Your pet’s wellness starts with their yearly examination, which includes a complete physical exam, dental exam, appropriate vaccination boosters, blood work if necessary, and advice on every thing from diet and exercise to year-round flea and tick control and other preventative care. Yearly fecal screening ensures your pet hasn’t contracted any intestinal parasites.

We recommend seeing your pet twice a year if they are seven years or older, as more routine visits allow us to closely monitor your pet’s health as they progress into older age. For more information on senior care, visit our Resources and Links page.

The Animal Hospital of Rocky Hill features some of the latest technology to diagnose and treat illnesses, including but not limited to digital radiographs, in-house labwork machines, and access to ultrasound.

Without having to send out samples to a lab, we have the ability to create several types of bloodwork profiles, including hematology, blood chemistry, and coagulation.

Hematology — Also known as a complete blood count (CBC), a hematology profile examines red and white blood cell counts, hemoglobin, and platelets, as well as a variety of other properties found within blood. It is a basic test for all hematology investigations, including any abnormalities and responses to disease.

Blood chemistry — Tests and measures chemical constituents within blood, such as protein, glucose, electrolytes, and others. The primary job of the blood chemistry profile is to examine organ function in an attempt to detect illness or disease.

Coagulation — Assesses the functionality of the blood proteins, which determine abnormalities in bleeding, bruising, and clotting.

The ability to take digital x-rays and perform ultrasound readings is important to veterinary diagnostics, as it allows our veterinarians to look inside your pet without having to conduct exploratory surgery. From broken bones and orthopedic issues to identifying masses or foreign objects, our x-ray and ultrasound equipment are capable of handling it all.

Operated in a non-contact fashion, the CO2 surgical laser is ideal for most soft tissue procedures. The tip of the instrument, which omits a laser wavelength that is highly absorbed by tissue, is held close to but never touches the intended surface. Once the laser makes contact with tissue surface it has the ability to cut, remove, and vaporize tissue, as well as to stop bleeding. Surgery performed with a CO2 laser has many benefits for both the surgeon and the patient.

For the surgeon, the laser provides the ability to seal capillaries and blood vessels as it cuts, resulting in less bleeding than when a scalpel is used. The reduction of bleeding provides a much clearer surgical site and reduces the need for sutures and bandaging. Along with the laser’s pinpoint accuracy, less bleeding translates into a more efficient and quicker procedure, and lessens the amount of time your pet is under anesthesia.

For the patient, the laser seals nerve endings as it cuts, resulting in less pain and a much quicker post-operative recovery. This also reduces the amount of pain medication administered to the patient. Since there is no scalpel to make contact with the tissue, the laser also lessens the risk of any infection. Less time under anesthesia and a reduction in bleeding, swelling, and pain translate into minimized trauma for the patient, improving his or her chances for a speedy and full recovery.

For more information about our surgical laser, or to make an appointment for your pet, we invite you to contact us today.

At AHRH we have digital dental radiography and computerized dental charting software for dogs and cats. Providing quality dental care to your pet is impossible without dental radiographs. So much of dental disease occurs below the gum line (such as periodontal disease, tooth root abscesses, jaw fractures, tumors, etc.) that dental radiography is an absolute necessity to practice veterinary dentistry.

There are many advantages to digital dental radiology. The quality of digital radiographs is much better than x-rays produced by a traditional machine. Fewer images of the teeth are needed in order to make an accurate diagnosis. As a result, your pet receives less anesthesia and spends less time on the x-ray table when using digital radiology.

Therapeutic lasers use light waves of a specific wavelength to cause photobiomodulation, or the alteration of cellular and tissue physiology. Light absorbed by cellular components stimulates electrons and activates cells to promote growth, proliferation, migration, and repair.

Laser therapy helps tissue repair by causing endorphin release, Vasodilation (which increases blood flow to bring in oxygen and cells involved in the healing process), muscle relaxation, decreased inflammation, and faster healing and repair. The main clinical benefits of laser use in pets include decreased inflammation, decreased pain, and improved wound healing.

Laser therapy is used for many veterinary medical conditions, including chronic arthritis, surgical incisions, tendon and ligament injuries, and traumatic injuries. Laser therapy is particularly useful for pets with limited medical treatment options, such as pets with liver disease who cannot take medications, pets for whom medication administration is difficult or impossible, and older pets with diminished organ function.

During a treatment session, the handheld laser wand is slowly moved back and forth over the damaged tissue, producing a coo, pleasant sensation that most pets seem to enjoy and find relaxing. Sessions usually last 15 to 30 minutes, with the number of sessions and frequency of treatments dependent on the injury. Chronic conditions may be treated weekly, whereas surgical incisions and open wounds often require daily treatment.

If you think laser treatment is the right solution for your pet, contact us to schedule an appointment.