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What to Ask When Choosing a Vet with the Checkout Vet · Ask The Experts

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Thirteen ten WIBA and ask the experts with Checkout Veterinary, joined in studio this
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week by doctor Murdy Greer. Doctor Greer comes to us from Checkout Veterinary their
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website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com clinic right at twenty
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seven to ten, Prairie Lakes Drive in Sun Prairie Telephone number six so eight
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three one eight sixty seven hundred. That's three one eight sixty seven hundred.
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Open six days a week, and that includes Friday through Sunday nine to five,
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Monday through Wednesday nine to five, then Friday through Sunday. Yeah,
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open weekends at Checkout Vet. Doctor Greer, how you doing this morning.
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I'm doing really well, thank you. I'm excited to see you and excited
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for our conversation ahead. And we were talking last week just about foods and
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non foods that that pets tend to consume. In one of those non foods,
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especially I think specifically dogs, clothing, they'll you mentioned, washrags,
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underpans, socks, all that stuff. They'll eat that stuff and that stuff
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has to be removed. We haven't talked about pet surgery on the program yet.
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Obviously, you guys do quite a bit of that at checkout vet.
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We do, but most of the foreign board body surgeries, the socks,
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underwear, dish clause, those things, either we hydrate them well and see
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if we can get them to pass, or we typically send them to a
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referral center where there's a surgeon and twenty four hour care because those dogs and
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cats, if they do that, tend to need additional care beyond what we
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typically provide. So we do space noters, dentals, lump removals, all
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those regular things, but most of those other more complicated surgeries end up going
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to see a surgeon. Let's talk about the ones. For example, you
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mentioned things like spae and neutering, those type of things for the common things
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for pets, How does that work? What's that process like for a pet
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owner? I think you know as a human, you know, anytime where
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there's going to be anesthetic and an esthetize or anything like that, we get,
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oh my goodness, what's going to happen for pets and pet owners?
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It's obviously can be quite scary as well. What's that like? What do
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you how does that work at the clinic? Well, we typically we'll talk
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to you prior to the appointment, especially if it's one of our more unusual
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surgeries, and we'll circle back to that, so we'll schedule an appointment.
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We do surgery several days a week. They come in in the morning.
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We meet with the doctor to make sure that you understand everything that's going to
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happen. We do blood work ahead of time, including clotting times for our
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space. We do an EKG as well that's read by a cardiologist prior to
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the time that we anesetize the patient. Then we give them a medication to
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help calm them and sedate them so that while their blood work and EKG are
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running and we're getting everything ready, that they're a little bit more relaxed.
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I don't want them nervous. And you're welcome to stay with your pet during
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that time period. Some people choose to stay because they feel like their pet
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is better, more comfortable with them. Other people have to go to work,
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so that's cool. So they come in. We do all those things.
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We get them ready, We put an IVY catheter in, we anesthetize
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them. They get a brand new endotracheal tube. So if you're going to
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a VET clinic, ask if they're reusing their trake tubes or entotracheal tubes or
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not. That's the breathing too that we put in so that they get oxygen
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and gas during the procedure. They all get ivy fluids during the procedure,
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they all get anti nausea medication, they all get pain medication. Of course,
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they get anesthesia. It's induced with an injection, and then we put
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them onto gas so that they breed the gas during the procedure. They're on
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two monitors, plus they're with a certified VET tech. We only do surgery
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with a certified tech. So again those are things to talk to your veterinary
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clinic about. And then we do the procedure. We wake them up on
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a heated surface with nice warm towels. We have towel warmer so that they
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stay toasty. And then they go home on pain medication, usually a sedation.
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And if they have had an abdominal procedure or a newter, we recommend
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that you take them home with a surgical suit. Now, if you go
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to Amazon, you can type in the word surgical suit for dogs or cats
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and you can order them and I'll warn you in advance. They they're much
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nicer than Elizabethan collars. But I'll warn you in advance. They don't overnight
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them. Oh, so you need to order them a week ahead of time.
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I absolutely have not ever seen anybody get their suit overnight and they come.
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The distribution apparently is slower, So it's really important that we do that
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for them. What about you mentioned, you know, the heated style.
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I hadn't thought about this. You and I after the show last week.
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It just kind of we're just talking about about some pet things, and I
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said, the heating. What's the heating about? I guess as I never
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thought about your body temperature and the same for a pet. When you're during
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surgery, drops down, doesn't it right? It changes you metabolically. There
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sometimes will put fluids in the abdomen, so it does change your body temperature.
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And if you remember having surgery waking up, you just wake up so
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cold, and they do pile warm heated blankets on you. We have IVY
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fluid warmer, so they're getting warm fluids. We have a heater for the
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inhaled gas so that the gas goes in warm and they get like I said,
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warm blankets. They're on a heated surface on the table during the procedure,
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they're on a heated surface as they're recovering, so we take great measures
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to make sure that they're comfortable and warm, and it does improve their anesthetic
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recovery. If they're warm, it's not just that they're more comfortable, it
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really helps them to wake up more safely as well. So we're pretty careful
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with all those things. Talking this morning with doctor Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinary,
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the website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. Get
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more information about Checkout Veterinary, what makes them so unique and of course transparent
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pricing as well. Online checkout vet dot com. Clinic right and Son Prairie
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they're telephone number six, so eight three one eight sixty seven hundred. That's
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three one eight sixty seven hundred. Also that first visit, it is free
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for that check up and get to kind of get to know you appointment as
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well. With the VET, you mentioned usual versus unusual surgery, So I
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think obviously we all think of the usual ones are the you know, against
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bay and neuter those type of thing. What about some of the unusual surgeries
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you've seen, doc are performed. Yeah, well, we do ear crops,
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which some people aren't big fans of, but if you have a Doberman
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and want to look like a Doverman, you're going to need to that.
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So we provide that service, and we're one of the only a few left
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in the state of Wisconsin and Illinois that does those. But the ones that
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are more interesting are the vaz ectomies and the ovary sparing space. So they
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are hormone sparing procedures, so your pet is left unable to reproduce, so
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the breeder, the shelter, the rescue, whoever you got your pet from,
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or if it's just your personal preference. You don't want your dog to
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be able to have poppies, male or female, then this gives you a
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way to leave them hormonally intact but not able to reproduce. So for the
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males we do a az ectomy. For the girls, we leave the ovaries,
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but have to take the uterus all the way down to and including the
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cervix. So it gets a little technical, but it's important people know that
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because if they start reading things online, they're going to understand that we have
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a whole web page about it. So it goes through those things and there
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are studies now they've gotten They started at thirty five breeds are up to about
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forty breeds now. I just saw an article this week about it, So
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if you call us, we can send it to you that specifically outlines which
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pets, which breeds of dogs benefit from being spade and neutered later in life.
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And a lot of people are reading about this now and they have a
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hard time finding a place that does these procedures because most veterinary clinics don't do
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them yet. I think eventually they will. The World Small Animal Veterinary Association
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in twenty twenty came out with an article on this. I almost printed it
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the other day and it's one hundred and thirty six pages long, so I
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didn't hit the print button. But there's a lot of information out there.
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Like I said, we've got it on our website. There's other places you
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can read. Benjamin and Lynn Hart wrote an article from UC Davis. They
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went into the archives of the veterinary records there and compiled a list of all
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the diseases that are associated with early spean neuter and that includes of course obesity.
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Torn cruciates. Cruciate ruptures are pretty common acls. They are four times
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more likely to happen in a Golden Retriever that's spader neutered, and they're twenty
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percent so at one point two times more likely in labradors. So the large
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breed dogs we have to worry about. Those we see less hypdysplasia, less
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allergies, less thyroid disease. And then there's four kinds of cancer we prevent
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by spaying and neutering later. So you've been told your whole life that it's
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healthier for your pet to be spaded or neutered, and the actual fact is
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it's not. We see more bone cancer, osteosarcoma, more lymph node cancer,
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lymphosarcoma, more homagiosarcoma, spleen cancer, and more mass cell tumors a
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kind of skin cancer in dogs that are spader neutered. And I see dogs
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every week that have hamagia, sarcoma, lymphosarcoma, osteosarcoma. We don't see
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nearly as many dogs that have memory tumors, which aren't protected against by spaying
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and neutering. Dogs don't die from memory cancer. I've seen ten dogs in
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my career die from memory cancer. I'll see ten dogs a month that die
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of those other diseases, so you have to really balance those risks and benefits.
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And we're also told that our dogs are less likely to get prostate cancer.
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Again not true. Neuter dogs are more likely to get prostate cancer than
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intact dogs. So I think it's really important that you have an opportunity to
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read the information. It's out there, it's on the internet. You can
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go to our website. There's about twenty different articles that are linked to it,
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all written by people smarter than me that know all this material, that
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have researched it and understand it. And you have a heart to heart,
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really serious conversation with your vet about what procedure to do and at what age,
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And if you're looking for additional help making those decisions, please give us
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a call and I'll walk you through what your choices are and make sure it
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fits your pet's lifestyle. They go to doggy daycare, it's not going to
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fit their lifestyle. But if you work from home the dogs home all the
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time and you're worried about their longevity, I'm going to tell you it's really
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important. Especially golden retrievers, especially Golden Retrievers. Good stuff this morning from
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doctor Marty Grish mentioned given them a call tell phone number six So eight three
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one eight sixty seven hundred. That's three one eight sixty seven hundred. The
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website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. We're going to
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talk about longevity on just a moment with with doctor Greer, not just living
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longer, but being happier and healthier longer. And we talk about too when
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you were talking about the spade and neutering thing and all the information that we've
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given over the years. So what we're kind of is kind of the thinking
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that that obviously having those those hormones that are being provided are beneficially over It's
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kind of strange. Yeah, yeah, they are. They're there to protect
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us. You were given hormones for a reason. And as soon as you
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take out one organ that affects it, all the other organs start to react
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to that. Your pituitary, you're pancreas. Everything else reacts. So it's
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a very complicated endocrine system, and if you upend it by removing one section
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of it, it's like a three legged stool. Everything tips over. Doc.
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Oh, sorry about that talking this morning with doctor Marty Greer of checkout
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Vet the website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. All
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one word, of course, the best thing to do you pick up film
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this morning. Give me a call six oh eight three one eight sixty seven
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hundred. That's three one eight sixty seven hundred. I want to talk with
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a vet about about holding off for some options as well when it comes to
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spay and neutering, and of course that free visit is going to be free
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at checkout vet again. Information online checkout vet dot com. That's check out
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vet dot com. Maybe you've got an older pet, I know somebody and
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a couple of people including myself that have older pets. There are some amazing
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things coming along and out there and available to improve the quality of life four
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year pat. We're gonna get the details from doctor Marty Greer. We will
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do that next as ask the experts with Checkout Veterinary continues right here on thirteen
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ten double U I B A thirteen ten Wu I B A and ask the
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experts. Hanging out this morning with doctor Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinary. The
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website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com, clinic right and
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Sun Prairie on Prairie Lakes Drive there twelve number six O eight three one eight
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sixty seven hundred. That's three one eight sixty seven hundred and doctor. In
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that last segment, we were talking about about surgery and some other things,
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and you had mentioned, you know, prol delaying things like spang neutering and
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also alternative by the way, you were talked about the procedure of leaving the
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organs in and doing things like vessectomy and other things. Do other clinics not
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do it just because it's a newer procedure or what's kind of why are you
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the ones that are doing you understand? I want to say, it's like
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it seems like that just makes sense. Why wouldn't ever all the clinics be
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doing it that way? I don't know the answer to that. I think
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some veterinarians are reluctant to do something that's new. But like I said,
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there's information out there and increasing numbers in the articles where a Small Animal Veterinary
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Association has information on it, so you're welcome to go to that website.
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The Parmesias Foundation has information. Again, these are all links on our websites,
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so you can certainly take a look and read the material yourself. Some
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people are reluctant to change. Some people are reluctant to be doing something that's
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sort of out there, worried that it might be something that their clients would
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later come back and make some accusations about. But the data is pretty pretty
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intense. And we've been working with breaders in our practice for forty two years,
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so I've seen the effects of these dogs being left with their hormones because
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as the breeding dogs, of course are not spade and neutered until they're retired
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from a breeding program, and so we've seen the effects. And so firsthand,
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I can tell you we hardly ever see torn cruciates in these dogs.
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So I can say to you, I'm not just reading the article, I'm
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actually living it. Or I'm not just actually living it. I've got data
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to back it up. So I've got the best of both worlds at this
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point. And we've started doing these about twelve or thirteen years ago, so
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this isn't new to us, and this is a procedure that I'm very comfortable
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with. We do lots of and again, you know, if you called
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your vet and say would you do this, and they say, well,
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I've never done one before. That may not inspire confidence. You may want
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to go to someone that's had some more experience with it. Today, I
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have a client driving from Duluth to have the procedure done. We have people
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that come from Chicago, from Minneapolis, from Indianapolis, we have people that
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come from a long distance. I've got one coming in a couple of weeks
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from Florida. Oh wow. So yeah, So there's not a lot of
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us to do them. Now. If you want to find somebody, please
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let me know and I'll try to help you. But I'm just pretty much
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the only person in Wisconsin. Well, our clinics. I mean, I'm
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not the only doctor that doesn't, but our practices, the three locations are
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pretty much the only place that doesn't. As we're talking about this stuff,
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and we're gonna have to do this on a future show because that is something
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I'd never thought to talk to my bet, I think maybe we should do
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a whole show on questions to be asking. Yeah, i think we're going
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to have to do that. As we talk about longevity and quality of life,
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and you know, we see it on the human side is we're living
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longer and healthier and better life and the same as holding true on the pet
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side as well. You were talking about some amazing medications for pets that are
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that are not only just making them, you know, allowing them to live
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longer as we were just talking earlier, but also living a high quality life
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and still being able to be active and happy much longer. Let's talk about
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some of these things out there that people may not be aware of. Doctor
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Sure. So, Librella and Silencia are the two monoclonal a antibody products that
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have come to market. They're both made by the Zoetas. Cilentia is for
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cats, Librella is for dogs. They're a monthly injection and it affects It's
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a monoclonal antibody that affects nerve growth factor. So essentially what it does is
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if your pet has arthritis, joint pain, back pain, any of those
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things that are associated with chronic pain joints and muscles and things like that,
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it will reduce the amount of discomfort that they have and improve their mobility.
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So it's given as a monthly injection. Typically you'll see the maximum effect within
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about three months, but if you go to the websites for these products,
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you can see some videos of dogs that even sometimes the next day are better.
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So we have multiple dogs in our practice that are on these products.
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Really cool, really new. Most veterinary clinics have access to these, So
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it's something that you should talk to your veterinarian about. If they're not currently
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discussing it with you, maybe it hasn't come up in the conversation. The
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other thing is a lot of people don't identify the pain that their pets have.
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And so Autumn just popped through the door and said that she's got her
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cat on it. She said she's jumping up onto the bed and she's running
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around and playing with the other cat. And so if you go to the
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website, you'll see these videos. You see these information, and it's really
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pretty cool because sometimes we just think, oh, our pet's slogged down.
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It's just because they're older, and it's actually not. They just don't move
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as much because it hurts. And many times because they're limping, you think
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because they're not crying that they're not in pain. If your pet is limping,
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it's because they're in pain. They're not limping for any other reason,
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so please make sure that you're addressing these things. We have nonstoid anti inflammatories
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that work really well. We have diets at help, we have glucosamine,
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and we have these monoclonal antibodies, and of course keeping their weight under control
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is also important. That the older they become and the less they move,
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the harder it is to keep their weight down, so it becomes a vicious
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cycle of weight gain, move less weight gain, and then we have these
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dogs that end up really overweight. I was just looking at Facebook a little
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bit ago, and people were talking about how hard it is as a veterinarian,
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as a veterinary professional to discuss obesity with a pet owner. And it's
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so important that your VET should be talking about it. And if they don't
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bring it up, if they don't bring up obesity, if they don't bring
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up lameness, pain, arthritis, you should because you are the advocate for
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your pet and they only see you for half an hour a year, but
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you're seeing your pet all the time. So please make sure you address those
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things with your veterinarian. Talking this morning with doctor Marty Greer of checkout Vet.
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The Veterinarian website is checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com
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clinic. Write in Sun Prairie telephone number six oh eight three one eight sixty
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seven hundred. That's three one eight sixty seven hundred. Doc. Before we
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wrap up this week, you mentioned last last week in the program about that
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first visit and the concept of checkout Veterinary is amazing and folks absolutely love it.
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We've talked about some of the things that you are able to do at
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Checkout Veterinarian, that you are doing at Checkout Veterinary that aren't being done anywhere
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else in the area. This is something that as far as I know,
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not being done anywhere else anywhere, which is the overall concept of Checkout Veterinary.
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Let's talk about that qu sure. So it's a great way to get
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to know us. You can come in. You can get your first visit
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free. It's for the visit, the exam, the office visit. If
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you need vaccines, if you need flee in tick medication, blood tests,
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heartworm, fecal tests, if your pet is ill and needs medication. Of
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course there's charges for those, but the actual exam is free. Because we
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want people to get to know us. We want people to understand how the
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system works. I have people that drive up to the garage door and they're
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not sure do I drive in, do I walk in? What do I
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do? So when you pull up to the garage door, they're going to
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tell you where to which of the four bays to go. We have four
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of them. They're all named after an animal. We have rooster, Cow,
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pig, and cheap. So you pull up to the garage bay,
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we open the door, you drive in, and there you are. You're
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in the exam room. Like it's really cool. It's like an oil change,
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except it's not. It's for your bet. It's great, especially you've
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got every pet benefits greatly from it. Get that anxiety down, especially if
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you've got anxious pets that I would say universally cats, most dogs as well.
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That's one of those situations where you'll see them at some of those like
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walking clinics where like the dog's doing those those foot break things. Great thing
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about checkout veterinery. Drive right in and the vets are there for you again.
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You can learn more online. Check out vet dot com. That's checkout
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vet dot com telephone number six so eight three one eight sixty seven hundred that's
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three one eight sixty seven hundred. Check out checkout vet Online, checkout vet
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dot com. Doctor Greer, it's always great seeing you. You enjoy this
19:25
beautiful day. Thank you. News comes your way next here on thirteen ten
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