Heartfelt Impressions

Recently, we received the nicest card from bichon frise, Tommy Burke.  His "mother" is a great artist who paints the originals and then turns them in to greeting cards, checks and gifts.  Check them out at HeartfeltImpressions.com.

Calling All Pets

We wanted to share with you a great program which Dr. Cardella discovered on NPR.  Its called Calling All Pets and it produced by Wisconsin Public Radio.  The host, Patricia McConnell is a zooligist who has very good advice about all types of pets and wildlife.  Ms. McConnel handles  a lot of behavior issues.  Each week she also hosts a guest who highlights an animal related event, concern or issue.  All previous issues are archived on line here.  We hope you enjoy them as much as we have.

A big thanks to the Buzby family.  Over the last two years, they successfully raised a yellow labrador retriever named Godiva for the Guiding Eyes for the Blind.  Godiva graduated from this program this spring and is now living in Virginia assisting Bill Hadden.  Thanks for doing something so wonderful in order to help others!  If you would like to know more about raising guide dogs, click here!  

My Knees Feel Great Now, Thanks!

Hi! My name is Miss Mellow and I'm a loveable 5 year old rottweiler. In 2005 my mom took me to the vet's office because I was lame on my left hind leg. Dr. Cook felt my leg and took radiographs and diagnosed me with a cranial (anterior) curciate ligament injury. This may sound familiar to you because it is the same injury that human athletes get (ACL injury in people, CCL in dogs) in their knees. This ligament is a major stabalizer of the stifle (what I call my knee) joint. Because of this instability, my stifle was very inflammed and painful. 

Dr. Cook told my mom that without treatment there could be damage to the surrounding cartilage in my knee and degenerative joint disease (osteoarthritis) could progress very quickly. The doctor told my mom in order for me to painlessly use my stifle properly again, it would need to be repaired surgically. Afterward mom had to restrict my activity and do physical therapy exercises with my leg for several weeks. 

Unfortunately, shortly after my left CCL tore, my right one did also! Dr. Cook said that happens in 30-50% of the dogs with these injuries. My mom loves me so much that she had my right knee surgically repaired AND did my physical therapy all over again. Because she took care of me so well Dr.Cook said at my last yearly check-up that BOTH of my knees are doing great.

Thanks mom and Dr. Cook -Miss Mellow

Attention All High School & Veterinary Technology Students

Here at Kingsbrook Animal Hospital, we welcome student interns.  If you find that you need to fill an internship requirement at school and are interested in the veterinary field, this could be a great experience for you.  Positions fill up quickly and we now have Autumn positions available.  If you are interested, feel free to call us and ask for Melissa Sasu or Ann Carlson.

Jake's Broken Tooth!

Hi Everybody!  My name is Jake.  I am an exceptionally adorable 11 week old german shepherd puppy.  My Daddy took me to the hospital because I was having diarrhea, and while I was being examined, Dr. Kim noticed that one of my baby canine teeth was broken in half! (Daddy told on me and led Dr. Kim know about how I love to chew - on everything!)  You can see in my pictures how far the dental probe goes in.  The pulp (where the blood and nerves of my teeth are) of my tooth is exposed.  Melissa told me that human kids with cavities in their baby teeth can get very grumpy because it hurts!  She said that broken teeth in puppies can not only be painful, but that they can be a source of infection that could affect my other baby teeth or even my adult teeth as they are developing.  

Thanks to Dr. Kim's discovery, I was able to have this broken tooth surgically extracted.  Dr. Kim said that extracting a baby tooth is very delicate and tedious work because it is important not to damage developing adult teeth that are still under the gumline.  I feel much better now that my sore tooth is gone and knowing that it won't cause me any future problems.  Thanks Dr. Kim!

Love, 

Jake.

Clover's Pen: Part II

Well, I have scrubbed for two days with a tooth brush, but all the ink is gone!  If any of you find that the pen you are chewing is of poor quality and leaks ink when you bite the end off, I can vouch for the Amodex spot remover.  It took a while, but it really did remove all the ink from Mommy's rug.  Just be sure not to try to wipe up the ink with water first.  Water sets the ink and makes it impossible to remove.  The bottle says that Amodex works for other stains too, like permanent ink, grass stains, red wine and make-up.  I'll let you know when I try it next time.

-Clover