Morningstar Pet Hospital is equipped with knowledgeable staff and our facility allows us to deal with an assortment of medical conditions your pet may encounter. Although we do not wish to see you and your pet for an emergency, but if we do, we are prepared to handle the situation. With some cases, your pet may require hospitalization and further diagnostic testing. Our website describes in further detailed the further medical treatments available. Early diagnosis of a disease process can lead to your pet having a longer healthier life. Kidney disease, if diagnosed early, will allow us to modify your dog or cat's diet and in some cases add supplements to their diet to potentially extend their lives. Many other conditions, such as dental disease, can benefit from an early diagnosis is advantageous.

Annual Health Exams

It is important to maintain your pets overall health. This can be done by a yearly physical exam with your veterinarian. Your pet will have an overall physical exam, checking for any abnormalities. By discovering any problems sooner can often benefit the long term care and treatment.

 Senior Exam

It is very important to have your senior pet examined yearly by a veterinarian. Even if vaccinations are not being done an overall check up is highly recommended. As our pets age some complications may arise. If you feel your pet is normal, there are multiple disease processes that may not exhibit any obvious signs until the disease is quite advanced. These diseases can be more difficult to treat and are not always as receptive to treatment, which is why yearly examinations are recommended to hopefully catch them in the early stages.
Patients that may suffer from kidney or thyroid disease are easily treatable if detected early. This allows us to administer the appropriate treatments to help extend the life of your four legged pet.
Many symptoms that have been attributed to old age and considered untreatable are now treatable. Some dogs that appear to have lost their mental alertness can be returned to a mental status indicative of a younger age using appropriate therapy. Please don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss your concerns regarding your senior pet.
  
          Dogs – Dental disease, thyroid disease, skin lumps, liver disease
          Cats – kidney disease, Thyroid Disease,

Heartworm Testing

Heartworm is on the rise within Southern Ontario. The life cycle of the heartworm is complicated; the parasite requires the mosquito as an intermediate host before it can complete its life cycle in the dog. As many as 30 species of mosquitoes can transmit heartworms. Once the dog or in some cases cat is bitten by the infected mosquito the life cylce of the heartworm continues in the blood stream and heart of the infected animal. The disease is not passed from animal to animal via nose to nose contact, but only transmitted through mosquitos.
Starting in April Heartworm testing is done. This is a simple procedure in which a small amount of blood is collected and than sent to the lab for analysis. If the test returns with a negative result your pet will go on a once a month preventitive treatment. If the test comes back positive treatment options are available to discuss with the veterinairan.

Fecal Analysis

It is important that with every physical exam to check the stool for parasites.
Even if your pet is dewormed as a puppy they can still become infected at any point throughout the year from contact with other animals or even from their own backyard. This is a simple test done by bringing in a fresh stool sample. 

Vaccine Programs

Our wellness and vaccination programs are designed to prevent disease and prolong the lives of your companion animals. Disease prevention is always less costly than dealing with the treatment of a disease once your pet has developed it. An example would be the treatment of parvovirus. Parvovirus treatment can frequently cost over $1,000 while a single parvovirus vaccination will typically cost less than $100.
We are available to help you and your new puppy or kitten to start off on the right path to proper wellness and nutrition. Our puppy or kitten wellness programs are designed to offer your new puppy or kitten all the benefits of veterinary services available to him or her from 6 weeks of age to 16 weeks of age. Included in this service is a series of examinations nutritional counselling and vaccinations. In addition, your puppy or kitten will be treated for the most common intestinal worm of – roundworms. Roundworms can cause gastrointestinal signs such as vomiting and / or diarrhea. There are other parasites that can cause similar symptoms and can even cause your puppy or kitten to become anemic (low red blood cells).