What Makes Us Different?

Wellness exams are critical to monitoring the overall health of your pet. Annual physical examinations by one of our veterinarians will help detect early signs of potential problems before they become costly for you and painful for your pet. For older pets, we recommend wellness exams every six months to maintain optimal health in their senior days. Our ultimate goal is to prevent disease and allow your pets to live longer, healthier lives with their family.

A complete nose-to-tail exam is performed during each wellness visit. During a complete physical exam, the veterinarian will listen to the heart and lungs, check skin and coat quality, look inside the ears, assess oral health, palpate the abdomen, test the joints’ range of motion, and address any other specific concerns the owner may have regarding their pet’s health.

Wellness testing is recommended at each annual visit. Pets age seven times faster than humans, so a lot can happen in just one year. Annual wellness testing helps the doctor understand what is “normal” for your pet and identify common genetic or congenital conditions. In the future, the doctor can detect subtle changes in lab values and potentially detect diseases before your pet is even showing signs of illness.​​

Stress and anxiety are commonly associated with veterinary visits for both people and their pets. Fear Free is an educational program designed for veterinary professionals that focuses on the mental and emotional well-being of our canine and feline patients. Every team member at CAH undergoes special training in order to provide your pet with a safe, low-stress experience at our hospital. High-value treats are available in all exam rooms and our treatment area. Each patient has their own “Emotional Medical Record” to record their likes and dislikes when visiting us so we know to avoid his or her fear triggers.

Anesthesia can be a scary and intimidating concept for pet owners. We strongly recommend (and in some cases, require) pre-anesthetic diagnostics to ensure the safest possible anesthetic event for our patients. This includes pre-operative lab work to check that the liver and kidneys are functioning properly and will be able to adequately metabolize the anesthetic drugs. We may also recommend pre-operative chest x-rays to ensure the heart and lungs look normal and can sustain an anesthetic event.

Before coming in for an anesthetic procedure, we send home Pre-Surgical Packs (PSP) for you to give your pet 1-2 hours before checking in for surgery. The PSP is a combination of medications that allow for a smoother and safer anesthetic experience for our patients. This, in combination with the use of more than one type of induction agent, allows us to use less medication and achieve the same desired level of sedation and pain control for the patient. Less drug use = lower risk.

Our doctors will often recommend surgery using a CO2 surgical laser instead of the traditional scalpel blade. While both methods are safe, the benefit of using the surgical laser is that it cauterizes the blood vessels as it’s cutting, leading to less bleeding during the procedure, less trauma, and less inflammation.

The most common concern clients have when considering anesthetic dental procedures is whether or not their pet will be safe while under anesthesia. Using our Advanced Anesthetic Protocol, your pet’s risk is lowered exponentially. To take things one step further, patients are monitored closely by the actual veterinarian while our highly trained dental technicians do everything else.

Dental cleanings and procedures performed on pets without the use of anesthesia are illegal in the state of California. Non-anesthetic dentals (also referred to as “NAD”) are not only dangerous, but they are also completely ineffective and create a false sense of oral health because the visible part of the patient’s teeth are clean and white. Click here for information about the dangers of non-anesthetic dentals in pets.

During an anesthetic dental procedure, our doctors and technicians perform a thorough exam of your pet’s teeth, including measuring gingival pockets, identifying chips, fractures, or other forms of dental trauma, and checking every single tooth for external signs of disease. We then take digital x-rays of the entire mouth, which show us the remaining 80% of teeth below the gum line that could be harboring disease, infection, and discomfort. Any time a tooth is extracted, nerve blocks are used to prevent pain and discomfort to the patient, and x-rays are re-taken to ensure the entire tooth has been removed. This is an incredibly important part of the procedure, as parts of a tooth root left behind can cause serious issues in the future.

Pain is conducted from multiple pathways in the body, meaning more than one approach is often needed to adequately prevent and control pain. In addition to traditional forms of pain management, such as NSAIDs, we will often recommend alternative treatments like topical sprays or ointments, over-the-counter supplements, and cold laser therapy.

The most important member of our patient’s medical team is you, the owner. We believe that pets receive the best medical care when their owner is properly informed and can make educated decisions. After all, our patients spend 99% of their life with you, not us.

Every team member is required to complete a specified amount of continuing education hours depending on their position in the hospital. These hours are acquired when attending conferences, seminars, and/or workshops and ensure that our hospital staff is always providing you with the latest and greatest information and techniques in veterinary medicine.

Many veterinarians are paid based on production, meaning they get more money when the client spends more money. This can arguably influence medical recommendations made to pet owners. Pay is a very taboo topic in our industry, but we are proud to share that our doctors are paid based on salary only. When our doctors recommend a specific diagnostic test or treatment, it’s because they believe it is the best recommendation for your pet, not because they’ll make more money from it.

What Makes Us Different?

Wellness exams are critical to monitoring the overall health of your pet. Annual physical examinations by one of our veterinarians will help detect early signs of potential problems before they become costly for you and painful for your pet. For older pets, we recommend wellness exams every six months to maintain optimal health in their senior days. Our ultimate goal is to prevent disease and allow your pets to live longer, healthier lives with their family.

A complete nose-to-tail exam is performed during each wellness visit. During a complete physical exam, the veterinarian will listen to the heart and lungs, check skin and coat quality, look inside the ears, assess oral health, palpate the abdomen, test the joints’ range of motion, and address any other specific concerns the owner may have regarding their pet’s health.

Wellness testing is recommended at each annual visit. Pets age seven times faster than humans, so a lot can happen in just one year. Annual wellness testing helps the doctor understand what is “normal” for your pet and identify common genetic or congenital conditions. In the future, the doctor can detect subtle changes in lab values and potentially detect diseases before your pet is even showing signs of illness.​​

Stress and anxiety are commonly associated with veterinary visits for both people and their pets. Fear Free is an educational program designed for veterinary professionals that focuses on the mental and emotional well-being of our canine and feline patients. Every team member at CAH undergoes special training in order to provide your pet with a safe, low-stress experience at our hospital. High-value treats are available in all exam rooms and our treatment area. Each patient has their own “Emotional Medical Record” to record their likes and dislikes when visiting us so we know to avoid his or her fear triggers.

Anesthesia can be a scary and intimidating concept for pet owners. We strongly recommend (and in some cases, require) pre-anesthetic diagnostics to ensure the safest possible anesthetic event for our patients. This includes pre-operative lab work to check that the liver and kidneys are functioning properly and will be able to adequately metabolize the anesthetic drugs. We may also recommend pre-operative chest x-rays to ensure the heart and lungs look normal and can sustain an anesthetic event.

Before coming in for an anesthetic procedure, we send home Pre-Surgical Packs (PSP) for you to give your pet 1-2 hours before checking in for surgery. The PSP is a combination of medications that allow for a smoother and safer anesthetic experience for our patients. This, in combination with the use of more than one type of induction agent, allows us to use less medication and achieve the same desired level of sedation and pain control for the patient. Less drug use = lower risk.

Our doctors will often recommend surgery using a CO2 surgical laser instead of the traditional scalpel blade. While both methods are safe, the benefit of using the surgical laser is that it cauterizes the blood vessels as it’s cutting, leading to less bleeding during the procedure, less trauma, and less inflammation.

The most common concern clients have when considering anesthetic dental procedures is whether or not their pet will be safe while under anesthesia. Using our Advanced Anesthetic Protocol, your pet’s risk is lowered exponentially. To take things one step further, patients are monitored closely by the actual veterinarian while our highly trained dental technicians do everything else.

Dental cleanings and procedures performed on pets without the use of anesthesia are illegal in the state of California. Non-anesthetic dentals (also referred to as “NAD”) are not only dangerous, but they are also completely ineffective and create a false sense of oral health because the visible part of the patient’s teeth are clean and white. Click here for information about the dangers of non-anesthetic dentals in pets.

During an anesthetic dental procedure, our doctors and technicians perform a thorough exam of your pet’s teeth, including measuring gingival pockets, identifying chips, fractures, or other forms of dental trauma, and checking every single tooth for external signs of disease. We then take digital x-rays of the entire mouth, which show us the remaining 80% of teeth below the gum line that could be harboring disease, infection, and discomfort. Any time a tooth is extracted, nerve blocks are used to prevent pain and discomfort to the patient, and x-rays are re-taken to ensure the entire tooth has been removed. This is an incredibly important part of the procedure, as parts of a tooth root left behind can cause serious issues in the future.

Pain is conducted from multiple pathways in the body, meaning more than one approach is often needed to adequately prevent and control pain. In addition to traditional forms of pain management, such as NSAIDs, we will often recommend alternative treatments like topical sprays or ointments, over-the-counter supplements, and cold laser therapy.

The most important member of our patient’s medical team is you, the owner. We believe that pets receive the best medical care when their owner is properly informed and can make educated decisions. After all, our patients spend 99% of their life with you, not us.

Every team member is required to complete a specified amount of continuing education hours depending on their position in the hospital. These hours are acquired when attending conferences, seminars, and/or workshops and ensure that our hospital staff is always providing you with the latest and greatest information and techniques in veterinary medicine.

Many veterinarians are paid based on production, meaning they get more money when the client spends more money. This can arguably influence medical recommendations made to pet owners. Pay is a very taboo topic in our industry, but we are proud to share that our doctors are paid based on salary only. When our doctors recommend a specific diagnostic test or treatment, it’s because they believe it is the best recommendation for your pet, not because they’ll make more money from it.