Lee High School

How Veterinarians Provide the Best Care for Animals

Final draft

Ana Valle

Senior Capstone

Peter Foote

April 21st, 2017

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How Veterinarians Provide the Best Care for Animals

In the United States the approximate number of annual vet visits was 69,926,000 for dogs

and 74,059,000 for cats as of 2012 (AVMA). Apart from that is birds and other animals not

included in those numbers.Just like humans animals require professional help. Without

veterinarians, animal clinics or hospitals, animals would remain sick and injured resulting in a

lower life span. Every animal clinic or hospital has its different methods and techniques which

they believe are the best and most accurate way to help animals. Veterinarians assure and

provide the best care for animals by having a professional education in the field, staying up

to date with current technology, providing the best procedural methods as well as by

offering emergency locations for services.

The most important way that veterinarians assure and provide the best care for animals is

by having a professional education in the field. The minimum formal education required can be

six years but is typically always eight years which consists of a four-year bachelors degree and

four years of a veterinary clinic. It can also become 12 years for specialty care; these twelve

years include the four years bachelors, four years of veterinary school, one year of internship,

and three years of residency. Veterinarians better provide care for animals in specialty care

because it is veterinarians that specialize in certain aid like acupuncture & integrative medicine,

behavioral medicine, dermatology, emergency medicine, internal medicine, oncology,

ophthalmology, and surgery. Until about a year ago continued studies were not required for

veterinarians in the state of Michigan. After completing their formal education, veterinarians
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keep up to date with new educational material by reading the Journal of the American Veterinary

Medical Association(JAVMA) magazines. For example Dr. Douglas W. Clarke, DVM receives

about 4-5 of the JAVMA journals each month. Michigan requires veterinarians to attend at least

one meeting a month and about three nationwide with other veterinarians. (Dr. Douglas W.

Clarke, DVM). Continuing their studies is the best way veterinarians ensure and provide the best

care because they are up to date with new medical advances to help and treat animals.

Another way that veterinarians assure and provide the best care for animals is by staying

up to date with current technology. Technology is a big factor due to the fact that it is quickly

continuing to advance. According to veterinarian Dr. Douglas W. Clarke, DVM in the past 25

years only big institutes for example, Michigan State University could perform ultrasounds. He

stated that now they can perform ultrasounds, ECG and CT scans, x-rays, and in-house blood

testing while the pet and owner are still in the clinic. Veterinarians today provide better care with

advanced technology by being able to quickly detect what is wrong with an animal. Now with

recent advancement in technology animals can be treated with laparoscopy. That is when a small

camera is inserted into the affected area and can be view in external monitor screens. The first

widely reported laparoscopic procedure was in 2011 when the Royal Zoological Society of

Scotland used it to remove diseased gallbladders from moon bears. (Carrington College).

Another big advancement according to Carrington College is 3-D printing. It provides models of

the patient's bones to examine and practice on before operating on the live animal. Before owners

had to take their pets to big institutes for ultrasounds and blood work or from a clinic it had to be

sent to those institutes and it took days to hear back. Now with the technology available to

veterinarians in clinics they can test blood work in about 20 minutes, perform ultrasounds in
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about 15 minutes, and test for heartworm in 10 minutes which allows the veterinarian to provide

quicker and more effective aid to the animal. Now with modern technology veterinarians can

also detect bladder stones with either an ultrasound or x-ray. To ensure and provide the best care

they also update their technology when needed. For example, in his clinic Dr. Douglas W.

Clarke, DVM has replaced his blood testing equipment four times in 25 years and new

equipment is updated every year, for example, computer software. These are all ways that

veterinarians keep up to date with technology to provide better care for animals.

A third way in which veterinarians assure and provide the best care for animals is by

providing the best procedural methods. To assure the best care first veterinarians takes the

patient's medical record to know what issues have been in the past that could be causing the new

problem. Then they proceed by taking a physical exam feeling for lumps and bumps. They also

take urine, fecal, and blood samples. Lastly if necessary they perform an ultrasound or x-ray.

When a pet doesnt stay still, they use a method known as a chemical restraint to ensure that the

pet in no way is harmed by tools used, such as needles in blood work or scalpels in surgeries,

when treating the animal. After certain treatment they [the animals] werent given medicine to

help for pain, now we [veterinarians] manage their pain better (Dr. Douglas W. Clarke, DVM).

When veterinarians treat animals, they follow different procedural methods depending on the

animal to ensure the best results. For example, after surgery, a cat would get different pain

medication than a dog because what the dog takes can be lethal to the cat. They have to make

sure they know how to treat different animals because what might have worked for one dog may

be consequential for a different dog depending on gender, age, or recent history. For example, a

study in Banfield pet hospitals in the United States was done to identify risk factors for
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anesthetic-related death in pet dogs and cats(JAVMA). The study resulted in 424 cats out of

1,006,736 and 982 dogs out of 4,143,795 died due to anesthetic-related deaths during the study.

The study helps to demonstrate how if certain procedural methods are not done correctly or

appropriately it can result in the animal dying. Veterinarians have to accurately plan their

procedures on each individual to ensure the best results.

A final way in which veterinarians assure and provide the best care for animals is by

providing emergency locations for services. These emergency locations provide great care by

being fully staffed and equipped every day and night, on weekends and holidays, 24 hours per

day, 365 days per year. When your family veterinarians office is closed, were ready to help.

(Blue Pearl Veterinary Partners). They offer the same treatments as other veterinary clinics, the

only exception would be that they don't perform regular checkups due to being a strict

emergencies only location. An example of a veterinary location is Blue Pearl Veterinary Partners

located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A location like that assures great and rapid care for a

situation in which a clinic can't help or is closed since emergency locations are always open.

Just like in an emergency hospital for humans, our emergency doctors and technicians focus on

immediately evaluating your pets condition so treatment can begin as quickly as possible (Blue

Pearl Veterinary Partners). Emergencies consist of poison ingestion, seizure, trauma, being hit by

a car, bite wounds, bleeding and severe blood loss, post-surgical complications, lacerations,

Difficulties in dog and cat litter delivery, and emergency surgery.

In conclusion, veterinarians assure and provide the best care for animals by having a

professional education in the field by completing various years of education and continuing to

expand on that education. In addition to an education, they stay up to date with current
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technology by having it available in their offices to better treat animals. Veterinarians also

provide the best procedural methods as to how to determine the best procedural methods to aid

animals. Last but not least, by offering emergency locations for services when a patient's regular

clinic is closed, or an animal needs urgent care and attention.

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Works Cited

AVMA group. U.S. Pet Ownership Statistics. AVMA. Web. 13 Apr. 2017.

https://www.avma.org/KB/Resources/Statistics/Pages/Market-research-statistics-US-pet-

ownership.aspx

Blue Pearl staff. Your Emergency Visit. Blue Pearl Veterinary Partners. Web

https://bluepearlvet.com/patient-info/your-emergency-visit/

Carrington Author. The newest advances in veterinary technology Carrington College. Web.

http://carrington.edu/blog/veterinary/newest-advances-veterinary-technology/

Clarke, Douglas. Certified Veterinarian. Personal Interview. 12 April, 2017.

Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences. Actors associated with anesthetic-related death

in dogs and cats in primary care veterinary hospitals. JAVMA. vol. 250, no. 6, 15 March, 2017.

pp 655-665. Print.