Country Oaks Veterinary Hospital

01/01/2025

Happy New Years! Hope everyone has plans to enjoy some time with friends and family. Our Staff will be spending time with family. Please note we are CLOSED TODAY. Please contact Vista Veterinary Specialists (916) 231-4445 or VCA Sacramento Veterinary Referral Center (916) 362-3111 for any emergencies.

12/31/2024

Happy New Years Eve! Don’t forget! We close at 12 PM today. Please stop by BEFORE 11:45AM if you need to pick up anything. Please keep in mind, even though we love to watch the colors of fireworks, the sounds and sights may scare your furry family members. Medicate early if needed to give the medication time to get into the body system before your pet’s adrenaline makes it less effective. Some pets get so stressed you actually need to start medications several days prior to the planned festivities.

12/25/2024

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone has plans to enjoy some time with friends and family. Our Staff will be spending time with family. Please note we are CLOSED TODAY. Please contact Vista Veterinary Specialists (916) 231-4445 or VCA Sacramento Veterinary Referral Center (916) 362-3111 for any emergencies.

12/24/2024

Happy Christmas Eve! Don’t forget! We close at 12 PM today. Please stop by BEFORE 11:45AM if you need to pick up anything. Please keep in mind, even though we love to watch the colors of fireworks, the sounds and sights may scare your furry family members. Medicate early if needed to give the medication time to get into the body system before your pet’s adrenaline makes it less effective. Some pets get so stressed you actually need to start medications several days prior to the planned festivities.

12/16/2024

LAST CHANCE!
Raffle Tickets for Sale for Purrfectly Pawsible. 2 for 5 or 5 for 10!
Winner Drawn December 20th!

Cash and card are accepted ) Come out to support Perfectly Pawsible ❤️ 😻

12/13/2024

Just a reminder, Country oaks is closing early today to allow our staff members to enjoy a holiday party. Please come by the clinic before 12:00 PM if you need to pick anything up.

12/11/2024

Clinic closed 12:00 PM- 3:00 PM Today

The world of veterinary medicine is constantly changing and evolving. In order to provide you and your furry family the most up to date information and best treatments or recommendations we need to continuously learn. Country Oaks will close every 2nd Wednesday of the month to have a staff meeting and learning opportunities. Please keep this in mind when planning to pick up medications, food, or pets.

12/09/2024

"Spotlight charities Purrpaws Purrfectly Pawsible - Galt, CA

Our number one priority is to help with TNvR (TRAP, NEUTER, VACCINATE, RETURN) of feral and community cats in Sacramento County. Our volunteers understand that through this practice, we can help lessen the strain on local shelters and thus save lives. We aim to help people learn how to take care of the space around them through TNvR and how to access free/low cost resources available in order to do so. Through our work, we often acquire kittens that are young enough to be removed from colonies, socialized, and brought into our foster/adopt program. Our goal is to improve the lives of community cats and the people who live around them through responsible colony management. We help with dogs in a limited capacity - sponsoring part of a surgery or a grooming, fostering here and there, and helping to sponsor other dog rescue efforts through monetary donations. We do not have a physical location (brick and mortar). Our mailing address is in Galt, CA, but we operate out of private homes in the Galt and Elk Grove area. This does put a limit to the number animals we take into foster/adopt. We try to earmark the majority of that space for kittens found through our TNR work.

Contact Info:
[email protected] or [email protected]
-OR-
Reach us through our page"

12/06/2024

Holidays are coming up! Country Oaks will be having a staff holiday party on December 13th. Please plan to swing by the clinic BEFORE 12:00 PM that day if you need to pick up anything.

12/04/2024

We work with and support several animal charities located in and around Galt. We would like to celebrate this holiday season by spotlighting two of them. Please stop by to donate goods or to help with the finances for Purrfectly Pawsible who does a lot of good here in Galt. You can donate to COVH angel fund or to the charities' accounts to be used directly for the surgeries and treatments.

Raffle Tickets for Sale for Purrfectly Pawsible. 2 for 5 or 5 for 10!
Winner Drawn December 20th!

12/03/2024

Happy Birthday to Dr Booth! We love you for all your time and care!

11/01/2024

My pet is overweight! How do I start to help him?

Step 1) Check out the BCS chart from the beginning of the month and determine what his or her number is today. Simo is a grade 8/9
Step 2) Use a reliable scale at home (small pets) or bring your bigger friends into the clinic for a quick love and hop on the scale. No appointment is needed for a weight check but we do recommend calling ahead to make sure the building is not full and we are open. Simo weighs 120 lbs (!)
Step 3) Use either this calculation{(((BW/2.2)^0.75)*70)*1.2)} OR this website (https://buff.ly/4h17H4F) to calculate the amount of calories need for current weight. Simo needs 922 calories per day (let's round to 1000/day)
Step 4) Figure out how many calories is in 1 cup of food being fed. Some nutritionists will recommend weighing the food instead of measuring, but often this is not required. Simo eats “Generic Brand Here” Chicken and Rice which has 393 calories per cup of food.
Step 5) Divide the amount of calories required by the calories per cup to determine how many cups per day you should be feeding. Then divide the amount by the number of meals to be fed. Simo will need 1000 calories/393 calories/cup daily: 2.54 cup and he eats twice a day 2.54/2: 1.27 cups. Simo needs 1.25 cups twice a day.

**it is important to note that if treats are a part of your pets daily life, they need to be removed from the daily calorie total prior to calculating the amount of food to feed. Example Simo gets milkbones from “Generic tasty treats” which are 108 calories per biscuit and he gets 2 per day. That is 216 calories of treats daily. 1000-216: 784 calories of food daily. (784/393)/2: 1 cup per meal.**

Please feel free to schedule an appointment if you are uncomfortable doing this on your own OR if the amount fed is correct or he should be eating more. Your pet may need a diet food or less than the average animal. This requires more complicated calculations to avoid underfeeding nutrients.

PNA is a global collaboration of nine veterinary organizations that offers pet nutrition resources and education to the veterinary healthcare team

10/31/2024

Happy Halloween! We can't wait to see your best costume photos of your pets.

Be aware that halloween candies can be dangerous for our pets. Chocolate is a well known cause of disease, but sugar free candies contain xylitol which can cause seizures in small quantities. If your pet accidentally ingests any candy please monitor closely and call an emergency hospital for recommendations.

10/30/2024

Pet Food Labels!
Ingredients must be included and listed by order of weight (heaviest to lightest) amount in the product. AAFCO has a list of common ingredients and an explanation of them. It is important to note that something may sound bad (animal byproducts) but are actually good for the pet. What is included in the by products is things like liver- which is full of vitamin A- or bone which has multiple nutrients. So just because I do not want to eat liver, does not mean my dog or cat does not want to.

Feeding directions: It is very important to note that the amount listed is a recommendation not a requirement. All animals have different metabolic rates, activities, energy levels etc. The amount listed on the bag is an average and may need to be too much or too little for the individual.

Manufacturer's name and address: who made it and where the manufacturer is located. This may not be the company brand as some companies will work with outside manufacturers to ensure enough product is available.

Calorie content: Often listed as kcal which can be used interchangeably with calorie. This tells you how many calories are in each cup or gram of food. This can vary by brand and flavor considerably, so it is important to keep in mind when changing diets.

10/29/2024

The next topic on pet food labels is Quantity. All pet foods must put some version of quantity on the bag by weight or count. When comparing costs of foods, keep in mind some foods may be more dense than others. Always compare prices of cost per lb or cost per oz.

Guaranteed Analysis: An analysis is used to provide information on the major nutrients in a food, typically as a percentage by weight. To find out specific amounts you would need to do a small bit of math, but the percentages can give an overview to help determine which foods you prefer. The main four to look at are Protein, Fat, Fibre and Water. Details on how this is calculated can be found on the FDA website.

Nutritional adequacy statement: This is typically the small print that states that the food meets the nutritional requirements as provided by AAFCO (American Feed Control Officials) for the life stage noted."

10/28/2024

"Each year we talk about pet food labelling. Since it is a commonly asked question and rather complicated, I’m reposting the information this year. Pet food labels are a confusing information pool. Fortunately, pet food labels are federally regulated and can be deciphered with a bit of time and knowledge. This week, the pet food label requirements will be pulled into bite sized chunks to hopefully make them easier to understand and implement with your own furry family.

Pet food labelling starts with the front of the bag. All pet foods are required to be labelled with 1 of 4 different rules:
The 95% rule- Beef for dogs, Chicken cat food. If the food is labelled in this way, the label must reflect 95% of the ingredient AND must be at least 70% of the total product. The remaining 5% must be nutritionally relevant.
The 25% rule- Chicken platter, Beef and rice dinner, Salmon entree. A meal type label is only required to have the named ingredients make up 25% of the product. So in a combined named product (beef and rice dinner) the two ingredients- beef and rice- need to total at least 25%.
"With" rule- w/d with chicken, dog dinner with salmon. These foods only need to contain 3% of the named ingredient.
Flavor rule-Beef flavored, chicken flavored. Any ingredient listed as flavoring has no required amount of the ingredient. Though the ingredient name and "flavor" must be listed together in the same size and font.The image shows a prescription diet w/d "with chicken". The legal requirement means that this food only must contain 3% minimum of chicken."

10/25/2024

Hello to our Facebook friends- We need some help.

Patch the cat has been left with us for rehoming. He is a lovely older man who is up to date on all vaccines. If you have room in your home and heart, please reach out to inquire about adopting.

10/24/2024

Obesity is our touchstone this October as it is an issue that is continuing to worsen as the years pass. Unfortunately, it does not always occur in young animals that are able to change activity levels and habits to lose weight. A common issue we see is that older animals will suddenly become overweight. This is often caused by a decrease in activity- either normal due to age or abnormal due to a disease like osteoarthritis. No one likes to move when it hurts. It is important to know that every extra pound of weight will cause an extra 5 (!) Pounds of force on the joints. This often makes sore, overweight dogs become painful obese dogs at an age when the metabolism slows and it is more challenging to lose weight. There is still hope, short and frequent walks, swimming and puzzles for food can help decrease weight. Also, decreasing the food quantity- a quieter animal needs less calories, despite their desire for the extra cookies and kibbles.