We treat your pet as if they were our own.
We hold ourselves to the highest standards when it comes to your pet’s care. Be assured that our team at Circle of Life Animal Hospital is committed to you and your pet and focuses on customized care for each situation. At our clinic, you’re family.
Microchipping
Each year, thousands of pets go missing, and many don’t make it back home. Many pets (especially indoor pets) don’t wear collars or tags. Even if your pet wears a collar and identification tag, collars can break off and tags can become damaged and unreadable, so these forms of identification may not be enough to ensure your pet’s safe return. Your pet needs a form of identification that is reliable and can’t get lost, stolen, or damaged. A microchip is a safe, simple form of identification that can significantly increase the chance that your pet will return safely.
A microchip is about the size and shape of a grain of rice and is placed underneath your pet’s skin between the shoulder blades. Microchip implantation takes only a few minutes and is very safe. Each microchip is unique and carries vital information about your pet—including your name, address, and contact information. When a microchip is implanted, the pet owner is given a registration form to complete. Registering the number on the microchip includes your pet in a national pet recovery database. Veterinary hospitals, animal shelters, and animal control offices across the country are equipped with special electronic scanners that can detect the microchip and read the identification number. If a lost pet is picked up by animal control or found by a good Samaritan and presented to a veterinarian, a quick scan of the microchip reveals the identification number. A toll-free phone call to the pet recovery database alerts the microchip company that a lost pet has been identified. The pet owner can then be contacted and reunited with his or her pet!
Young puppies and kittens can receive microchips, but even if your pet is already an adult, you should consider microchipping. Even indoor pets can get outside accidentally and get lost, so if you’re relying on other forms of identification, you could be placing your pet at risk. Microchipping is a safe, effective way to help ensure your pet’s return if the unthinkable happens.
Boarding
Here at Circle of Life Animal Hospital, our staff is committed to the care and well-being of all pets staying with us. We have staff attending to your pet family with on-site veterinary care, during business hours, should your pet need it. Quite simply, we want your pet to have the best stay while their humans are on vacation!
To ensure the health and safety of all pet guests, we require that they are current on vaccinations and free of both intestinal and external parasites to ensure the health and safety of all guests. All dogs must be current for parvovirus, Bordetella, distemper, and rabies. All cats must be current on FVRCP (feline rhinotracheitis, calicivirus, and panleukopenia) and rabies. We require a negative stool sample every 6 months for all animals boarding with us.
Diagnostics
It is difficult to see your pet in pain or suffering and not know what’s wrong. Our team provides state-of-the-art in-house diagnostics to help us learn what’s wrong and provide an accurate diagnosis. A quicker diagnosis leads to quicker treatment! We do diagnostic testing both in-house and with an outside lab so we can provide results quickly and accurately.
Radiology
A radiograph (X-ray) is a type of photograph that looks inside the body and reveals information that may not be discernible from the outside. Radiography can be used to evaluate your pet’s internal organs like the heart, lungs, and abdominal organs, as well as bones. When it comes to accurately diagnose your pet, radiology can be an extremely valuable tool in our diagnostic arsenal.
Digital X-rays are routinely used to diagnose and examine broken bones, obstructions, arthritis, masses, and tumors. We use digital X-rays to also confirm pregnancies or detect ingested objects.
Laser Therapy
Circle of Life Animal Hospital is excited to offer our clients Companion Laser Therapy. Laser therapy provides a noninvasive, pain-free, surgery-free, and drug-free treatment which is used to treat a variety of conditions and can be performed in conjunction with existing treatment protocols. Relief and/or improvement is often noticed within hours, depending on the condition and your pet’s response. Whether your pet is rehabilitating from trauma or injury, healing from wounds, or simply aging, your companion can benefit from this innovative approach to treating pain.
Applications for laser therapy include:
- Treatment of arthritis, degenerative joint disease, or hip dysplasia
- General pain management (sprains, strains, and stiffness)
- Post-surgery pain (spays, neuters, declaws, and other surgeries)
- Skin problems (hot spots, lick granulomas, and infections)
- Dental procedures
- Fractures and wounds (bites, abrasions, and lesions)
- Ear infections
How Does It Work?
Laser therapy stimulates the body to heal from within. Non-thermal photons of light are administered to the body for about three to eight minutes and absorbed by the injured cells. The cells are then stimulated and respond with a higher rate of metabolism. This results in relief from pain, increased circulation, reduced inflammation, and an acceleration of the healing process.
What Can My Pet Expect During a Laser Therapy Treatment Session?
Simply put, it provides relief. As the laser is administered, your pet will relax and enjoy the treatment. The almost immediate relief of pain will allow your pet to be comfortable and any anxiety that your pet initially experiences will dissipate.
Occasionally, angry cats will start to purr and canine companions will actually fall asleep during their therapy session. Frequently, after therapy, we hear, “He’s acting like a puppy again!” or “She can actually jump onto the chair again!” Pain relief is provided in just a few minutes of therapy, and that alone improves the quality of life for your companion.
Many of our laser therapy patients are older animals with musculoskeletal ailments. Some signs that your senior companion is experiencing pain or discomfort are:
- Abnormal sitting or lying posture
- Circling multiple times before lying down
- Restlessness
- Whining, groaning, or other vocalizations
- Limping, unable to get up or lie down
- Difficulty getting into the car or downstairs
- Lack of grooming
- Won’t wag tail
- Licking or biting area
- Lack of appetite
- Trembling
Laboratory
Our pets cannot tell us what’s wrong, and that’s why laboratory tests and diagnostic imaging are so important. But we do more than just offer you state-of-the-art diagnostic tests—we choose the tests that will guide us toward the perfect, tailor-made solution for your pet’s needs. A quicker diagnosis leads to quicker treatment! We do diagnostic testing both in-house and with an outside lab so we can provide results quickly and accurately.
Circle of Life Animal Hospital is able to process a wide array of diagnostic laboratory tests with our in-house laboratory.
Our tests include things like:
- Blood tests
- Urine tests
- Fecal tests
- Parasite tests
- Digital X-rays
- Ultrasonography
- …and more!
We utilize these tests to assess your pet’s overall well-being. This helps us detect the trouble brewing in the internal organs by providing important clues to disease.
Pharmacy
Emergency Care
Just like people, pets can experience accidents and injuries that require emergency care. However, sometimes it may be difficult to determine if your pet is experiencing a trauma that warrants a visit to urgent care or if their symptoms are those of something less serious. If you are unsure whether your pet is in need of veterinary trauma services in Festus, MO, here are the most common reasons to seek emergency care for pets.
How do I know if my pet is experiencing an emergency?
- Choking, difficulty breathing or nonstop coughing or gagging
- Severe bleeding or bleeding that doesn’t stop within five minutes
- Hit by a car
- Bite wounds
- Seizure activity
- Severe vomiting or diarrhea
- Inability to urinate or defecate (poop)
- Bloated abdomen or dry heaving
- Eye injuries
- Overheating or heat stroke
- Toxin ingestion
- Snakebite
- Allergic reaction (facial swelling, hives)
- Lameness or not walking
- Trouble giving birth
Parasite Control
There was a time when parasites like fleas, ticks, and roundworms were considered mostly a nuisance. Now, however, we know that parasites can cause serious illness and even death in pets. For example, ticks can transmit infections like Lyme disease, and fleas can transmit tapeworms and Bartonella, the bacteria that causes “cat scratch fever” in humans. Another type of parasite called heartworm is transmitted by mosquitoes. Heartworms live in your pet’s lungs and heart, causing damage to these organs and sometimes even death. Intestinal parasites, like roundworms and hookworms, also threaten pets and are even transmissible to humans.
You may not always be able to tell if your pet has parasites. Fleas can hide under your pet’s fur, and some ticks are very tiny (only the size of a pinhead), so they are very difficult to find. Intestinal parasites like roundworms can cause diarrhea and other problems, but many infected pets don’t show any signs of illness at all.
Fortunately, we can recommend tests to tell if your pet has parasites. We can also examine your pet for evidence of fleas, ticks, or other parasites. Our expert staff can recommend medications to help control fleas, ticks, heartworms, and intestinal parasites. Preventing parasites in your pets also helps protect children and other family members, so let’s work together to protect your pets and family.
Veterinary examinations and parasite testing are important ways to protect your pet’s health. Let our knowledgeable staff provide you with a comprehensive parasite control program. We can recommend:
- A schedule for parasite testing
- Discuss what signs of parasites you can look for at home
- Review ways to control parasites in and around your home
- Discuss treatment options if your pet has parasites
- Recommend ways to control and prevent parasites in the future
Parasites are not just a nuisance. They can carry serious diseases that affect your pet’s overall health and longevity. Let us help you protect your pet. Call today to find out how!
Grooming
Our veterinarians at Circle of Life Animal Hospital are proud to offer a wide range of grooming services to keep your pet looking and feeling his/her best. Our hospital offers bathing, nail trims, anal gland expressions, ear cleaning, and clipping. It’s always a great time to schedule a spa day!
Our Grooming Services
When you trust our animal hospital with grooming services, you can always expect your pet to receive quality, compassionate care. Whether your pet is just here for a quick bath, nail trim, anal gland expression, or more extensive treatment, such as a medicated bath, de-matting, ear cleaning, or a sanitary clip, our veterinary team will always treat your pet as one of their own. We also offer mild sedation (given at home before the appointment) for those fur babies that stress easily. We strive to keep your pet as comfortable and relaxed as possible throughout the grooming appointment, and we’ll give you a call as soon as your pet is ready to be picked up.
Dentistry
Often overlooked as it relates to a pet’s comprehensive health status, animal dental care is needed to provide quality of life and optimal well-being. If left untreated, diseases of the mouth, gums, or jaw are not only painful to your companion, but they may also be contributing factors to more widespread systemic disease processes.
The beginning and severity of periodontal disease depend on age, breed, diet, and at-home care, with younger or small-breed dogs typically presenting with infection earlier than large-breed dogs. Abnormal signs and symptoms of dental abnormalities include pain, bad breath, excessive drooling, fractured or loose teeth, swelling or bleeding of the gums, tumors, sores, or wounds.
While it is understandable that pet owners may be concerned about bad breath and unsightly tartar accumulation, regular dental care is more than cosmetic. Tartar and plaque, often invaded by bacteria, need to be removed to counteract subsequent infection, gingivitis, or pyorrhea (infection of tissues surrounding the teeth), with 60% of disease occurring below the gumline.
Surgical Services
We know how stressful it can be to have a pet that needs an operation. We’re here to calm your concerns. Circle of Life Animal Hospital offers a complete range of surgical services in our modern, state-of-the-art surgical suite. Here, we’re able to perform a wide variety of orthopedic and soft tissue surgeries including spays and neuters, fracture repair, surgical biopsy, and abdominal exploratory. More importantly, we focus on making sure your pet is as comfortable as possible while in our care, and we’ll make sure that all pre-operative and post-operative care is administered properly and clearly explained to you.
Behavioral Counseling
Does your pet act out in ways that are annoying, destructive, or just unbecoming? Are you frustrated with certain negative behaviors? Are your companion’s bad habits causing a rift between you and making it difficult for you to embrace them as a part of the family? If you’re struggling with your pet’s behavior problems, you’re not alone! Circle of Life Animal Hospital offers comprehensive behavioral counseling services to help manage and overcome negative pet behaviors once and for all.
Our team is highly skilled and experienced in animal behavior, and we know that the first step is to identify the root cause of the problem. Many negative behaviors are mere symptoms of a larger underlying problem, and the only way to eliminate the behavior is to address the real issue at hand. For instance, when your pet acts destructive or barks incessantly when you’re away from home, these behaviors could be signs that your companion is really suffering from separation anxiety. We’ll uncover what’s really causing the problem so we can address it and get it under control.
Some of the negative pet behaviors we can help with include:
- House training problems
- Aggression
- Destructive behavior
- Biting
- Excessive barking
- Chewing
- And more…
Whatever behavior you’re dealing with that is standing in the way of forming that all-important bond with your pet, we can help. We’ll work with you and your animal companion to get to the root of the problem so we can develop a plan to work toward a solution. Through patience, determination, and proven behavior modification techniques, we’ll arm you with everything you need to overcome negative behaviors and develop your pet into the calm, balanced, and well-behaved member of the family we know they’re capable of becoming.
Nutritional Counseling
Feeding a healthy diet and maintaining a healthy weight can increase life expectancy, quality of life, decrease the risk of many diseases (such as arthritis, diabetes, and heart disease), and help manage chronic medical conditions. We include a nutritional assessment and a weight evaluation in every health evaluation for every pet. We will also evaluate trends in your pet’s weight, as weight gain or weight loss can be signs of underlying disease or may indicate a need to change your feeding regimen.
Prescription Diets
We carry a full line of prescription diets for your convenience, including Hill’s, Royal Canin, and Iams brands. We also have a variety of treats, including several weight control, dental care, and hypoallergenic options, for both dogs and cats. Please call ahead to ensure we have the diet you wish to purchase. We are happy to place a special order for you!
Obesity and Weight Loss
It is estimated that at least 40% of our dogs and cats are overweight. Those extra pounds may cause health problems when a pet exceeds 10 to 15% of his or her ideal body weight. An overweight pet is predisposed to joint problems such as arthritis, respiratory difficulties, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, liver disease, decreased heat tolerance, increased incidence of skin disease, increased anesthetic/surgical risks, increased risk of diabetes, and decreased resistance to infectious diseases, among other problems. At 15% more than his/her body weight, a pet is officially obese. There are some things you can do to help your pet shed those extra pounds. Weight loss should be accomplished slowly, with a nutritionally-balanced diet. All members of the family need to work together to help achieve the weight loss goal for the pet. As appropriate for your pet, a moderate weight loss program can also aid weight loss.
We can help evaluate your pet to see if and how much weight loss is needed, help you select a reduced-calorie diet, and also to help calculate appropriate feeding amounts for your specific pet.
Because dogs and cats vary widely in actual energy requirements, your pet’s actual response to a standardized weight-loss program will also vary. Regular weigh-ins will help us make any adjustments.