Preventative health care

When you bring your pet in to the clinic their health care is of upmost importance to us. From the time they enter your life it is important to maintain a regular healthcare routine. This starts with preventative healthcare for your pet. We encourage all pet owners to come in annually for a wellness exam. Our pets age at a different rate than we do and a lot can change for them in a year. When you and your pet come in for their annual exam our veterinarians will give them a full physical exam, checking their mouth, ears, and listening to their heart and lungs. At this time you can discuss with our vets the best nutritional diet plan and parasite prevention program for your furry companion. It will also give us a chance to detect any problems or diseases early. Early detection of these problems will usually allow for more options and better success in treatment.

It is important that your pet is prepared for the dangers it may encounter in the big wide world. They should receive vaccinations for some of the serious infectious diseases they may come across and dewormer should be used to control any common parasites they may encounter. The vaccines they receive will help protect them against canine parvovirus, distemper, canine influenza, feline rhinotracheitis, calcivirus, and panleukopenia. We hope to prevent you and your pet from ever having to deal with any of these scenarios down the road.

medical services

If your pet ever does fall prey to any of the common parasites or diseases, we are set up to treat them. Our caring staff will take their time in examining all unwell or injured animals. Our hospital is equipped for treatment and the hospitalization of your pet. We care deeply about their comfort and your concern for their wellbeing. Our equipment, including in house blood analyzer, patient warming system, and intravenous fluid pump, all allow for quality patient care.

Surgical services

​We take pride in both the range and the quality of surgical services provided. We perform routine surgeries such as spays and neuters. Our vets and assistants work as a brilliant team and patients are monitored during the entire surgical procedure as well as during their recovery. We also offer more advanced (non-elective) surgeries including orthopedics (cranial cruciate ligament repairs, fracture repairs, luxations), urogenital surgeries (such as bladder stone removal), soft palate resections, gastrointestinal surgeries and more. All surgical patients get intravenous catheters placed and anesthetic plans tailored to their age, condition and needs. We have a blood analyzer in clinic so you have the option of having bloodwork done on your pet prior to surgery to check their general health and the health of their kidneys and liver. We have a patient warming system that helps your pet stay warm and comfortable during the procedure. Our veterinarians and our support staff attend continuing education and we do in clinic training to ensure we are current and up to date in our procedures. All of these factors minimize the risks that may be involved with anesthesia and surgery.

laser therapy

Your pets are part of your family and you want them to have the best quality of life. Laser therapy can help achieve those goals. We are very proud to offer laser treatment at Dawson Creek Veterinary Clinic. Laser therapy is a specific class of laser beam that is used to treat a patient for an injury or inflammation. Depending upon what we are treating, we usually will do a series of 6 treatments. All patients will respond differently but if we use this to treat a chronic condition like arthritis, we may need to do a follow up series in 6 months time. Generally there will be 3 sessions in the first week, 2 sessions in the second week and 1 session in the third week but this will vary from case to case. Some cases may require more routine maintenance such as weekly therapy. Laser therapy is a non-surgical treatment that requires no sedation. There are no side effects and you will be able to see rapid results in your pet and their healing process. Laser therapy helps treat arthritis, acute and chronic pain, back injuries, swelling, inflammation and wounds. It is alternative or adjunctive to pharmaceutical pain management.

dental services

​With dental disease being the most common disease affecting our pets, regular professional veterinary dental care can have a huge impact on our pet's long term health. In order to maintain your pet's teeth in good health, regular care is required. At the vet clinic, a dental cleaning can be performed. It involves anaesthetizing your pet, examining the teeth and using a scaler to remove plaque and calculus that has built up. The teeth are then polished and rinsed, providing a smooth tooth surface to discourage plaque formation. Teeth may need to be extracted if the dental disease is severe. Examining a dog or cat's mouth can be compared to opening a Christmas present. Inspecting the outside of the box may give you a hunch about the contents, but until you completely unwrap it, you'll never really know what's inside. This is the case with your pet's mouth. Dental radiology allows veterinarians the opportunity to look under the wrapping and past the obvious to better examine teeth and their supporting structures under the gumline. In 40% of cases full mouth radiographs will reveal otherwise undetectable disease allowing that disease to be treated. Full mouth radiographs also give us a base line to refer to in the future if we want to see if dental disease is progressing or if it is being managed appropriately. All teeth should be radiographed before and after extraction. Any missing teeth need radiographs to make sure that they are not stuck under the gum line. Cats with one resorptive lesion should have full mouth radiographs because 80% of these cats will have more than one lesion and sometimes they cannot be seen without radiographs. We perform full mouth radiographs on all dentals at the Dawson Creek Veterinary Clinic. This ensures that we will not miss any important areas of disease in your pet's mouth.

diagnostic services

While a thorough physical exam and getting a good history from our clients can sometimes be enough for a vet to figure out what is bothering your pet, getting to the bottom of a disease or problem with your pet can often be challenging. We have some valuable tools that can help our veterinarians to diagnose what is wrong with your pet, which will then allow them to work with you to come up with a plan to treat your pet and give your pet the quality of life it deserves. We have an assortment of tools including an endoscope, ultrasound machine, x-ray machine and an in house blood analyzer. Our x-ray machine is a CR (Computed Radiography) unit which allows us to take an X-ray and develop it into a computer image. This allows us to adjust the image, email it to specialists and compare it with other images. Our ultrasound machine has 3 different probes allowing for us to use it on multiples species of animals and on various areas of the body. While X-rays can often only identify problems with bones, ultrasound can be used to examine soft tissues. We commonly use it to examine abdomens, looking for bladder problems, intestinal abnormalities, masses, kidney, liver or spleen problems. We can also look for pregnancies with it. Our endoscope is a small camera that can be used to look in the back of animals throats, into their lungs or in their stomachs. Our in house blood analyzer allows us to do a variety of common blood testing procedures including checking red blood cell counts, white blood cell counts, clotting times, electrolyte levels, and various other blood chemistries.

microchip and tattoo identification

Microchips are small capsules that contain a computer chip that can be injected under the skin of an animal. They are safe and can be read by a scanner that is passed over the site of the microchip. There is a special code that is unique to that chip and that animal to assist in identifying the animal. This microchip will help enable any clinic, rescue group or SPCA within Canada to track you pet back to you as long as as your contact information is up to date.
A small tattoo can also be put into your animal's ear which will consist of three letters and three numbers. This tattoo will enable any clinic, rescue group or SPCA within BC to track that pet back to our clinic and back to you as an owner. This is done under a general anesthetic and can be done at the time of spaying or neutering.