Gabriella has been working as a veterinary technician at Jefferson Veterinary Hospital since 2017. She enjoys working with all of our patients and their owners. Gabriella is very caring, eager to learn more, and she always lends a hand in any way she can to help. She loves her Starbucks every day, she has to have her coffee!
Jefferson Veterinary Hospital Celebrates Veterinary Technician Week!
We are celebrating veterinary technician week here at Jefferson Veterinary Hospital! Your veterinarians are lucky to have such a wonderful, caring and supportive team behind them. Your veterinary technicians truly love your pets and care for them like their own when they are away from you!
Valerie has been with Brunswick Veterinary Office / Jefferson Veterinary Hospital since 2010. Valerie comes in to the veterinary hospital each day with the most cheerful attitude every morning. She is reliable, always eager to learn more and help anyone out. You will see Valerie doing a lot of our laser treatments on our patients.
Celebrating Veterinary Technician Week!
We are celebrating veterinary technician week here at Jefferson Veterinary Hospital! Your veterinarians are lucky to have such a wonderful, caring and supportive team behind them. Your veterinary technicians truly love your pets and care for them like their own when they are away from you!
This is Melissa, she has been with Brunswick Veterinary Office / Jefferson Veterinary Hospital since 2016. She came to us with years of experience and she is very knowledgeable, dedicated. She always cares deeply when it comes to you and your pets. We can always rely on her to keep us laughing!
Veterinarians and Staff Celebrate Veterinary Technician Week!
Desiree started working as a Veterinary Technician in May 2020. All the veterinarians and staff enjoy working with her, she comes in and gets her job done! She is great with sign language, which we are thrilled about as she can help us communicate more effectively with some of our clients during appointments!
Heart Worm in Dogs
Heart-worm in Dogs
For pets that live in the area around our animal hospital in Frederick County MD, we recommend that pets take heart-worm preventative on a constant basis throughout the year to prevent infection. Jefferson Veterinary Hospital is currently offering a 10% discount on one years worth of heart worm when purchased from us in your pets annual well pet exam!
What is Heart-worm?
Heart-worm disease is caused by foot long worms that live in the heart, lungs, and blood vessels. This causes severe lung disease, heart failure, and damage to other organs in the body. The dog is a host for heart-worms. Heart-worms can affect a dogs health and the quality of life after the parasites are gone. Because of this, using heartworm prevention is the best option, and if your dog does come up positive treating it as soon as possible is the best option. Cats can also get heartworm disease but it is much more rare. They typically have 1 to 3 worms, and the worms do not survive to the adult stage.
Adult heart-worms living in a infected host such as dog, fox, coyote, or wolf create microfilaria, baby heartworms, that circulate in the animals bloodstream. When a mosquito bites a infected host it picks up the baby worms that develop into larvae in a matter of 10 to 14 days. When this infected mosquito bites another cat or dog the larvae is deposited onto the animal’s skin. Once this larvae is in a new host it develops into adult heartworms.
The cycle of a heart-worm
1. An infected host is bitten by a mosquito
2. The mosquito is now infected with microfilaria (babyheartworms)
3. This same mosquito bites your dog, the larvae istransferred into your dog
4. The larvae grows into heartworms, taking up to 6 months.They then travel to the heart and pulmonary arteries
5. The adult worms reproduce and are found in your dog'sblood, this makes the process happen over again
The whole process takes up to 7 months.
Can I Buy Heart-worm Preventative from a Store, Online Pharmacy or from Jefferson Veterinary Hospital?
The FDA states that the medication is only to be used by licensed veterinarians. This means that all heartworm prevention should be purchased through a pet pharmacy which requires a prescription or straight from your veterinarian. If you purchase medication like this from an indirect source that doesn’t require a prescription you never know what you are actually purchasing and giving to your pet. By purchasing through a veterinarian you are positive of what you are buying and giving to your dogs.
Should I use Heart-Worm Preventative for my Cat?
Heart-worm preventative for dogs cannot be used in cats and the medicine used to treat dogs for heart-worm disease cannot be used in cats as well so preventing your cat from getting the disease is most important.
What are the Symptoms of Heart-worm in a Dog?
Heart-worms can live in dogs for up to 7 years and up to 2 or 3 years in cats. Dogs can show a variety of symptoms of being heart-worm positive, or they can show no symptoms at all. Some symptoms include a cough, lethargy, decreased appetite, and weight loss. Pets can develop heart failure and have a swollen belly due to excess fluid building up in their abdomen. In the community you live in your animals can be at a larger risk than you realize. You could also travel with your pets to an area with higher risks where heart-worm is a lot more common than you know.
Heart-worm disease is spreading to new regions every year. Stray and neglected animals can be carriers of heartworms. Heartworm disease has been diagnosed in all 50 states. Infected mosquitos can come inside your home, so both outdoor and indoor pets are at risk.
Testing for Heart-worm
Annual testing is recommended, if your pet is on heartworm prevention yearly and you never miss a dose, then you can test every other year just to be safe that your pet comes back negative. If you miss a few months, that is okay, we understand it happens (probably more frequently than you realize!) but you should get your pet tested before starting up on preventative. Be sure to get them tested as soon as possible in case they do come up positive, treatment needs to be done sooner rather than later. This disease is a serious and progressive disease. The earlier that the disease is discovered, the better the chances are for your pet to recover with treatment.
A heartworm test requires a small blood sample and is placed in a snap pro test machine to detect any indication of heartworm proteins. Puppies under the age of 7 months can be placed on heartworm prevention without requiring a heartworm test, this is because it takes 6 months for the heartworms to grow and be recognized through testing.
What Happens if I Forget to Give my Dog Heart-worm Preventative?
If you accidentally miss a few months of heartworm preventative you should go ahead and restart with the preventative, but test your dog 6 months later. The reason for testing is to make sure they come back negative, heartworms have to be about 7 months old before they can be diagnosed. Sentinel Spectrum is the heartworm preventative that we recommend and sell here at JVH! This specific preventative also protects against parasites that your pet can pick up from outside. Sentinel can protect your pet from heartworms, roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, tapeworms, and fleas.
Does the Heart-worm Preventative Jefferson Veterinary Hospital Veterinarians Recommend Protect Against Fleas and ticks?
Sentinel is not a full protection from fleas, so we still recommend using monthly flea and tick preventative also. This medication is in the form of a chewable tablet given once every month. Since your pet is consuming this chewable they are getting 100% of the prevention unlike when you use a topical. The topical can get washed off, rubbed off, etc. but the chewable is consumed.
Do Your Veterinarians Offer a Discount on Preventative?
JVH is offering 10% off the price of a limited number of one years worth of prevention with a well exam visit. Please give us a call or send us an email with any questions or concerns, we will be happy to assist you!
New Pet Portraiture Installed in Jefferson Veterinary Hospital! | Veterinarian Frederick MD
Clare Ahalt Photography provided Jefferson Veterinary Hospital with some beautiful pet portraits for the new animal hospital! Our veterinarian, Dr. Ahalt, and a few friends helped to install them over this weekend! We hope that you enjoy these portraits as much as we do - we think that it makes the veterinary hospital look a little less clinical and more warm and welcoming for our clients and patients!
National Take your Children to Work Day
One of our veterinarians, Dr. Ahalt, brought his son to work at Jefferson Veterinary Hospital to show him all about the practice of veterinary medicine. Dr. A Jr. watched a minor surgical procedure, watched how digital x-rays were taken and hung out a lot with the dogs and cats that were being tended to at the animal hospital. He had a great time and learned a lot!
Dr. Ahalt doesn't look too thrilled at having his photograph taken.
Cough, Cough, Hack. It's National Hairball Day!
Happy National Earth Day! | Veterinarian Frederick MD
Pet of the week | Veterinarian Frederick MD
The pet of the week this week is Jefferson Veterinary Hospital veterinarian, Dr. Ahalt's dog, Chug! Chug is a samoyed, which is a high energy breed, intelligent breed of dog and a member of the spitz family. Samoyeds were bred to pull sleds, but had to have a good temperament and were often considered extended members of the family. Samoyeds are famous not only for their beautiful full white coats of fur, but the sammy smile, a natural expression that looks like the dog is sat happily smiling.
As this is a high energy breed, they require a lot of exercise, and their intelligence means that they also need to have things to stay occupied. As with most breeds, a bored samoyed is a destructive samoyed, and they will entertain themselves by chewing up whatever might be nearby. Negative aspects of the breed include a penchant for landscaping, which verges on borderline excavation. Their coat requires constant maintenance and "blows" out twice yearly, leaving enough fur behind to easily make two more dogs. This undercoat can be spun into yarn, but Mrs. Dr. A puts some of it outside and the birds find it and use it to line their nests. They are good alert dogs and will bark when someone comes onto what they perceive to be their territory, which isn't so good if you live in a house with a sidewalk that is used in front.
Overall, samoyeds are a loving breed, and Mrs. Dr. A is very taken by them.
Caption This! | Frederick MD Veterinarians
The veterinary technicians and receptionists at Jefferson Veterinary Hospital have some great helpers. We have been having fun with this image of Malinda and her dog over on the Veterinary Hospital's Facebook page.
Here are a few of our favorite captions:
Renee: I'll keep an eye out for the doc....you go ahead and change that word "neuter" to "cuddles & treats!"
Martha: No, no, not the kibble! Order the Beggin' Strips! I'd do it myself but I don't have thumbs!
Christa: If you could get those TPS reports to me that would be just great.
Donna: No no no, you add 6 and carry the 1.
Dana: "Your total today comes to six dog treats. No, don't give them to Malinda, I'll take them."
Robert: "What time is Susie's appointment? I don't want to miss her this time like I did the last!"
Pet of the Week - Jackson the Jack Russell Terrier\Parson Russell Terrier | Frederick MD Veterinarian
Our first pet of the week at Jefferson Veterinary Hospital is owned and loved by our very own Veterinary Technician, Brandy! He is Jackson, the Jack Russell Terrier. Jack Russells' were bred as a working dog, and that working instinct and ethic has remained with them today. They have a voracious appetite for exercise and activity. If left to their own devices, they will create their own activity, many have been known to take up interior design, and they have a unique style which is generally not in keeping with their owners.
Brandy tells us that Jackson's favourite activities are walking with his Gram and his Aubrey around Jefferson, MD (say hi if you see them!) as well as lazing on on the sofa. Rumour has it that Jackson is very in touch with his feminine side and if you peruse Jefferson Veterinary Hospital's facebook page you may come across an image of Jackson laying on his back after having his nails done.
The Jack Russell Terrier Club has put together a handy little test to see if a Jack Russell Terrier would be a good and happy addition to your family. If you have any questions about this breed, or would like to hear information from our veterinarians about adding another member to your family, please do not hesitate to contact us. We would love to help you!
Where is Barb?
For the last few months we’ve had a friendly smile missing from our front desk as Jefferson Veterinary Hospital and this has been noticed by clients and been sorely missed by our veterinarians, veterinary technicians, assistants and receptionists alike.
We have been slow to notify people of the reason and for that we are sorry. Our receptionist Barb was diagnosed with a form of breast cancer late last fall. Shortly after, her treatment plan when into action and unfortunately it has taken a toll on her ability to work.
She is currently entering the middle stages of her treatment and we are all hoping that, by year’s end, she will be recovering and looking to return to her former antics for our clients and staff.
In support of Barb, our veterinarian Dr. Kalf, and other fighters in the struggle against breast cancer, the staff of Jefferson Veterinary Hospital will be participating in the Bros and Bras 5k run/walk on Saturday, April 23 in beautiful Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. Both Brunswick Grooming Spa and Jefferson Veterinary Hospital will be closed while all of our veterinarians, techs, assistants and receptionists show their support for breast cancer research.
Please join us in wish Barb good luck in the next stage of her treatment. We miss her very much and cannot wait for her laugh to ring through our office once more.
For more information about donating or if you are also interested in joining the Bros and Bras 5k check out their website here.
We know that Barb sometimes checks Jefferson Veterinary Hospital's website and would love to hear any words of support from you either below or on the veterinary Facebook page,!
Jefferson Veterinary Hospital: New Animal Hospital Update | Frederick MD Veterinarian
New Puppy Check up
This beautiful Australian Shepherd came to see our veterinarians today in Jefferson, MD for a puppy well check. These checks form an important part of your new best friends health care and allows us to get to know each other! Our veterinarians review our recommended vaccination schedule, discuss training recommendations and, most importantly, listen to any concerns and answer any questions that you, our client, may have.
April Roundup: Pet Friendly Places to go in Frederick County, MD.
National Puppy Day! | Frederick County Maryland Veterinarian
It's National Puppy Day!!!! We would love to see pictures of your dogs over on our Facebook page when they were puppies, when butter wouldn't melt in their mouths, before they chewed the leg on the dining room table chair or ate the couch, or, well ... did a whole number of destructive things that puppies can sometimes do! Extra brownie points if you include details and/or a picture of the worst thing your dog did as a puppy!!! We will go first with Chug - he's been a wonderful puppy and avoided most of the typical things puppies do, but recently he's started stealing shoes (nothing like only being able to find one shoe) and decided that our garden needs a little work and has begun excavating.
Part of national puppy day is encouraging pet adoption - if you are looking to add a new furry family member, consider checking out the local animal shelters and rescues! You could save a life and find a wonderful companion!
Things to do with your pet in Frederick County, Maryland in March
One More Wintery Weather Blast for Frederick County MD!
We are on alert for another (hopefully last) wintery blast here in Frederick County MD. Help keep your pets ready for snow with these tips:
- When temperatures drop below freezing, the outdoors is no place for your pets - be a good owner and bring them inside.
- Ice melt can damage your pets paw pads and be hazardous to their health - make sure to clean their paws off anytime they come into contact with this
- Long haired breeds will frequently end up with snowballs attached to their underbellies and in between their paw pads, which can make it uncomfortable for them to walk on - make sure to check these and clean them out.
A Dogs Eye View of Jefferson Veterinary Hospital
Have you ever wondered exactly what your dog sees when he or she comes to Jefferson Veterinary Hospital? Wonder no more! Dr. Ahalt's dog, Chug (who is a samoyed), kindly filmed what an appointment with his Veterinarian Daddy looks like!