Chica tested positive for heartworm disease in 2022. She went through a year-long treatment with steroids and antibiotics for the first month and heartworm prevention every 2 weeks for 12 months. After her treatment, she finally tested negative and she’s never been happier!
Chica receives monthly heartworm prevention so she will not become infected again. Chica is our girl who goes into classrooms with us for our in-school education program!
Demodex mange is a mite that lives in the hair follicles of dogs. It is not uncommon in adolescent dogs, unhealthy dogs and those with poor immune systems. Although this type of mange is not contagious to humans, it needs to be treated as a dog can loose most of its fur in bad cases and progress to worse skin conditions.
This mange is easily treated with Nexgard, the same tablet that controls fleas and ticks. Sometimes we are unsure of the fur color of dogs with extreme cases of demodex. Sweena turned out to be a lovely brown and black dog and was so much happier and healthier after treatment!
It is quite common for the vet to find pellets from air guns buried under the skin, or worse embedded in muscle or other areas, upon examination.
This dog came in to be spayed and had a pellet under her skin on her side; it was easily removed after her spay surgery, before she woke up. She was lucky; some pellets lodge into critical organs, including the lungs, and animals can easily die from this.
As a kitten less than 2 lb, Melia was caught in the fan belt of a car which broke her back left leg in multiple places and severed her tail at it’s base. With no way to repair the broken leg, it was instead amputated. This little girl never knew what it was like to have four legs- she runs as fast as any cat around!
“Hit-by-cars” are unfortunately common in Palau, and if the leg can’t be fixed by orthopedic surgery then amputation is necessary. Dogs and cats adjust so well to three legs, it’s like they never had four!
Happy was a stray and lucky to be brought to the vet by a caring citizen. The bad leg was amputated and her recovery was smooth. She was even adopted by an owner in the US and moved to San Francisco!
