Dogs, cats, rabbits and small pets we treat in Woodside, NY — and the ones we do not

• Dogs

  Every breed and size, eight weeks old to geriatric giant breeds, and by number the largest part of an ordinary day. Wellness examinations, vaccination and parasite prevention account for most dog visits; a limp, a skin complaint or a stomach upset accounts for most of the rest. A dog is weighed on a floor scale that reads to ninety kilograms, examined on a lifting table if the breed calls for one, and seen in the same waiting room and consulting rooms used for every other dog that day. Ask at booking for a quiet first or last slot if your dog finds a busy room difficult, and we will hold one back.

• Cats

  Cats are examined in a separate wing with its own street entrance, its own waiting room and two cat-only consulting rooms, and the appointment itself is booked longer than a dog's on purpose. Twenty unhurried minutes lets a cat settle in a covered carrier before anyone touches it, which is usually the difference between a full examination and one that has to finish under sedation. Most feline visits are for vaccination, a wellness check, or the kidney and thyroid disease that becomes more common from around ten years old — covered in more depth on /senior-pet-care.html.

• Rabbits

  Rabbits are seen in the cat wing rather than the dog waiting room, on the plain reasoning that a rabbit sitting opposite a dog is a rabbit having a bad day whatever either animal actually does. Dental disease and gut stasis are the two problems we see most, and both move faster and matter more than most owners expect — a rabbit that has stopped eating is closer to an emergency than a same-day inconvenience. Bring your rabbit in a secure carrier rather than loose in a box, and expect the same unhurried, cat-length appointment rather than a rushed dog-length one.

• Guinea pigs, rats and mice

  Weighed on a scale accurate to the gram rather than the nearest fifty, because in an animal this size a twenty-gram change is a genuine clinical finding rather than a rounding error. Guinea pigs need their own dental attention on a schedule most owners are never told about at the pet shop; rats develop lumps often enough that we treat a new one as routine rather than alarming, and many are straightforwardly operable. Mice are seen the same way, in the same rooms, on the same small-mammal scale, examined with the same patience as anything larger.

• Ferrets

  Vaccination and routine care make up most ferret visits, alongside the adrenal and insulin-producing tumours this species is genuinely prone to as it ages. We see enough ferrets to recognise both conditions early and to manage the straightforward cases properly, and we will tell you plainly the moment a case needs a practice that sees more of them than we do — which is not a large share of our cases, but it does happen, and pretending otherwise would not help your animal.

• A written estimate before anything beyond the consultation, for a rat the same as for a dog.
• A weight recorded at every single visit, whatever the reason for it, because a change is only visible if it is measured every time.
• A plan you leave with in writing, not just spoken aloud in the room.

This is general information, not veterinary advice. This page describes a service. It is general information and it is not veterinary advice, a diagnosis or a treatment plan for any particular animal, because no page can examine your pet. If your animal is unwell, injured or behaving unusually, speak to a licensed veterinarian who can actually see it. In an emergency contact your own veterinarian or a 24-hour emergency animal hospital immediately.