Senior bloodwork, blood pressure checks, and X-rays reveal slow-moving diseases. A thorough senior screening typically pulls together a complete blood count, organ chemistry, thyroid values, a blood pressure reading, urinalysis, and X-rays of the chest, abdomen, and joints. Kidney disease, an overactive or underactive thyroid, hidden hypertension, early heart changes, and abdominal masses are all [...]

Milpitas summers are generally beautiful, but a hot inland Bay Area afternoon can climb fast enough to put a dog or cat in real trouble within a single walk. If you think your pet has overheated, move them to shade or air conditioning right now, start cooling with cool (not iced) water on the neck, [...]

Sudden fatigue, paler-than-usual gums, or a pet who has quietly gone off their food can all be the first hint of an immune-mediated blood disease. In these conditions, the immune system turns on the blood itself: in immune-mediated hemolytic anemia (IMHA) it destroys red blood cells faster than the body can replace them, and in [...]

The question nobody wants to be asking while their pet is in pain is "how much is this going to cost?" But it is a question almost every family faces at some point, and the "we cannot give you a quote until we have done an examination" reality is genuinely frustrating. Understanding what drives emergency [...]

How Often Should You Check Your Pet's Ears? A Guide to Routine Ear Care Ear problems are among the most common reasons dogs and cats visit the vet, and they are also among the most preventable with basic, consistent monitoring. The ear canal is a warm, somewhat enclosed environment that bacteria and yeast find quite [...]

Most behavior problems in adult dogs and cats do not appear out of nowhere. The reactive lunging at every passing dog, the panic when a thunderstorm rolls in, the cat who disappears under the bed for three hours every time someone rings the doorbell- these patterns usually trace back to something that did or did [...]

You're scratching behind your dog's ears or rubbing under your cat's jaw when you feel it: a firm, round lump that wasn't there before. Or maybe your vet found it during a routine exam and mentioned that your pet's lymph nodes are enlarged. Either way, it's the kind of discovery that sends your mind racing. [...]

Watching a pet struggle to stand up, slip on a hard floor, or lose the ability to do something they used to do without thinking is one of the harder parts of caring for an aging or injured animal. The good news is that the range of assistive devices available for dogs and cats has [...]

A bald patch that seemed to appear overnight. A coat that's been slowly, quietly thinning for months. Hair loss in dogs and cats is one of those symptoms that looks straightforward on the surface but almost never is. The underlying cause might be hormonal, like hypothyroidism or Cushing's disease, where the skin itself often looks [...]

You know your dog better than anyone, and when you notice them doing the "hop" when they walk or trying to avoid putting weight on a back leg, it's natural to feel worried about what's going on. Whether your playful canine ran a little too hard chasing a squirrel or simply took a wrong step [...]