Comer Veterinary Hospital

01/09/2025

❄️🌨️❄️ WINTER WEATHER UPDATE ❄️🌨️❄️

Out of an abundance of caution both for our pet parents and staff, Comer Vet is adjusting our hours for Friday, Jan. 10, and Saturday, Jan. 11.

We will CLOSE EARLY on Friday (open 8 a.m. to noon). ❕Please note, if the radar changes and the weather begins to look dicey before noon, we may elect to close earlier. We ask that if you have a Friday morning appointment, please check our social media for updates or give us a call before driving in to ensure your appointment is still on.

We will be CLOSED Saturday.

If these known closure changes affect your appointment, a member of our reception team will be reaching out to you today to reschedule.

01/09/2025

Most birds don’t require beak trims, but as a result of an injury our macaw patient, 🦜 Lola Mae, received while hatching, she gets to come in for a little extra care every few months. As you can see from her “before” photo, Lola Mae’s beak grows to one side, which affects her ability to naturally keep it in tip-top shape. Dr. Russell carefully shaved it back down to a length that allows her to eat, preen, and love on her human parents and puppy siblings to her heart’s delight. 🎥 Check out our Instagram to see a video of the appointment in progress!

Dr. Russell says that unlike for nails, which should be routinely maintained, a beak ✂️ trim schedule isn’t really needed unless there’s an underlying cause (like Lola Mae’s abnormal alignment).

“So, with many, It can be checked at yearly physicals,” he says. “The best way to maintain beak health is feeding nuts that the bird has to break into. This helps keep the length in check. Not a nut diet, but as treats. 📦 Cardboard boxes are great as well. They love to chew them and tear them up.”

🐾 Comer Veterinary Hospital is YOUR hometown clinic for small animals, exotic, and hobby farm pets! Give us a call at 706-783-5111 to schedule your pet’s next appointment. 🚨 Daytime emergency services are available.

01/04/2025

Quite a week to end 2024 and start off 2025 here at Comer Vet! As y’all can see, a number of our patients crossed the 🌈 Rainbow Bridge 🌈 between Dec. 30 and Jan. 4. This is never easy for pet parents or their veterinary care teams — please know that our thoughts are with y’all during this time.

01/03/2025

💩 F***l Fridays 💩

Hookworms, so named due to the 🪝 hook-like shape of their heads, are nasty little buggers. There are several species that can infect dogs, cats, cattle, and even humans — the species Ancylostoma ceylanicum is known to be zoonotic, meaning it can transmit from pet to pet owner. 😳 These intestinal parasites cause anemia, diarrhea, emaciation, low blood protein (a condition called hypoproteinemia), anorexia, dermatitis, and pneumonia.

Despite all of this, hookworms can be hard to diagnose in pets because these visible signs are more often seen in newborn and young animals, not adults! Adults can harbor the hookworms and spread them through infected 💩 f***s that other animals walk through or graze in, and in the case of female dogs, pass hookworm larvae on through nursing. In such young animals, a hookworm infestation is often fatal. 😫

The difficulty in diagnosing hookworms by just looking at p**p for “worms” is one reason Comer Veterinary Hospital highly recommends getting regular f***l tests done on your pets! Treatment options are available if hookworms are detected. We also encourage pet owners to talk to your vet about appropriate prevention methods. Some heartworm preventatives also include protection against hookworms and other internal parasites!

🐾 Comer Veterinary Hospital is YOUR hometown clinic for small animals, exotic, and hobby farm pets! Give us a call at 706-783-5111 to schedule your pet’s next appointment. 🚨 Daytime emergency services are available.

01/01/2025

Happy new year, y’all! 🥂 The Comer Vet team is kicking off 2025 with a stellar new patient special: $1 wellness exams! Whether you got a new puppy for Christmas or Hanukkah, or you decided now is the time to make Comer Vet your hometown animal care team for existing pets, you can book your first annual wellness exam in January for just 1️⃣ George Washington.

What all does a wellness exam constitute? We’re glad you asked! Think of it like your pet’s annual physical, plus some dental and vision checks. The laundry list includes:
💧 Assessing hydration and vital signs
🫀 Checking heart and lung condition
👀 Looking over eyes and ears
🦷 An oral exam
🧥 Skin and coat assessment
☑️ Abdominal exam
💪 Musculature exam

‼️ Please note vaccinations, testing, non-routine medical issues/concerns, and sick exams are not part of this special! Offer valid only for new patients that have not been previously seen at Comer Veterinary Hospital. To schedule your pet’s routine wellness check this month and enjoy some suh-weet 🍬 post-holiday savings, check our website or call us at the number below!

🐾 Comer Veterinary Hospital is YOUR hometown clinic for small animals, exotic, and hobby farm pets! Give us a call at 706-783-5111 to schedule your pet’s next appointment. 🚨 Daytime emergency services are available.

12/30/2024

🎆 Fireworks 🎇 sure can be pretty, but they can also be pretty scary to a lot of pets! Noise phobias are not uncommon, and there are both medicinal and actionable ways to mitigate your pet’s anxiety before the bright lights and loud noises begin. If you know your pet has a noise phobia, the Comer Vet team encourages y’all to:

1️⃣ Check their prescription medication to ensure it hasn’t expired and that there is ample supply for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
2️⃣ Give us a call to schedule an exam and discuss options if you think a prescription could help your pet, if your prescription has expired, or if you’d like to get a microchip!

Some pets respond to firework fears by jumping fences and running off, so here are some quick ways you can prepare your household for any risks noise phobias might trigger:

🐾 Do your cats and dogs have ID tags with up-to-date contact information?
🎆 Are your pets microchipped?
🐾 Do you have up-to-date photos of your pets?
🎇 Do you have a safe spot inside your pets can be in if your neighbors start setting off fireworks?
🐾 Remind kiddos and holiday guests to keep doors shut to reduce the risk of pets slipping out behind them!

🐾 Comer Veterinary Hospital is YOUR hometown clinic for small animals, exotic, and hobby farm pets! Give us a call at 706-783-5111 to schedule your pet’s next appointment. 🚨 Daytime emergency services are available.

12/30/2024

TOMORROW, Dec. 31, is the last day for your “like” to count in picking our new cover photo feature pet! 🐾

12/29/2024

Dec. 23 through 28 was a short week here at the clinic, but our vets still had full calendars!

12/28/2024

Did 🎅🏼 Santa sneak a puppy down the chimney this year? Did you unwrap a shelter pet from your fiancé? Did mom and dad finally buy your little sister a lizard on Christmas??

🤩 Then boy, are you gonna want to turn on post notifications for Comer Vet (or subscribe to our newsletter!), because we’ve got a BIG treat for your new pet coming in January! It may also be a treat for your post-holiday bank account. 😁 Stay tuned next week for all the details!

🐾 Comer Veterinary Hospital is YOUR hometown clinic for small animals, exotic, and hobby farm pets! Give us a call at 706-783-5111 to schedule your pet’s next appointment. 🚨 Daytime emergency services are available.

12/28/2024

🥁 Drumroll, please: It’s time to see who the winner is from our December toy drive! We had roughly 90 toys donated to Toys for Tots and Madison-Oglethorpe Animal Shelter. Thank y’all for making the holiday season brighter for kids and shelter pets in our community! 🥹

Congratulations to our winner — our marketing director will be in touch via email with instructions on how you can pick up your stocking prize to enjoy all the local goodies inside!

12/27/2024

Which “Winter Wonderland” submission do you want to see as the Comer Vet Facebook cover photo next month?! ❄️ The picture with the most likes and loves by 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31 will be declared the winner!

12/26/2024

Updated holiday hours for this weekend and next week! We hope everyone had a marvelous celebration so far this season.

12/24/2024

🍪🥛 Santa’s getting cookies and milk all night long, but what about Dasher and Dancer? Prancer and V***n? Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen?! How will Rudolph lead the way without proper nutrition?? Reindeer (also known as caribou) eat an average of nine to 18 pounds of vegetation per day 😳 … and that’s not considering tonight’s energy required to fly all over the world!

After diligent research, the Comer Vet team was able to compile a list of appropriate snacks to leave out for Santa’s reindeer! Here’s what we came up with:

🌾 Alfalfa and winter grasses
🌲 Moss and lichen
🌱 Herbivore pellets
🍎 Apples
🥕 Carrots
🍄‍🟫 Fungi
🌱 Herbs
🌿 Ferns
🧂 Salt blocks
🍃 Willow and birch shoots/leaves

🐾 Comer Veterinary Hospital is YOUR hometown clinic for small animals, exotic, and hobby farm pets! Give us a call at 706-783-5111 to schedule your pet’s next appointment. 🚨 Daytime emergency services are available.

12/23/2024

😝 Tell us how you REALLY feel about getting neutered, Charlie!

Neutering is the term for getting your male pet “fixed”, and spaying is the female equivalent. When it comes to 🐕‍🦺 dogs, deciding when to “fix” your goodest bois and girls isn’t a one-size-fits all recommendation.

“For us, we base it on breed size,” Dr. Russell says. “It really depends on the patient and rate of growth and such.”

Toy and small breeds like Charlie are recommended to be spayed and neutered between 6 and 8 months. Medium breeds, such as spaniels, also generally see a 6- to 8-month recommendation. Labs, German shepherds, and other large breeds are suggested to be fixed between 8 and 12 months. Giant breeds — think Great Danes and Cane Corso-sized — would run between 12 to 18 months. When you bring your puppy or kitten in for their first exams at Comer Vet, the appropriate age will likely be a topic of consideration!

🐾 Comer Veterinary Hospital is YOUR hometown clinic for small animals, exotic, and hobby farm pets! Give us a call at 706-783-5111 to schedule your pet’s next appointment. 🚨 Daytime emergency services are available.

12/23/2024

TODAY (Monday the 23rd) is the last day to enter December’s photo contest! ❄️

In December, our theme is ⛄️ Winter Wonderland ❄️! The winning photo will be featured as the Comer Veterinary Hospital Facebook cover photo during the month of January, and will get a shout-out on Instagram and our newsletter as well! Here’s how to enter:

1️⃣Take a horizontal photo of your pet showcasing the theme of “Winter Wonderland”.
2️⃣One photo per pet or pet family, please! For example, if you have a dog and a cat, you can enter a photo of each individually or one photo of both together.
3️⃣Send us the photo via Instagram DM or Facebook Messenger! Please include your pet’s name(s).
4️⃣Photos must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday, Dec. 23.
5️⃣Please note, if your photo does not fit the theme or the horizontal orientation guidelines, it may not be accepted as an entry.

We will put all photos up in a Facebook album for voting! Voting will take place between Thursday, Dec. 26, and Monday, Dec. 30. The photo with the most likes in that period of time will be declared the winner in early January!

🐾Comer Veterinary Hospital is YOUR hometown clinic for small animals, exotic, and hobby farm pets! Give us a call at 706-783-5111 to schedule your pet’s next appointment. 🚨Daytime emergency services are available.

12/22/2024

FYI y’all! 🎄 The clinic will be CLOSED Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

12/21/2024

Here’s the roundup for Dec. 16 through 21! 🐾