Oakland Veterinary Referral Services Blog

Dog cleaning wipes make keeping your fur friend tidy much easier. They are especially handy when your dog is between baths, while you travel with your dog, and when you enjoy the great outdoors with them. Oakland Veterinary Referral Services is here to give you the 411 on the best dog wipes for your bestie’s cleaning needs. Let’s take a closer look!

There are some amazing options in pet-friendly cleaning products that promise less harsh, environmentally-friendly ingredients. Spring and summer are great times to do an overhaul of your home and garage. From getting rid of old belongings to washing windows, it is satisfying to see your home in great order. Unfortunately, many cleaning products on the market are unsafe for our furry loved ones.

Oakland Veterinary Referral Services has done the sleuthing and has a few safe but effective recommendations for our pet loving friends.

When a dog has heartworm disease, it can damage their heart or be life threatening. Heartworm disease is costly to treat, and the treatment itself is very uncomfortable for a pet. The more advanced the disease, the more challenging the case. This is why prevention is crucial. It is less expensive and less harmful to your pet than treating heartworms.

Heartworm disease is on the rise, with more than 250,000 pets diagnosed each year. The good news is that there is treatment. If your dog has heartworms, here are some of the important steps in diagnosing and treating the disease to have fewer side effects and greater success.

Some pet owners are surprised when they learn there is a difference in the cost of care at a pet emergency and specialty care hospital versus their regular vet. We often hear pet owners ask “why is veterinary emergency and specialty care so expensive?” 

Oakland Veterinary Referral Services is here to explain prices at emergency and specialty care hospitals. Our aim is to help pet families better understand what to expect. This allows pet families to prepare for the unexpected. If you’re prepared, you can give your pets the level of care they need for the healthiest, happiest life possible.

Regular Veterinary Care Alerts You to Changes in Your Pet’s Health

Is my dog or cat sick? It can be difficult to tell sometimes. Your dog or cat can seem a bit “off” some days. Just like us, our pets have an occasional bad day, tummy trouble, or are simply not feeling their best. Changes in your pet’s health and demeanor can be something mild, like they ate too much, or more serious, such as symptoms of an underlying disease.

Oakland Veterinary Referral Services believes that regular veterinary care is of the utmost importance. One reason is that it gives you a great baseline to help you know if something is going on with your four-legged friend’s health. We also review the subtle symptoms to look for when you ask yourself, “is my dog or cat sick?” Let’s take a closer look!

A dog seizure is a frightening event to witness. If your dog has one, you may feel panicky and confused, or else helpless to do something to make them feel better. Your dog may have a chronic seizure disorder like epilepsy, or a seizure may come on suddenly for the first time. 

During a seizure, your dog cannot control their muscle activity. Seizures are a disturbance in normal brain activity, also referred to as a convulsion. Since seizures in dogs are commonly diagnosed, your friends at Oakland Veterinary Referral Services want to tell you more about this neurological condition.

Standing water like ponds, ditches, and lakes contain debris, scum, protozoa, and bacteria. This can include blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, a greenish scum that forms on the top of still water. Cyanobacteria is an algae to be concerned about when it comes to your pet’s safety. 

Our dogs enjoy getting into anything slimy, muddy, or otherwise gross to us. If your dog loves to swim or enjoys time around water, they are likely to drink from one of these natural water sources. The team at Oakland Veterinary Referral Services wants pet owners to know more about blue-green algae poisoning, so you can better protect your pet.

Labored breathing in dogs and cats is triggered by multiple issues that impact a complex and vital system of the body–the respiratory system. It delivers oxygen throughout the body and removes carbon dioxide. This specialized system keeps your furry friend moving and cool, as it is essential for many aspects of health. So, when your pet is struggling to catch their breath or is breathing heavily, it is unsettling.

If your pet is having trouble breathing or has labored breathing, it’s important to get them diagnosed and treated. The team at Oakland Veterinary Referral Services provides some key reasons for this condition and what you can do to help your pet.

If you’re nursing your dog after a surgery, you want your dog’s surgical wound to heal quickly and cleanly. Most dogs experience injuries, accidents, and conditions that require surgery at some point in their life. Because of this, you as a pet owner are put into the role of nurse as your dog recovers from surgery at home. Keeping your pet’s surgical sutures or wound clean is important to their successful healing. 

The team at OVRS is here with tips so that you can help your dog recover from a surgical wound fast. The proper care will help your dog’s surgical wound heal as quickly as possible. 

Yeast infection in dogs can affect many areas of the body, making your dog uncomfortable. Yeast naturally lives on the skin in “low” numbers. As long as the numbers remain low and your dog doesn’t develop a hypersensitivity to yeast, the yeast will remain in harmonious balance with the rest of the microflora on the skin and cause no problems. 

In situations where conditions are ideal for yeast to grow, they can proliferate to the point where they cause a yeast infection. Helpful conditions for yeast overgrowth include moist, dark and warm areas. Yeast infections in dogs are common and are almost always associated with an underlying condition such as moisture, allergies, inflammation or immune compromise.

Oakland Veterinary Referral Services provides an overview of what causes yeast infection in dogs, as well as how to treat the issue.