Each pet owner has his or her own preferences - dry versus moist and homemade versus commercial. With so many "brand names" available now - all promising complete nutrition - choosing the right food for your pet can be confusing. The health and well being of your pet will be greatly improved by feeding a balanced, quality food which we can recommend, rather than a cheaper, commercial grocery store brand. Any difference in cost is offset by the quantity needed to supply sufficient nutrition and the benefit your pet will receive from a quality food.

If one has the time and desire, homecooking is encouraged. Feeding a well-balanced fresh food diet is the best type of diet. We are referring to preparing meals specifically for your pet - not table scraps. The preparation of homemade meals is laborious and requires careful attention to detail. The recipes must be followed exactly. A poorly balanced homemade diet may be a nutritional disaster, so it is imperative to do it properly. If you choose to feed your pet a homemade diet, we can supply you with information and recipes.

This type of diet offers the most natural, species appropriate nutritional program. Optimal nutrition is derived from species appropriate foods, i.e. raw organ meats, raw meaty bones and raw vegetables. The fact that the food is unprocessed means that the proteins are not changed by cooking. The natural digestive enzymes and vitamins, antioxidants and essential fatty acids are also not damaged by heat processing. Feeding this type of diet is what ultimately makes sense and takes very little more time or money than feeding a commercially processed food.

A great many of us suffer from allergies and so do our pets. Allergies emerge from imperfections in the immune system. The immune system of an allergy victim overreacts with varying intensity when confronted with "allergens" - the harmless substances that evoke an unnecessary defensive reaction. Attention should be focused on identifying the allergen and direct therapy to improving the immune system itself.

Allergies in our pets are much more than irritated skin and we must look at the broad picture to establish the cause of the allergic reaction if we are to treat the problem effectively.

CEDS is a method of determining sensitivities and imbalances in your pet. Information regarding the foundation of your pet's health is gathered and a protocol for improvement is developed.

We are constantly trying to improve our approach to vaccination. Currently we are recommending vaccination at the time of an annual examination. The type and scope of vaccination will be determined on an individual basis at that time. Fortunately there have been some vaccine manufacturing improvements which will minimize potential adverse reactions, but we want to immunize only the pets that are in good health. It is therefore important that a health assessment is made at that time.

Both dogs and cats can suffer from motion sickness while travelling by car and/or airplane. Giving them a tranquilizer or sedative will make them very sleepy and unaware of what is going on around them. An alternative is using Bach Flower Remedies . A specific remedy can be prepared using a combination of various essences and then administered orally before and during your travels.