405Vet in Oklahoma City offers services for not only your cat and dogs, but also your bearded dragons, chickens, and even exotic pets like bunnies, reptiles, birds, small mammals, and oddly enough…the occasional skunk. Farm Director KC Sheperd spoke with OSU Graduate, Dr. Jarrod Roach, D.V.M, about the practice and some exciting new things they can offer for pets.
KC and Dr. Roach spoke briefly on the wide variety of dietary needs across different breeds and the various living conditions of those breeds from large outdoor farm dogs to small, pampered house dogs.
“There are complete pros and cons to every different type of dog food,” Dr. Roach said. “Each dog’s system is so different from the next. So many dogs now have food allergies, including both farm dogs and house dogs. There can be a lot of trial and error in finding which food works best for an individual dog.”
The big news is that 405Vet is now offering Chemotherapy treatments for cancer patients with the help and guidance of a boarded veterinary oncologist. Dr. Roach said, “Not every vet clinic offers chemotherapy. That is one we have started offering here, recently.”
He explained that chemotherapy in pets uses a different approach than that of human medicine. It is a common misconception that people believe that their pets will get really sick and lose their hair during treatment.
“In pets, when we diagnose cancer, they are older already, and it doesn’t necessarily justify making them sick and causing them to lose their hair to prolong their lives, maybe a year or up to three years at most,” Dr. Roach explained. “We use lower doses of chemo. The dogs we have been treating don’t get sick, and if they do experience a little stomach upset, we adjust doses. However, in the first week of chemo, the owners of all of the pets we have treated are seeing improvements in the pet’s cancer symptoms.”
The palliative approach prolongs the pets’ lives without affecting their quality of life and owners with pets suffering from lymphoma, tumors, bone cancer, and more have been pleased with the results.
Click the sound bar above to hear the complete conversation which includes more about diets, grape toxicity, and chocolate toxicity.
Reach out to 405 Vet to see if your pet could benefit.
