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Preventive and Maintenance Care with the Checkout Vet · Ask The Experts

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Thirteen ten Wiva and Ask the Experts, joined this morning at studio by doctor
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Marty Greer. Doctor Greer comes to us from Checkout Veterinary the website check out
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vet dot com. That's all one word, checkout vet dot com. If
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you're not familiar with Checkout Veterinary can get a real good feel for what makes
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them so special on the website. Even better, stop out. They'd love
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to see you the ride on Prairie Lakes Drive and Sun Prairie. Learn more
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Agan online. Checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. Tell
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forhe number six oh eight three one eight sixty seven hundred. That's three one
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eight sixty seven hundred, Doctor Greer. How you doing this morning. I'm
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doing great. Loving the summer. It's a great time. It's such a
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fantastic time of year. And speaking of the summer, kind of started a
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summer theme last week and we were kind of left off the program talking about
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fourth of July. We're a week out from it, and something that's important.
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We're talking about the anxiety and some of the fear that pets face.
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There are things pet owners can do, and now is the time to prepare
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for those to really help lessen anxiety. So there's even over the counter options
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are there's a few of the counter options. The one that we like best
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is called actually called July third and it's made by herb Smith, which is
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a company here in Economa Walk, Wisconsin, by Christine Bessant. She's a
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Western trained veterinarian with Eastern medicine training, and she has a fabulous line of
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herbal products that can really be helpful for a lot of different things. But
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what you need if you're going to do something on July third is something that
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acts fairly quickly, so you don't have time for a long ramp up of
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some of the herbal medications. If you've waited till July third, you need
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help right now, so it's time to get that going. So that's one
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option. CBD oil is something that a lot of people are relying on,
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but we have absolutely no FDA information about it for pets, so we cannot
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recommend that as veterinarians. We just simply don't have the information. I think
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ten years from now we'll have some pretty great products, but until we know
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more about it on the human side and on the veterinary side, it's really
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something that we aren't comfortable in saying that it's appropriate for your pet. However,
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our doctors can all prescribe great medications. That's what I was going to
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ask you about. So getting your and obviously this is something that you really
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want to act on, is getting your pet in There are options. There
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are pharmaceuticals that are able to help with this. Yes, yeah, and
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we have access to many really good pharmaceutical agents. In general. There's two
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categories of anti anxiety medications for our pets. One is long acting. It
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takes four to six weeks for it to get to blood levels. It's too
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late to start that for your pet. Now, that's for the pet that
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has chronic overall generalized anxiety that walks around with a little black cloud over their
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head all the time. A wo is me, this is a terrible life.
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The other ones are for episodic situations, so those are faster acting.
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There are things like Gabba Pettin and tresodone and alpreslam and silio. Cilio is
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kind of an interesting product. It's a gel that you put in your dog's
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mouth and it's absorbed through the gums and it goes directly to the brain.
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It doesn't get swallowed and into the circulation. It goes directly through the nerve
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pathways to the brain and it tells your pet to not worry so much about
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noise anxiety. So it's specifically labeled for anxiety from sounds, so it's kind
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of cool. So it works for thunderstorms, it works for fireworks. So
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those are all things that you have for options, So your veterinarian has access
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to multiple tools. Just start calling now and getting your meds picked up,
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because on July third, it's a little late to be running into a VET
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as they're locking the door and going home for the fourth you're not going to
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have access to some of those drugs that you really need, especially this week
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with the fourth on a Thursday, which means i'd be for a lot of
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folks vets. And speaking of open, you guys are open weekends Monday through
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Wednesday as well nine to five Friday through Sunday as well as Monday through Wednesday.
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That is great convenience for pet folks. And you want to learn more
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about checkout vet. Just head on over the website checkout vet dot com.
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That's checkout vet dot com. And while we're talking about summer wellness. One
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of the great things about about Checkout Veterinaries. You have a really nice summer
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wellness kind of package for pet owners, don't you, doctor, We do
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so if you come in for a stool sample and a heart room test which
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includes lime disease, anaplasm anaplasmosis, and erlichia, the three tickborne diseases that
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we very commonly see in Wisconsin. So you bring a stool, you have
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the blood test. We can draw enough couple extra little drops of blood,
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and then we can get a CBC which checks your pets white blood cell count,
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red blood cell count, platelet count, and a chemistry panel to check
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their electrolytes and their organ function, including for diabetes, kidney failure, and
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liver disease. So we can do all that for a significantly discounted price.
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It runs right around one hundred dollars for that whole package, which is much
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less expensive than it usually is if you do either of those tests alone,
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or any of those tests alone. So it's a great opportunity for clients to
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come in, get a discount and have really an under the hood check on
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their pets health because you can see things on blood work that we simply can't
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see on physical exam or that you'll notice at home. It's some of this
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stuff too. As we talk about doing these screenings, and you mentioned the
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fantastic summer wellness especially you have at checkout veterinary. Catching these things early.
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I know on the human side is you know things like you know, pre
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diabetes and other things. Catching those things early and making modifications can really obviously
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prolonged quality of life and other things, but also possibly prevents more you know,
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heavy type of drugs, other type of things. Is you know,
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getting those those panels done early before their symptoms can can help. Oh yeah,
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and we see this year especially, we've seen more lime disease antaplasmosa alikia
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than ever before. The ticks are terrible. On Tuesday, Tuesday morning,
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I pulled ticks off of two different patients, so you know they're just out
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there moving. The weather is conducive, So those ticks can be really significant
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in carrying those diseases, and then they bring them into your environment as well.
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So if the tick didn't attach to the dog, because you're giving them
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medication and they're going to come over to you. So we really need to
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be careful with our tit control and if we diagnose those diseases early and get
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them on antibiotics it's usually a doxy cycling course, then we can prevent a
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lot of the diseases that go with those tick boorn diseases that can make your
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pet really sick. Last year, we had four dogs that died from kidney
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failure, lime nephritis associated with lime disease in one month. So you want
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to be very careful with the preventives that you're using and getting those tests done.
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And if it comes back positive and your vet says, I think we
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should treat for this, the answer is yes, you should treat for this.
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You talk about preventative as well when it comes to things like lime disease.
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Those are important. I think for sometimes pet owners folks tend to,
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I don't know, life gets busy and forget to put the little drops on
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other things. You talk about it. It really does make a big difference
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preventing that bite in the first place. What about heartworm, and as we
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talk about testing, and I think with mosquitos and our things probably a little
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more top of mind right now, heartworm can be a deva stating issue.
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You want to make sure folks keep up on that and getting that regular testing
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right. Absolutely, that should be tested annually. And the current recommendation for
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both the heartworm and the flea and tich preventives to give them year round.
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Yes, in Wisconsin, we don't have mosquitos in January, but we do
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have ticks in January, we have ticks in February. We have ticks every
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month of the year, so we get better control of heartworm disease. And
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the flea and tick products give us better control if they're used year round,
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so that the blood levels are accumulating and you don't have to wait for those
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to kind of ramp up and get into the system of your pet to give
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them the full protection that they need. So don't overlook heartworm if you live
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where there's a lot of water, and pretty much in Wisconsin that's everywhere.
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The mosquitos that carry heartworm disease are everywhere, and yes they're primarily a problem
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in the summer. But the heartroom preventives also generally include intestinal parasite control medications
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as well. Depending on the product, it may be round rooms, hookworms,
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that might include whipworms, it might include tapeworms, So you're really giving
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full vectrum protection to your pet for intestinal parasites, heartworm disease and then the
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tick borne diseases. What happens if a pet were to get heartworm's what is
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is it literally a worm in the heart or what? Okay? And is
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that is that treatable? It sounds very scary and probably is it? Is
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it treatable or what's the Let's say a pet owner, where to to,
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you know, not do the preventative and pet ends up with with heartworm?
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House that handled. So it is a treatable disease if we catch it early
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enough that the pet doesn't have permanent damage. So yes, the worms live
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in the heart and the lungs of the dog and rarely in cats. It's
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a very very small percentage of cats that can get it, but it is
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something that can occur in cats. So yes, they live in the heart
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of the dog, and so they'll cause heart damage, lung damage, and
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in some cases they'll cause a cable syndrome, which is liver failure. They
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slip down into the liver blood circulation and can cause liver failure, acute liver
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failure. We can sometimes see it causing kidney failures. So it's just again
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a really serious disease that with simply one chewable a month, it's pretty easy.
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So I just put in the calendar on my phone the first day of
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every month. It's a little reminder that goes off at seven o'clock in the
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morning. Yeah, remember your heart run preventive. So it's a lot easier
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Now most of the flea and tick preventives are given monthly as well. There's
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one bravecto that on dogs over six months of age get it every three months
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over twelve weeks, so it makes it a little bit easier. But if
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you're giving heartwarm months a month, you know how hard is it to remember
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to give to instead of one? Now coming up, we're going to see
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some preventives that are going to be even more effective. They're in the pipeline
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for FDA to approve, but we don't know a lot about them yet other
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than there's some pretty cool stuff coming that's going to make it even easier for
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people to remember to give their pets their medication. Have we gotten and maybe
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it's just my perspectives change have Like rabies vaccines do they last longer now than
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they used to? There's still three years after the Okay, thought it was
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one year back in the day. The baby shots are one year and then
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at fifteen months when the pet comes in for their booster. In dogs,
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we have a three year product. In cats, we have a one year
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and a three year product, depending on what your preferences are. So that's
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something you can speak to your veterinarian about for what works for your individual household.
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Talking this morning with doctor Marty Greer, Doctor Greer coms. So it's
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from checkout Veterinary. The website check out vet dot com. That's checkout vet
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dot com. There's alf number six, So eight three one eight sixty seven
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hundred. That's three one eight sixty seven hundred. The website checkout vet dot
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com is a great starting point, great place to learn of course, great
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information about what makes checkout Veterinary so unique, transparent pricing online. And again
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that website, checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. One
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of the things I'm noticing, preventative is important to all around. We're i
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talk about some of the other things around Checkout Veterinary and some of the great
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things that they do to really help keep your pet healthy and prevent things from
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happening with the details from doctor Greer. Next, as asked the experts with
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Checkout Veterinary continues right here thirteen ten w ib A Team ten w I b
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A and ask the experts talking this morning with doctor Marty Greer. Of course,
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doctor gear comes to us from Checkout Veterinary. The website checkout vet dot
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com. That's checkout vet dot com, clinic right on Prairie Lakes Drive in
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Sun Prairie. Their telephone number six so eight three one eight sixty seven hundred.
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That's three one eight sixty seven hundred. The website checkout vet dot com.
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That's checkout vet dot com. And doctor Greer. We've been doing the
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show together about a month now, and something that that seems to be a
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recurring theme is prevention, and I I uh whether it's we were talking that
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last segment about about getting the getting testing done and and taking the preventive when
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it comes to things like heartworm and of course rabies vaccines. We started that
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though conversation talking about that some wellness and getting pets in just like people.
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I'm going to guess getting them in early really really does save a lot of
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money, a lot of time. A lot of heartache, and that seems
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to be a priority for you at Checkout Veterinary, whether it's running the summer
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wellness special in other things. Really just getting people in to get their pets
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in for an exam. I know that's something you put a high priority on.
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Absolutely, we'd much rather diagnose something early and manage it effectively before your
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pet becomes ill. It's going to save you a lot of money, it's
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going to save you a lot of grief, and it's certainly going to buy
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your pets some additional great quality time. So we can pick up early changes
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with things like liver disease. If we start to see liver enzymes creeping up,
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we can start monitoring for that. We can see problems with kidneys that
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we all start to see. There's a really nice test now called an SDMA
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that even before some of the other tests start to change like the bun and
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createt and it starts to creep up. So we have these flags on our
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lab work that can say to us, hey, you know, you need
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to start paying attention. And many times it's something as easy as managing blood
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pressure or putting them on a different diet that's going to help control their liver
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disease, canney disease, you know whatever. Diabetes. Usually in pats,
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there isn't that ramp up to the pre diabetic stuff. They usually go from
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normal to diabetic, and so that's pretty rapid. But what's really interesting is
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that there's now an oral pill for cats that are diabetic if they're not very
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sick, so if they come in in the early stages and they're not ketotic,
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and if they're under thirteen years of age, there's a pill that you
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can give once a day instead of twice a day injections. So it's a
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real godsend to people who are reluctant to give injections. There's actually two products
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on the market one cat one that's a pill and one that's a liquid for
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cats that are diabetic, and we see a lot of those, so it's
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really nice to be able to give clients those additional options because we've diagnosed it
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early, so if we catch them early, we can manage them early,
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and we really do buy some addition time. I typically say that your pet's
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longevity, we start looking at them being geriatic when they've reached about three quarters
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of their life expectancy. So that's my rule. That's not necessarily everybody in
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veterinary medicine's guideline. But for a cat that's going to live to be sixteen,
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that means when they're around twelve, we should be doing some annual blood
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work. For a great Dane that's going to live to be eight, that
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might be at six, So it's a sliding scale. You can't just multiply
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their age by seven and think that you've come up with a calculation. You
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really have to look at the breed and their health and calculate what their life
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expectancy looks like. Doctor when we talk about some of the preventative stuff,
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is that is that also why we talk about I think we started this week
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talking about how check out veterinary that that kind of that first appointment, that
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first that first visit really a very welcoming and the just for the visits you
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do that for free, which is which is very revolutionary, is part of
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that to to you know, to get that introduction, to have talks with
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pet owners saying these are important tests to get that can that can really prolong
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your pets life and quality overall, right, and nutrition as well. We
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can't overlook the importance of that. You know, as people, we tend
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not to always be as careful with our diets so as we probably should be.
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Yeah, I know, you drive past how many fast food restaurants.
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It's pretty hard not to pull in sometimes if your kids are in the backseat
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complaining about being hungry. No wait till we get home, doesn't really fly.
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But for pets, there's a lot of pet foods on the market.
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Some are better than others. So I think it's important that you speak to
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your veterinarian about your pets weight, their physical health, their conditions, their
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breed. There's a lot of really interesting things that go on out there.
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For instance, Royal Canaan has breed specific dog foods and they're not just a
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gimmick. They're not just some marketing tool. They actually make those foods differently.
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There's a German Shepherd and a Labrador and a Golden Retriever and a docks
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and a Schnauzer. I mean, there's some really cool diets out there.
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So if we know that those are important changes that we can make in our
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pets health. Because you're veterinarian and their veterinary staff has given you guidance,
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you can really benefit your pet's longevity. And I don't know anybody at the
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end of their pet's life that's like, yeah, it was good two years
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ago. No, everybody wants more time. Everybody. One of the hardest
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things about owning a pet is they don't go forever. And that's as we
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talk about the importance of prevention and of course talking about with the holiday coming
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up, getting your pet again, taking care of if your pet does have
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anxiety, have that conversation with your veterinary, your vet to talk about some
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of the solutions to those issues. Before we wrap up this week, doctor,
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as we're going through some of these great services offered at Checkout Veterinary,
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let's talk just kind of overall. It's an amazing clinic and the concept is
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something that when I remember when I first heard from you a couple of months
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ago and we started talking, it was one of those things where it's like,
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why doesn't everybody do it this way? It's a really great model,
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and people love it, don't they They just love it. The pets love
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it, which is the most important thing. It's all about the dogs,
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It's all about the cats. Yeah, we have to remember that first,
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but our clients love it, and so does my staff. So we have
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amazing staff. Of course, you know, we're always looking for new talent,
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So we have an amazing group of people that work at the two locations
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that we have in Sun Prairie. And it's a great opportunity for employment.
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But it's a great opportunity for our pets as well that they can come in
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be comfortable. And I don't know why everybody doesn't do it, because it's
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once it's in front of you, it's like, wow, that's kind of
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obvious. I do my oil changes that way, I get my prescriptions at
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Walgreens that way, I get my food at McDonald's that way. Why don't
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I take care of my dog the same drive through service? Check out check
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in Veterinaria two clinics of course in Sun Prairie. Learn more online checkout vet
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dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. Telephon umer six so waight three
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one eight sixty seven hundred. That's three one eight sixty seven hundred, and
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again the website checkout vet dot com. Doctor Greer, it's always great seeing
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you enjoyed this beautiful day and have a great holiday. Thank you. News
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comes your way next here on thirteen ten, Wiba