Mid-Peninsula Animal Hospital™ Blog

Mid-Peninsula Animal Hospital is temporarily closing the hospital to in-person visits for one week, while maintaining availability for phone questions, pharmacy and prescription diet operations.

Until testing is more widely available, out of an abundance of caution, we are closing our doors through March 29th, for any in-person appointments and procedures. We will have receptionists and technicians on the premises to take phone calls, field medical questions, and staff the pharmacy and prescription diet orders using extreme social distancing (hands-free). RVTs will answer medical questions in consultation with doctors. During this period, we will rigorously disinfect the entire hospital (again).

Last Monday, one of our doctors was in the hospital working. A day or two later she began to feel under the weather. She immediately began a self-quarantine at home. She is already feeling better, but did receive positive test results for COVID-19 today. Anyone who had potentially been in contact with her (defined as "within 6 feet" of proximity) during the last 2 weeks, will be contacted directly today and asked to quarantine for two weeks. 

Short of wider availability of testing, we believe this is the only prudent course of action. We apologize for any inconvenience. We will keep you posted.

As we all shelter in place to reduce the community spread of COVID-19 or the Novel Coronavirus, we'd like to share with you how we are further modifying our processes to comply with the order while protecting our staff, you and your pet. 

The shelter-in-place order allows for conducting essential services related to healthcare for you and your family; this includes your pets. To be clear, the order specifies that your pets are part of your family, and specifies the inclusion of veterinary services. 

Of course, we all need to practice appropriate social distancing. We have decided to conduct our Doctor's appointments on a drive-in or drop-off basis. Any exceptions prove the rule. In addition, we are conducting technician appointments on a drive-in basis. 

The drive-in appointment option is new to facilitate social distancing by reducing the number of people who enter the hospital. Basically, you come by appointment to the garage. When you arrive, call us and our staff will come to your car to get the animal. The doctor will speak to you by phone, do their exam and then we'll bring the pet back to your car.

Drop-off appointments are not new. They are always offered to accommodate busy schedules. Sometimes considerable time is required to perform a test or do a procedure, and clients prefer to leave and return later the same day, rather than wait.

By conducting appointments this way, our veterinarians and staff are maximizing the social distancing principle, and hopefully maximizing our ability to remain available to serve the community's animals during this unique time. The fact is we are operating with a reduced staff due to school closures and this shelter-in-place order. We appreciate your patience and cooperation in scheduling non-essential appointments for a month out. At the same time, we also encourage you to reach out to us so we can make sure that all of your pet's needs are met.

In compliance with the order, we are scheduling annual exams and non-essential services that can wait approximately one month out. Rabies vaccines, plus puppy and kitten vaccination schedules, are time sensitive and essential. Non-rabies annual boosters, however, are being scheduled for one month out. Please reach out to us with questions or to discuss your particular case.

If you need to come in to pick up supplies, we'd love it if you called ahead so we can get it ready for you. Let us know when you get here and we can bring it out to your car.

Again, if you have symptoms, concerns or just want to protect yourself, please don't come in. Instead, call us to discuss how we can take care of your pet. We can schedule a telephone consult with the doctor and make a plan. Social distance doesn't mean going it alone. Reach out to us. Working together we will all get through this.

A quick progress update about the research surrounding the FDA's concern over what's causing dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs eating certain types of pet food. In case you missed it, this is an issue we brought to your attention last summer to clear up confusion with some dog foods' relationship to DCM. 

The issue is important because DCM is a form of canine heart disease that can cause congestive heart failure in dogs, even sudden cardiac death. It's significance was highlighted by the FDA taking a rare step of naming names -- backed up by science, of course. UC Davis had originally sounded the alarm and other universities are now pursuing to aid the research. 

Like we mentioned in our blog post at the time, the FDA named 16 brands representing the most reported cases. They typically are labeled as "grain-free" (90%), and typically with high levels of peas and lentils (93%). Researchers found that most dogs on this diet had low levels of taurine in their bloodstream. Taurine is an amino acid which is crucial for heart health. 

Since then, research has continued on the issue. Of the reports of DCM which appeared to be related to diet, 90% ate grain-free food, but what about the other 10%? What about those cases with DCM that show normal levels of taurine? These and others are really great questions!

More recently, the research has broadened to include a wider scope of foods. Also being examined are foods made in small batch by small companies, and those which contain exotic incredients (duck, alligator, rabbit, bison, etc.), in addition to the grain-free foods heavy in peas and lentils. There's even an acronym term for this broader scope. The term now being used is "BEG" diets, which is not a play on what your dog may do at your heels while you're at the dinner table.  It stands for "boutique," "exotic" and "grain-free." The point is the research scope has broadened.

Another change is switching from thinking about finding the most common commonality (or the 90%) to thinking about the issue in a more complicated way. Scientists and doctors refer to it as a 'multi-factorial' approach, which recognizes that multiple factors may be at play, particularly for the other 10%. Perhaps some of these BEG foods somehow inhibit taurine uptake, or interfere with how the body absorbs amino acids, or interfere with how the body utilizes those amino acids. 

Yet another factor is that some animals may be genetically predisposed to this path, which might explain why some are super quick to develop the food-related DCM in just a few months. These are all questions being examined now.

As you can tell, this is a topic we're very interested in. It's not because we offer these types of products -- quite the opposite. We only sell prescription food. As we mentioned before, if you get your food from us, particularly a special diet, rest easy on that score. 

Given that we do not currently offer any BEG diet products, we may seem a little disproportionately fixated on the topic. When it comes to concern for what goes into our clients' pets, focus is appropriate. We may not offer it, but some clients may use it. Plus, we are always interested in "food as medicine" as a topic. 

It goes without saying that if you have concerns, or questions, or want to screen to be sure your animal isn't developing DCM, please feel free to ask your veterinarian. We will also keep you posted once in a while here too.

We had a great time together at our company holiday party! This year marked our first year in Redwood City. While our new location is very close to our old location, here on the peninsula, every neighborhood has their own great places. 

The place we chose is a beautiful gem. Open to the public, the Dragon Theater at 2120 Broadway, in Redwood City, is fairly close to the San Mateo County History Museum, and easily walkable from the Redwood City CalTrain station.

The Dragon Theater is available as an event space for parties such as ours, of course.  However, it's main objective is to produce professional theatre productions that are uncommon, intimate, and empathically bold. They focus on accessibility for audiences, artists and the community.   

Productions are either Main Stage productions (with audience discounts available for subscriptions of as few as three (3) shows), or 2nd Stage productions, which serve as a nesting incubator for developing producers and artists. A step beyond, their immersive art explores the audience relationship to performance through the theater's new Dragon Experience Design Lab (DXDL). 

And if that's not enough, the Dragon Theater gets super immersive with classes for adults and children, corporate workshops and private coaching for actors or anyone looking to beef up their public speaking chops. Classes range from story telling and play writing to improv. 

For our particular event, we set up noshing in the lobby, and were treated to a private performance of the Nutcracker. One of the highlights, for us, was watching one of our very own fabulous RVTs, Anna Yanushkevich, perform as Uncle Drosselmeyer and the Rat King. She did a terrific job, and made us proud. The theater is "on Broadway," in a lively, thriving cultural section of Redwood City. The whole experience was intimate, uncommon and truly festive.