Desert Cross Veterinary Hospital

12/27/2025

12/25/2025

Merry Christmas to all our friends and foes. Please be careful what you allow your dogs to eat this holiday season. We do have emergency hours from 6am to 6pm today and will be open regular hours tomorrow if you need us.

Call 928-792-9105 if your pet is in need of EMERGENCY care.

12/24/2025

Please watch your four legged children around your Christmas trees and presents. You would be surprised at not only how much destruction they can cause but also what they will eat that will end up with having to have a prolonged hospitalization to get their pancreas back happy or a surgery to cut it out of their belly.

Merry Christmas everyone!

12/16/2025

Change of days for the mobile in Morenci.

12/14/2025

We here at Desert Cross Veterinay Hospital are so honored to be trusted with the care of your pets.

From all of us to all of you and your four leggeds- Merry Christmas 🎄

12/10/2025

Few things are as simple as the love of our animals. It never ceases to amaze me how sometimes they just know that we need to know that we are important and loved by them!

12/05/2025

Parvo never ever goes away in our corner of the world. I suppose that is why I have been slow in jumping on the band wagon of the alleged "Parvo outbreak" in the state. We see it all year long and it is always bad, sometimes really bad.

The thing is, it is almost completely preventable with PROPER vaccination! As soon as you pick up your puppy from the breeder, take it to your vet and get it vaccinated. I do not care if the breeder gives you a sheet of paper with half a dozen stickers on it, if those vaccines were not given at a vet office, there is a chance the vaccine was not good. We see Parvo positive puppies all the time that were "fully vaccinated" by the breeder or with feed store vaccines and they unfortunately get sick.

The thing is the feed store vaccines have to go through a process to get into those little bags that they sell them in and that process involves equipment and heat and heat inactivates the vaccine. No one is trying to sell you a bad vaccine, it is just what it is when you buy a vaccine that comes in a bag.

Your puppy needs three vaccines, given three weeks a part. If you do not want to pay us to give the vaccine then at least come in and buy the vaccine from us so you know it is good.

If your puppy stops eating and then starts vomiting, bring them in right away for a Parvo test. The sooner supportive treatment gets started the better chance of your puppy surviving.

11/29/2025

When it is time to say goodbye-

Euthanasia is as much a part of veterinary medicine as saving a life. I would guess that it is the number one reason people tell me that they decided they didn’t want to become a veterinarian. I often think to myself that it is not the thing to be feared in veterinary medicine because it gives so much peace to the animals that we love and is healing to them in so many ways.

The kindest and most loving thing you can do for your beloved animal is let them go without having to suffer unto death. We have all watched loved ones suffer for days, weeks, months and even years with horrible conditions and diseases and just age but we do not have to let our animals go through that. We can love them enough to give them peace in death and it is a great gift and an honor to be able to do that for them.

I am asked all the time if it is “the time”. I know that in veterinary medicine they train you, they instruct you to never tell a client that it is time but I think that is completely wrong. We are supposedly the professional and it should absolutely be our job to help someone navigate through the paths of life to the foot of the rainbow bridge if you will. No single person wakes up one days and thinks, “hmmm, today is the day I am going to have my pet killed.” No one does that! Everyone agonizes over it and worries about it and they don’t bring them in unless they know that their life is not good and they are just seeking someone to agree with them. As the vet, it is my job to do that for them. It is a gift that I can give to them that might just make a horrible thing just a little bit less bad.

The winter time is hard on our animals just like it is hard on us. The holidays increase our stress which inadvertently increases the stress on our animals. Our animals trust us to make the right decision for them when it comes time for the end of their life. It is never easy, it isn’t supposed to be but it always lifts a load off when we finally make that decision to let them be free. Free from the pain of a life well lived. Free from the pain of disease. Free from the agony of the inflammation and the arthritis and sickness that comes at the end of life.

Euthanasia is one of the greatest gifts we give the animals that give so much to us. It should not be seen as something to dread but rather a blessing that we can bestow upon them for all the love and joy that they gave us during their life with us. Euthanasia is hard because it is supposed to be but it is only hard because of all that our animals give to us during their life and that is what makes it the right thing to do for them.