products labeled for dogs should NEVER be used on cats. The active ingredients are very different and will cause toxic poisoning in cats.

We highly recommend Vectra 3D over all other topical flea and/or tick products for our patients who are exposed to ticks. For those who do not experience a problem with ticks, Trifexis is by far the most convenient avenue for both internal and external parasite prevention.

Please call our office and on of our friendly staff members will answer any questions regarding this new and exciting product!