Fur and Feathers Veterinary Care

09/26/2023

Notice to All Fur and Feathers Alumni
Igor, our 12 year old (minimum) office cat, has been suffering from some chronic diseases over the last several years. Despite all our efforts at treatment and medical management, his diseases are progressing and he has become uncomfortable and unhappy. Therefore, we have come to the difficult decision to spoil him rotten this week and to say goodbye to him Friday afternoon at the end of the day. If you would like to have a brief visit and say goodbye to our curmudgeon of a hospital cat, please call the office to arrange a visit this week before Friday noontime.
Respectfully, Drs. Wittner and Personett

08/25/2023

We are now partnering with VetTriage. if you have questions about what to do overnight or over the weekend, please call or get online with them and they will help advise you what can be handled at home and what may need referral for emergency care.

This is the meta description.

08/03/2023

It's Thursday, August 3 - our phones are not working right now - please be patient. Our phone service has a 45 min wait to get remote help.
We have cell numbers that you can call during this outage. 607-768-0037 or 607-761-9524.
We sincerely apologise for the black-out of our phones; we are working on quotes for a new, larger, more capable phone system.
Drs. Wittner and Personett

07/05/2023

Starting Monday, July 10 - names and prices.

Examination/Consultation, New Patient … $96.00
General Examination/Consultation … $86.00
Focused Examination/Consultation … $69.00
Recheck, Surgery or Post-Op … $36
Recheck, Medical … $46
Tech Visit for vaccine only … $0.00
Tech Visit … $22.40
Reservation Fee new pet appointment … $45.00
Late Fee … $10-$80
Emergency Fee added to General Exam/Consult …$136.00
Urgent Fee added to Exam/Consult … $72.00

Laboratory Current Fee
F***l analysis ………………………… $40.00
Urine analysis ………………………… $50.00
Feline Leukemia/Aids/HW test …… $57.00
Snap4Dx+ test .……………………… $57.00
(Heartworm/Lyme/Anaplasma/Ehrlichia)

Dog Vaccines Current Fee
Distemper/Adenovirus2/Infectious Hepatitis/Parainfluenza/Parvovirus ... $34.00
Distemper/Adenovirus2/Infectious Hepatitis/Parainfluenza/Parvovirus/Leptospirosis … $65.00
Leptospirosis ……………………………… $42.00
Lyme ………………………………………………….. $85.00
Bordetella/Adenovirus/Parainfluenza (Kennel cough) ... $30.00
Canine Influenza (both strains) ………….. $84.00
Rabies …………………………………………………. $30.00

Cat Vaccines Current Fee
Distemper-Respiratory ………………………. $30.00
Rabies (Purevax 1 year – especially for cats) . $65.00
Rabies (Purevax 3 year – especially for cats) $175.00
Rabies ............................................................... $30.00
(dog/cat approved; but more likely to cause cancer in cats)
Feline Leukemia ………………………………….. $70.00

03/30/2023

Thank you from Major and family. RIP Major - you deserve release from your discomfort.

03/01/2023

Pet Toxicology Experts Release State-Specific Top 20 Toxins List
New Interactive Tool Allows Pet Lovers to Research Potential Dangers in Their Area
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (March 1, 2023) – In honor of Pet Poison Prevention Month in March, the
toxicology experts at Pet Poison Helpline analyzed five years of proprietary call data and
are releasing the next iteration of Toxin Trends, an online tool designed to help consumers
and veterinary professionals research dangerous and potentially deadly toxins in their area.
“Last year we released our first Toxin Trends dashboard, which analyzed the most-reported
dangerous plants in each market,” said Renee Schmid, DVM, DABT, DABVT, a senior
veterinary toxicologist at Pet Poison Helpline. “Our new Toxin Trends tool identifies the top 20
potentially dangerous toxins to pets based on our last five years of call data and identifies
where in the United States and Canada pets are most at risk for that particular exposure.
These toxins include medications, foods, plants, chemicals, and other potentially harmful
items.” The tool also lists what clinical signs were reported for each toxin.
As expected, the number one reported toxin in every state and province for dogs is
chocolate. After chocolate, however, various regional differences emerge. In a number of
states such as Texas and North Dakota, the artificial sweetener Xylitol is the second-most
common toxin call for dogs. For birds in California, the wood preservative copper
naphthenate was the most common call over the last five years, followed by avocados. In
many states, including Texas, lily poisoning was the most common call regarding cats.
“Some of the items included in the Top 20 toxins for each state are pretty obvious, such as
chocolate and rat poison, but unusual dangers such as wood preservatives and even
avocados rank high in some states for different species,” added Dr. Schmid.
“Unlike in the United Staties, Canadian households have more cats than dogs, and that
preference is reflected in our Toxin Trends call data,” said Dr. Schmid. “We receive a higher
percentage of cat-related calls from Canadians than we do from U.S. pet owners. Nearly
20% of our calls from Quebec over the last five years, for example, involve cats. That is
higher than any U.S. state.”
“We wanted to share our proprietary data to help educate pet lovers and veterinary
professionals about which poisons are most prevalent in their area,” added Dr. Schmid.
“Toxin Trends is free and easy to use, and we hope people find it valuable. Information is
power, and we want to empower pet owners to be aware of what toxins are a potential
threat to their pets in their area. It can also be useful if you plan to travel with your pets to a
location that may expose them to toxins they are not normally exposed to at home.”
Pet Poison Helpline plans to release future iterations of the Toxin Trends dashboard that will
highlight additional insights gleaned from the company’s database of emergency calls. The
goal of sharing this exclusive data is to save pets’ lives and make the world safer for
animals.
About Pet Poison Helpline
Pet Poison Helpline, your trusted source for toxicology and pet health advice in times of
potential emergency, is available 24 hours, seven days a week for pet owners and
veterinary professionals who require assistance treating a potentially poisoned pet. We are
an independent, nationally recognized animal poison control center triple licensed by the
Boards of Veterinary Medicine, Medicine and Pharmacy providing unmatched professional
leadership and expertise. Our veterinarians and board-certified toxicologists provide
treatment advice for poisoning cases of all species, including dogs, cats, birds, small
mammals, large animals and exotic species. As the most cost-effective option for animal
poison control care, Pet Poison Helpline’s fee of $85 per incident includes follow-up
consultations for the duration of the case. Based in Minneapolis, Pet Poison Helpline is
available in North America by calling 800-213-6680. Additional information can be found
online at www.petpoisonhelpline.com.
# # #

01/04/2023

New York bans retail sale of dogs, cats and rabbits

New York Governor Kathy Hochul last week signed a bill into law banning the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits at retail pet stores, Fox 5 New York reports. According to the governor’s office, the law aims to “end the puppy mill-to-pet store pipeline and stop abusive breeders.” The bill passed the Democratic-controlled legislature with bipartisan support in June, but it had remained unclear whether Hochul, also a Democrat, would sign it. According to The New York Times, she ultimately agreed to do so with concessions to the pet store industry, including delaying the implementation of the ban until December 2024 and allowing pet stores to charge rent to animal shelters that use the stores as a space to host adoption events.

12/08/2022

Holiday Closings for Fur and Feathers Veterinary Care:

We are closing at 3 pm on Wednesday December 14th for staff holiday party

We are closing at 3pm on Friday December 23rd and re-opening Tuesday December 27th at 9 am for the Christmas Holiday

We are closing at 3pm on Friday December 30th and re-opening on Tuesday January 2nd at 9 am for the New Years’ Holiday

Please note will we have limited availability towards the end of December as we complete end of year inventory.

12/03/2022

So many deserving homeless animals are waiting for second changes at a better life.
Please, consider adoption. 💓🐾💓🐾

12/03/2022

Study Provides New Insights on Flea-Borne Bacteria With Implications for Cats and People

• Fleas are a bother. All pet owners, particularly cat owners, know the annoyance they present. But fleas pose more of a risk than just an itchy pet.
• “Fleas aren’t just a nuisance; they actually carry disease,” says Erin Lashnits, assistant professor of small animal internal medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine.
• Lashnits and colleagues at North Carolina State University recently published research in the journal Parasites & Vectors, revealing exactly what disease-causing bacteria cat fleas carry. The study’s goal was to understand better what flea-borne pathogens are present in individual fleas and their implications on cats and people.
• The researchers explored these questions by collecting and examining the fleas on free-roaming cats brought in for spaying or neutering at community Trap-Neuter-Release programs. The cats were then returned to their original location.
• They came up with this project to understand more about flea-borne bacterial pathogens. It’s a really understudied type of vector-borne disease in the U.S.
• The idea was to test individual fleas and see not just what bacterial pathogens that cause disease were in fleas, but also what other bacteria were throughout the flea.
• We know that ticks’ and mosquitoes’ microbiomes have a lot of influence on whether they can transmit different diseases.
• Nobody has looked at that for fleas. So, we wanted to do that with individual fleas. Because as you might imagine, if you pour a bunch of fleas together in a vial and look at their bacteria, you don’t know what any one flea contains.
• They found three different bacterial genera were common in all the fleas: Bartonella, Rickettsia and Wolbachia. Many species of Bartonella and Rickettsia cause disease in people but also can cause disease in cats.
• The big takeaway is that fleas can carry pathogens and are not just a nuisance or something to overlook.
o Fortunately, there are good and easy ways to prevent fleas
o Flea preventatives are effective and not very expensive
o Flea prevention helps prevent flea infestation in the first place
• The next step is looking at the cats. For this study, we only looked at the fleas, but we’re now working with cats too. We will compare the pathogens we’re finding in the fleas to what pathogens we’re finding in the free-roaming cats.
• The big picture step is to add people to the mix. Because ultimately, of course, we want cats to be healthy. We don’t want them to get these diseases. But in a lot of ways, it matters for people. Because if people are exposed to diseases from the fleas on free-roaming cats, that is a big impact on human health.
• We want to know the risk factors for people getting these infections from fleas.
o What can we do to break that transmission cycle before people get infected and, ideally, before cats get infected?
o Would standard flea prevention methods break that transmission?
o Or is there something else?
These are the questions we want to answer.

10/25/2022

Fur and Feathers Veterinary Care regrets to inform you that today, Tuesday October 25, 2022, we will be closing early due to appointments that are taking our doctors out of the office after 3:30 pm. Please make your pick-ups by 3:15 today and calls before 3 pm. Thank you for your understanding.

09/13/2022

Otto, a 10 yo Chocolate Labrador patient at FFVC competes in his age group in dock diving. This past weekend Otto qualified for and will be going to the National Competition. GO OTTO!!

09/12/2022

As per new CDC guidelines for containing infectious diseases, Fur and Feathers Veterinary Care announces new guidelines for clients.
1. If you feel ill, please stay home. Reschedule your pet’s appointment or have anon-ill family member or friend bring your pet.
2. If you feel ill or are caring for someone who is ill and cannot reschedule, please request curbside service. Our staff willgather your pet and the medical staff will conduct the appointment via telephone.
3. We request that all clients that enter the building, please, wear a face mask properly the whole time you are in our facilities. We wish to keep our staff and our families as protected as possible.
4. One adult client may come in to the office for the appointment. If additional people need to come in, please inform the Client Service Representative when you call upon arrival to check-in. Our medical staff will confirmthe allowed additional persons.
5. We have a zero tolerance policy for verbal abuse (profanity, yelling, threats, etc.) to our staff. Do not take out your frustrations (from whatever causes) on our personnel.

Thankyou for your help in keeping current with infection control policies.
The Management and Entire Staff of Fur and Feathers Veterinary Care

09/12/2022

Asper new CDC guidelines for containing infectious diseases, Fur and FeathersVeterinary Care announces new guidelines for clients.1. Ifyou feel ill, please stay home. Reschedule your pet’s appointment or have anon-ill family member or friend bring your pet.2. Ifyou feel ill or are caring for someone who is ill and cannot reschedule, pleaserequest curbside service. Our staff willgather your pet and the medical staff will conduct the appointment viatelephone.3. Werequest that all clients that enter the building, please, wear a face maskproperly the whole time you are in our facilities. We wish to keep our staff and our families asprotected as possible.4. Oneadult client may come in to the office for the appointment. If additional people need to come in, pleaseinform the Client Service Representative when you call upon arrival tocheck-in. Our medical staff will confirmthe allowed additional persons.5. Wehave a zero tolerance policy for verbal abuse (profanity, yelling, threats,etc.) to our staff. Do not take out yourfrustrations (from whatever causes) on our personnel.Thankyou for your help in keeping current with infection control policies.
The Management and Entire Staff of Fur and Feathers Veterinary Care

08/11/2022

https://www.itchingforhelp.com/
IT'S ITCHY PET AWARENESS MONTH! Great website!

Learn about the causes and treatment of allergic dog itch, and find out if it's time to get help from your veterinarian

04/21/2022

Fur and Feathers Veterinary Care announces that we plan to open today, April 21, at noon until 8 pm. If you have an appointment scheduled for Thursday, today, we plan on seeing you. If you were scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday, we will be calling you to re-schedule. If you have an ill or emergency patient please, call. Otherwise, please email requests to [email protected]. thank you for your patience.

04/20/2022

Fur and Feathers will have to remain closed today, Wednesday April 20th.

04/19/2022

Fur and Feathers Veterinary Care will be closed all day today, Tuesday April 19th. So sorry but travel problems and power outages make it impossible to open.

04/19/2022

Due to weather and power conditions, Fur and Feathers regrets to inform clients that we will try to open for afternoon appointments but must cancel morning surgery and appointments.

04/11/2022

GREAT Place to Work –
We are expanding and need more staff! Looking for energetic, team-oriented staff members for Client Service Representatives (CSRs) and Licensed Veterinary Technicians (LVTs) and Veterinary Assistants (Assts).
Customer service experience a plus. Veterinary staff experience a plus. New York State License required for LVT.

Please send cover letter and resume to [email protected] or apply online through Indeed or BinghamtonHelpWanted.com. Or bring cover letter and resume to office (1445 Upper Front Street, Binghamton) and fill in employment application.

Fur and Feathers Veterinary Care
1445 Upper Front Street, Binghamton, NY, 13901
[email protected]
607-238-1246

03/15/2022

https://bit.ly/3J2kXVd

Hemangiosarcoma (HSA) is a cancer of the blood vessels and in dogs is typically diagnosed when it is far advanced, resulting in a relatively low survival rate.

02/21/2022

Phone lines seem okay now. Medical records working. If not urgent, please send email today - we expect phone lines to be very busy. Thank you for your patience. We're trying our best to catch up.

02/21/2022

Phones are intermittently working now. Please contact us by email if not urgent today [email protected]
We expect the phones to be busy today once we are up and running. (Have to put "reason" where due - Spectrum)

02/21/2022

OOPS! Our upgrade didn't work. We are currently not accessing our medical records and our telephone service is out. Help is on the way; but time to recovery is totally unknown. Sorry!

01/20/2022

Phones are up and working. Call the office if you need to speak to us. 607-238-1246

01/20/2022

Our telephone lines are not doing well from the upper front street power outage. If you cannot get through by telephone, please try our web page or Facebook. Thursday January 20th

01/17/2022

Slightly short staffed today but here and seeing appointments (1:30) Monday. We should be back to full function Tuesday. Thank you for your patience.

01/17/2022

Due to the storm, we will try to open the hospital at 10:30 today. Please reschedule earlier appointments - call the office once we can open up. TY for your understanding.

12/26/2021

12/16/2021

STATE AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT CONFIRMS CASE OF RABBIT HEMORRHAGIC DISEASE VIRUS 2 IN NEW YORK
Reminds Rabbit Owners to Practice Proper Health and Sanitary Measures to Prevent Disease

The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets has confirmed a case of Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus 2 (RHDV2) in a domestic rabbit in Montgomery County. RHDV2 is a highly contagious and fatal disease of domestic and wild rabbits that was first found in the United States in 2018. The investigation is ongoing to determine the source of the virus in this case. RHDV2 does not affect humans or other animals.

While this is case is an isolated incident and limited to one household, rabbit owners are being encouraged to ensure proper health and sanitary measures to prevent the disease by taking simple steps to reduce the chance of RHDV2 affecting rabbits.

The following best practices are recommended:
Do not allow pet or wild rabbits to have contact with your rabbits or gain entry to the facility or home.
Do not allow visitors in rabbitries or let them handle pet rabbits without protective clothing (including coveralls, shoe covers, hair covering, and gloves).
Always wash hands with warm soapy water before entering your rabbit area, after removing protective clothing and before leaving the rabbit area.
Do not introduce new rabbits from unknown or untrusted sources. Do not add rabbits to your rabbitry from animal shelters or other types of rescue operations.
If you bring outside rabbits into your facility or home, keep them separated from your existing rabbits for at least 30 days. Use separate equipment for newly acquired or sick rabbits to avoid spreading disease.
Sanitize all equipment and cages moved on or off premises before they are returned to the rabbitry.
Establish a working relationship with a veterinarian to review biosecurity practices.

More information on biosecurity and measures to prevent the spread of this disease can be found here.

Owners can also speak with their veterinarians about the potential use of a new vaccine for RHDV2, which was recently granted emergency use authorization by the USDA. Interested rabbit owners should contact their veterinarian for information on how to get their animals vaccinated.

Signs of RHDV2 in rabbits may include fever, lethargy, hemorrhage, seizures, and sudden death. Rabbits typically show signs one to three days after being infected. The virus can survive in the environment for weeks or longer and it can be spread through feed, bedding, equipment, and other contaminated materials such as shoes and clothing.

This is the second occurrence of RHDV2 in New York. The first cluster of cases was in New York City in March 2020. The virus was quickly identified, isolated and eradicated.

RHDV2 is a reportable disease in New York. Sick or dead domestic rabbits should be reported to the State Veterinarian’s office at 518-457-3502 or to the USDA at 866-536-7593. Multiple wild rabbits found dead or wild rabbits with blood-stained noses should be reported to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Wildlife Health Unit at 518-478-2203. Wild rabbits found dead on the road do not need to be reported.