What's New

Announcing NEW and
Exciting changes!

We have changed our name to

Mountain View Veterinary
Health Center

and
we are opening a SECOND
location in Providence!

The second location is East
of Macey's on Golf Course Road
and will be open early next Spring

Acupuncture for Animals

What is Acupuncture?
Dr. Melinda Hillegass is a certified acupuncturist. Acupuncture may be defined as the insertion of needles into specific points on the body to cause a desired healing effect. This technique has been used in veterinary practice in China for at least 3000 years to treat many aliments. The Chinese also use acupuncture as preventive medicine against such problems as founder and colic in horses. Acupuncture is used all over the world, either by itself or in conjunction with Western medicine, to treat a wide variety of maladies in every species of domestic and exotic animals. Acupuncture is not a cure-all, but can work very well when it is indicated.

For more information about Acupuncture, please visit www.ivas.org.

Animal Chiropractic

     Dr. James Israelsen is a certified veterinary chiropractor. Animal Chiropractic is an exciting and rapidly emerging treatment modality for musculoskeletal pain, dysfunction, and other disorders. There are currently two schools accredited to teach animal chiropractic, both located in the Midwest. The current course takes 5 months to complete, followed by final exams at the school, and then a national certification exam. Dr. Israelsen received his training at Options for Animals, the original animal chiropractic educational program. 
     According to our current understanding of animal chiropractic, chiropractic problems occur when individual joints develop an abnormal motion. This motion may be decreased motion, absent motion, or an inability to move a joint through its entire range of motion. A joint may become fixed in any portion of its normal range of motion, and when this occurs, pain, muscle spasm, nerve dysfunction, circulatory problems, metabolic problems, and behavioral problems may occur. Animal chiropractic is the science of restoring normal motion and normal joint dynamics to the animal. When used either alone or in combination with medical, acupuncture, or herbal therapies, chiropractic has proven to be a highly successful method of improving overall health and function. 
     In most cases, chiropractic problems arise in the spinal column, and directly affect spinal cord and spinal nerves, but occasionally chiropractic problems may be found in extremities, including shoulder, elbow, carpus (wrist), toes, and even tail! Due to the significant “overlap” in the effects of the nervous system, a problem in the pelvis can easily cause neck pain, and neck restriction can cause limping, etc. Quadruped animals are great compensators, and develop ways of moving to compensate for pain in one area, resulting in overuse and eventual pain in other areas. It is often only when the compensatory pain becomes evident that we realize something is wrong. 
     Animal chiropractic is often combined with X-ray analysis, physical therapy, acupuncture, and/or herbal therapy to reach a diagnosis and treatment plan. Although our most common cases involve musculoskeletal pain, we have seen resolution or improvement in gastrointestinal, seizure, and reproductive problems as well. 
     Chiropractic care is not limited to small animals only, and about half of our caseload is equine care. Performance horses such as dressage, barrel racers, race horses, and roping horses have all benefited from our care. Performance enhancement is often seen, as are improvements in behavioral issues such as saddling, being “cinchy”, kicking, refusing jumps, etc. At a rodeo it is not uncommon to see the cowboys being adjusted by the human chiropractor, and the animal chiropractor attending to their horses in the adjacent corral! As we demand more from performance animals, the benefit of chiropractic care becomes apparent, and well worth our while to pursue. Not only do they gain an ability to perform at a higher level, but also our animals are more comfortable and happy doing what they do best.
     For more information on animal chiropractic, look into the website of the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association: http://www.animalchiropractic.org/

Affecting more than one million pets each year, kidney disease is a leading
killer in both dogs and cats. By detecting kidney disease early, treatment can
also be started early. For a limited time, to reward you for screening your pet,
Hill’s Science Diet is offering you a $10 rebate on the cost of your kidney screen
and a free bag of Prescription Diet® k/d® if your pet is diagnosed with kidney
disease, or a free bag or Science Diet® Senior if your pet is healthy.

Some signs of kidney disease include:
Loss of appetite 
Poor hair coat
Increase thirst 
Vomiting
Depression 
Diarrhea
Frequent urination or no urination

Talk to the Receptionists about the $10 Rebate and the FREE bag
of food for your pet today.

West Nile Virus is a fast-spreading, mosquito-borne disease that can cause convulsions, coma and death in horses. We now have a good supply of West Nile virus vaccine on hand. Please call us today to schedule your horse's vaccination against West Nile virus. 

Please read our West Nile Virus newsletter.

More information is available at www.equinewestnile.com