COVID-19 has impacted many aspects of our lives, but many people don’t realize the true effect it’s had on veterinarians and veterinary clinics. As a result of the pandemic, clinics have struggled with significantly longer wait times for appointments and services, being forced to turn away new clients to keep up with demand of the current clients, and a shortage of veterinarians and technicians, leading to frustration for veterinary staff and clients alike.

            With many people working from home during the pandemic, the number of adoptions and demand for puppies and kittens has skyrocketed. According to Petfinder.com, “Inquiries about pet adoptions increased 70% between March 2020 and March 2021”, in addition to people purchasing new puppies and kittens. While this is a positive with high adoption rates, it also means veterinarians have to see more patients and open their door for new clients.

As a result of the pandemic, veterinary clinics have had to reduce their schedules and switch to curbside service. This in turn has increased the wait times to receive an appointment, and also increased the time spent at the actual appointment. While the pandemic is slowly winding down, most clinics are still operating on a reduced schedule with more workload. Clients with sick animals quickly become frustrated with this wait, and it is devastating to veterinary clinics to have to turn them away. Add in the increased number of clients and patients to see, and there is more demand than veterinarians.

The results of the COVID pandemic have caused stress on both veterinarians and clients. As a result, the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges stated over “35% of all vet techs burn out”, and there are record low numbers of veterinarians and staff.  With this shortage of staff and already prolonged wait times, the situation is only amplified.

Veterinary clinics are trying their hardest to accommodate for as many patients as they can. At Palmer Animal Hospital, we are reserving same-day appointments for sick patients, and trying to accommodate as many clients as we can see on a reduced schedule. We would appreciate your patience as the pandemic comes to a close, and don’t forget to thank your vet today.

            Our pets are a large part of our lives, so it comes as no surprise that owners want their animals to feel their best. Rehabilitative laser therapy can serve as a noninvasive option and is useful in helping to treat a variety of injuries from sprains, strains, arthritis, swelling, back disc problems, muscular and skeletal abnormalities, and can also be used on incisions following surgery to promote healing of the area.

            Laser therapy has been used on humans for over 50 years, however, it is a relatively new practice in dogs, cats, and other animals. Cold therapy lasers also called low-level lasers or Class IV lasers use a light to stimulate cell regeneration and an increase in blood flow to tissues. Hot therapy lasers do the same but use a more high-powered light to reach deeper tissues and can come with a greater chance of cutting and burning the skin due to increased intensity of the laser beam if not used properly.

            Laser therapy is becoming increasingly common in veterinary practices as a result of its non-invasiveness, and lack of side effects. Laser treatments last anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes depending on the body part being treated and are generally performed 2 to 3 times per week depending on the severity of the patient. Before patients receive a treatment, there is no prep work or shaving of the area, and the dog can return to normal activities after the treatment. The treatment is not painful, and many patients enjoy the treatment as it allows them to feel better.

            Laser therapy can be a useful option for owners to use to treat injuries or arthritis causing discomfort to their animals as well as post-surgical procedures to help support their pet’s well-being and provide pain relief.

This fall, we have an intern student working with us.   As part of her responsibilities, she will be posting articles of information and interest about twice a month, so keep watching here. This month starts with an article on Rehabilitative Laser Therapy.

Today we are having trouble with our phones lines where incoming calls are not reaching us.

Obviously this is a difficult situation as it is our major means of communication. We are working on this problem, but if you are not able to reach us by phone, you can always email us and we will get to you as soon as possible. We will also be texting our expected appointments so you can return texts to our computer system. Sorry for the inconvenience, but this is a problem from outside of our office that we are trying to get our service provider to resolve.

    With the COVID-19 Pandemic still affecting our everyday lives, some people have turned to new and dangerous ways of preventing infection – the drug Ivermectin. Ivermectin has been prescribed to people in the past to treat minor infections of head lice, scabies, and other parasitic diseases. However, it is more commonly used in livestock animals for the control of worms as an anti-parasitic, and there is little to no research on its effects on the virus causing COVID-19. Even so, there has been a large increase in the number of prescriptions of ivermectin – from 3,600 per week prior to COVID-19, to 88,000 per week in mid-August – which have been used by people to supposedly protect themselves from the virus. In addition, calls to Poison Control Centers have jumped fivefold over the baseline in July, just from people ingesting Ivermectin from livestock supply stores. This is as a result of incorrect dosing, as most ivermectin doses are calculated for 1,000- or 2,000-pound animals rather than humans which are 1/10 of the weight. The large increase in the drug use has also led to shortages from manufacturers, affecting farmers who need the drug for their livestock. Trials have been done to test Ivermectin’s effectiveness in preventing the coronavirus, but they seem to have no effect on the disease. The largest trial, The Together Trail, was stopped during the study as Ivermectin was shown to be no different than a placebo in preventing COVID infection or reducing the duration and severity of symptoms. With this said, the FDA has not approved the use of Ivermectin for treating or preventing COVID-19, and it is not recommended to take the drug without the proper prescription from a doctor.

As we continue to monitor the increasing COVID rates in our area, we need to re-assess our COVID policies. Because Frederick County is now a high-incidence area as per CDC definitions, we are making the following change to our COVID Mask Policy:

MASKS: All persons, vaccinated or not, will be required to wear a mask that covers their nose and mouth while inside of our office. This includes staff and clients. While inside of our office, we also ask that everyone maintains social distancing—that means staying behind the blue lines on the floor to give our staff room to work.

The following COVID Policies remain in effect:

APPOINTMENTS: Clients have the option of accompanying their pet into our office for appointments. Please call when you arrive and a staff member will direct you to which exam room to enter. If clients do not wish to accompany their pet, then our staff can still continue to arrange curbside service for your appointment.

CURBSIDE PICKUP: All medication and food pickups will remain curbside. When you arrive, call into the office and a staff member will bring your products out to your car and also do your check out there.

Please note, that we are still operating on a limited schedule to control the flow of persons into and out of our building. Scheduling continues to be our biggest challenge, but we continue to work hard to provide great care for all of our patients. We do reserve appointments every day for sick patients, but these fill up quickly. If your pet needs to be seen, you need to call us early in the morning. Unfortunately there are times that we cannot fit any more appointments into our schedule and must refer patients to one of the local emergency hospitals.

So, stay safe and healthy, get vaccinated, and we hope this summer surge will soon resolve.

Like everyone else, we are very happy to see all of the COVID rates decrease in our area and across the country.  We continue to monitor the situation and make changes to modify our protocols.   Here are our policies beginning  the week of Monday, June 14th:

MASKS:   Fully Vaccinated persons (staff and clients) now have the option of NOT wearing a mask while in our office.   Unvaccinated persons (including those that have previously been infected with COVID) still need to wear a mask that covers their nose and mouth in our office.   Social distancing rules remain in effect–that is, please stay behind the blue lines in the waiting room and exam rooms.

APPOINTMENTS:  Clients have the option of accompanying their pet into our office for appointments.   Please call when you arrive and a staff member will direct you to which exam room to enter.   If clients do not wish to accompany their pet, then our staff can still continue to arrange curbside service for appointments.

CURBSIDE PICKUP:  All medication and food pickups will remain curbside.   When you arrive, call into the office and a staff member will bring your products out to your car and also do your check out there.

Please note, that we are still operating on a limited schedule to control the flow of persons into and out of our building.  Scheduling continues to be our biggest challenge, but we continue to work hard to provide great care for all of our patients.  We do reserve appointments every day for sick patients, but these fill up quickly.   If your pet needs to be seen, you need to call us early in the morning.  Unfortunately there are times that we cannot fit any more appointments into our schedule and must refer patients to one of the local emergency hospitals.

So, stay safe and healthy, get vaccinated, and hopefully all will be back to “NORMAL” soon.

We are very happy to see all of the COVID statistics continue to improve as more and more people become fully vaccinated.  At Palmer Animal Hospital we are slowly but continually revising our COVID restriction policies.  Here is what is in effect for June 1st, 2021:

–Clients will have the option of accompanying their pets into our office for their pet’s appointment.    When you arrive at the office, call into the front desk and our staff will let you know when to enter the building and which exam room you will take your pet directly to.  If you do not wish to accompany your pet, our staff will come out to bring your pet in for their appointment.

–Masks are required for anyone entering the building.  Yes, we know the state and county have released the mask mandate, but we are requiring them for the time being.   If wearing a mask is not acceptable to you, we are happy to provide curbside service for your pet.  Please note that we had a COVID incident at our office last month, so this pandemic is far from over for us and we will continue to follow the protocols we deem necessary to protect our staff and clients.

–All medication and food pick-ups will remain curbside.   Please call ahead to orders the medication/food that you need.   When you arrive at the office, call in to the front desk staff and they will bring your medication/food to you and check you out at your car.

—Please keep in mind that our appointment schedule is still limited by the number of patients/clients we can safety get into/out of our office in a certain day.   All of our staff our working their hardest to provide the best care that we can for all of our patients.  We will continue to see as many patients as possible, but there are times when we cannot fit more patients into our schedule.

Like everyone, we look forward to things returning to “normal”, but that will still take some time.  Until then, we hope everyone stays safe and healthy.

In honor of all of those who have served and protected our country over the years, our office will be closed for Memorial Day, Monday, May 31st, 2021.    We will reopen for regular business hours on Tuesday, June 1st.    We hope that all of our clients and staff have a safe and happy holiday.   In special remembrance of this day, I’m posting a picture of my father, Amos E. Palmer DVM, for his service days in Korea in 1950-51.

Amos E. Palmer 1930-1987

We are happy to announce that beginning on Monday, May 17th,  our clients will once again be able to accompany their pets into our office for appointments.   It will be great seeing people again face-to-face (or mask-to-mask to be more accurate) rather than having to talk just over the telephone.  Clients still need to call into the front desk when they arrive and be escorted into the building.   Anyone entering the building must wear a face mask/covering that entirely covers their nose and mouth as well as maintain social distancing.   There are signs up both on the front doors and inside the office to remind everyone.   We do look forward to further easing of restrictions in the future, but as this time are taking these initial small steps to keep our staff (and clients) as safe as possible (remember, we had a COVID situation in our office just last month involving a few staff members).   If you do not wish to come into the office with your pet, we can still do your pet’s appointment entirely curbside.   All other services (medication/food pickup) will remain curbside.

Looking forward to seeing you again in person and continuing to provide good service to keep your pet healthy.