Here is the Holiday Schedule at Palmer Animal Hospital:

THANKSGIVING

Thursday, Nov 24, 2011 —Thanksgiving Day   —   CLOSED

Friday, Nov 25, 2011  — 8AM-5PM (regular hours)

Saturday, Nov 26, 2011 — 8AM-Noon (regular hours)

CHRISTMAS

Saturday, Dec 24, 2011 — CHRISTMAS EVE —    8AM-Noon:  Staff only, no appointments

Sunday, Dec 25, 2011 —    CHRISTMAS DAY —    CLOSED

Monday, Dec 26, 2011 —   8AM-8PM (regular hours)

NEW YEAR’S

Saturday, Dec 31, 2011 — NEW YEAR’S EVE —   8AM-Noon (regular hours)

Sunday, Jan 1, 2012 —    NEW YEAR’S DAY —    CLOSED

Monday, Jan 2, 201 — 8AM-8PM (regular hours)

 

     Wow, we’re not even out of October and the snow is here.  Now is a good time to review our Inclement Weather Policy.   While it is rare for us (or at least most of us) to make it into the office, I tell my staff that if there is any question as to whether they can SAFELY make it into work, to stay home and call the office to see what the situation is weather-wise.    So on those days when you wake up with the ground covered in white (like it was at my house on top of South Mountain this morning), the best advice I can give our clients is to CALL THE OFFICE BEFORE YOU COME IN.  Staff is usually in at 7:30, so if you don’t get a live person please leave a message and we will call you back.     There are also rare occassions when the daytime weather becomes so nasty that we will close early.   In those cases we contact all of our appointments and in-house cases to let them know the status.  If you can’t make it in to pickup your pet, don’t worry—we can hold onto them until it is safe to pick them up.

Willow, the cat, disappeared in Colorado and later was found in New York City.    Willow’s identify was discovered  when she was turned into an animal shelter and they detected a microchip that led them back to Willow’s true owner in Colorado.  This has spurred quite an interest in pet owners to get microchips for their pets.

   Here are some facts about microchips:

      —a microchip is a transponder a bit bigger than a grain of rice that is implanted under your pets skin

       —when a microchip scanner is run over your pets body, it sends out a radio signal to the chip than then returns a unique ID number back to the scanner.  This ID number can then be used to track down the pet’s owner just as a license plate number can lead you to the owner of a car

        —microchips are not GPS devices and cannot track your pet.  Microchip scanners have a maximum range of 6-8 inches.

         —microchips can easily be implanted during a office visit—it’s just like getting a shot from a larger than usual needle.

           —there are several types of microchips available.  At Palmer Animal Hospital, we use the ResQ Chip from Bayer because it is ISO (international standard) compliant, includes lifetime registration, and Dr. Palmer feels the injector is one of the most user/pet friendly on the market

           For more information about microchips, feel free to give us a call.

           Here is a link to Willow’s story:  http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44555429/ns/today-today_pets_and_animals/

 

  September 28th, 2011 has been designated World Rabies Day.  Rabies is a world-wide problem causing thousands of human deaths every year—mostly in developing countries from the exposure to rabid dogs.   Rabies is also reported in every state except Hawaii.   Nearly 6,700 U.S. cases  were reported in 2009 primarily in wildlife, but included 4 cases in humans, 81 cases in dogs, and 300 in cats.   Getting your pet vaccinated is a great way to protect them (and yourself) from this fatal disease, and vaccination is legally required in most states.   A survey of our records at Palmer Animal Hospital show that 40% of dogs and 60% of cats are not up-to-date on their rabies vaccinations.  Is your pet at risk?   Feel free to give us a call today so we can check your pet’s vaccination status.

  It is hard to believe that August is almost over.  The kids are back at school, the worst of the summer heat is behind us, and Labor Day is next weekend!    Our schedule for Labor Weekend is as follows:  

     —Friday, Sept 2nd:   regular hours 8AM-5PM

     —Sat, Sept 3rd:           regular hours 8AM-Noon

     —-Monday, Sept 5th:  CLOSED

     —-Tuesday, Sept 6th:  regular hours 8AM-8PM

     If you have an emergency over the weekend that cannot wait, there are three emergency clinics nearby to serve your needs:  Frederick Emergency Animal Hospital–301-662-6622;  Crossroads Animal Referral & Emergency (CARE)–301-662-2273; and Mountain View Emergency (Hagerstown)–301-733-7339.   If you need to leave our staff a message, that can be done on our phone systems or at our office email at:  info@palmeranimalhospital.net.

  Last week a couple of our clients reported to us that our website was down for a few days (due to “expired” domain name) and were worried that something bad had happened to our business.  We greatly appreciate the support and concern of our clients, and we are very happy to report that in fact we are very much open for business and thriving.    We even survived the earthquake and hurricane of the past week without a so much as a scratch.  It seems the website problem was glitch or possible hacking of the automated system our website host uses to renew our domain name license.   The problem has been taken care of and the website is back up as  you can see.   Thanks to all for their  prompt reporting of this problem to us so we could rectify it quickly.

   This post may be very mundane to many of you, but we have upgraded our phone system at Palmer Animal Hospital.   Our previous system was basic office phones, and while they provided adequate service, we would actually get complaints about their function.   So now we have installed an NEC DSX system that will allow us to better serve our clients.    This system is amazing and will do more than we will ever need.   Please let us know what you think of the new system and let us know what features we should continue to add.

    In a related note, when the next phone book comes out, you will notice that we will no longer have a block ad in the Yellow Pages—only a line listing.   We came to this decision after our phone number change back in March (thereby making the ad obsolete) and we saw no decrease in our phone traffic.   We will also not be continuing our Yellow Pages Online listing as we found it obsurd that if you typed in “Veterinarian Myersville” we came up 20th on the list.  Please rest assured that it will still be very easy to find and contact us.  In addition to our new website and phone number, you can also reach us by email at info@palmeranimalhospital.net .

  The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reported the diagnosis of rabies in a dog from Frederick County on March 8, 2011.   This was the first rabid dog in Frederick County since 2008.     So far this year there have been 8 cases of rabies in the county.  Most cases occurr in wildlife such as racoons, but usually there are a few cats as well and occassionally a dog.    Two people were bitten by the rabid dog and are undergoing post-exposure prophylaxis treatment.  The livestock on the farm that were exposed to the rabid dog are under quarantine for 6 months.

     It is very important to make sure your pets stays up-to-date on it’s rabies vaccination.   Frederick County ususally has the most cases of any county in Maryland, and Maryland reports 200-400 cases every year.    Prevention is the key as once an animal develops signs of the disease, there is no treatment.   There are also significant legal implications if an unvaccinated animals bites someone.    Rabies vaccinations in adult dogs are usually good for 3 years.   In cats we are currently using a 1-year vaccine, although 3 -year vaccinations are available.   If you are unsure of your pet’s status, feel free to contact our office so we can check our records.

 As many of you have (hopefully) read in our recent newsletter, this month marks the 20th anniversary for Palmer Animal Hospital.  From our humble beginnings renting  an old High’s store in Myersville with just Dr. Palmer and Susan as the employees,  we now have two full-time and two part-time doctors, multiple support staff, and have seen over 18,000 of your pets over the years.   We hope we have provided good service and care as much as we have enjoyed doing so.   We are blessed to have such great clients and we see our business grow every year, which is saying alot in this economy.  Hopefully we will be around for many more years to come.

    After all of these years in our new building, we have changed our phone number.  We had kept our old (Myersville) number as a convenience, but were paying for it as a “foreign exchange number” and that cost has been increasing every year.  So now we will have a “Local” number and hopefully one easy for everyone to remember.

  OUR NEW NUMBER IS   :   301-371-3333