Ard-Vista Animal Hospital

02/09/2025

This is not the microchip registry associated with the microchips we use, however various rescue groups and other animal hospitals have possibly used this company's service.

If you have your microchip number (it should be on paperwork associated with your animals adoption) you can check to see which registry your pet's microchip is registered to at this link https://www.aaha.org/for-veterinary-professionals/microchip-search/. If you do not know your pet's microchip number you can bring them in to be scanned or check your most recent rabies certificate to see if it is listed.

IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT MICROCHIPS ‼️

Save This Life microchip company has abruptly shut down, unregistered from the national database of microchip registrations, and are not receiving or responding to customer services inquiries via email, phone, or other communication channels.

**If you ever adopted an animal from our clinic’s adoption program between 2016-2023, they likely have a Save This Life microchip. You will want to register your chip with another business such as this FREE one --

https://www.freepetchipregistry.com/

Or by scanning any of the barcodes in the image to register through those companies.
Check your adoption records. If you can't find them, your vet can scan your pet for free with a universal scanner and tell you what company your chip is registered with and what the number is. If you know the number, but not the company, you can look it up using the AAHA Universal Microchip Look Up Tool at AAHA.org.

https://www.aaha.org/for-veterinary-professionals/microchip-search/

10/05/2024

It's officially October!
Our favorite time of year here at Ard Vista. 🎃

If you want your pet to wear a costume for Halloween, now is the time to slowly introduce them to the concept! Keep the initial sessions short and positive, and make sure the costume is not too tight, does not limit their vision or irritate their skin.

09/28/2024

🚨 URGENT: Asheville Humane Society needs our help! 🚨

The catastrophic damage from Hurricane Helene has overwhelmed the Asheville Humane Society, and countless animals are in desperate need of safety. We’re partnering with BISSELL Pet Foundation to rescue as many pets as possible, but we can’t do it without your help!

We need emergency fosters to help us take in these animals! If you’ve never fostered before, that’s okay! Fostering is completely free—Forsyth Humane Society will provide you with all of the supplies you might need to help care for one of these animals. Every foster home we can secure is another life we can save! 🐾❤️

If you can step up to help us out, please email [email protected] with the subject line “Hurricane Helene Foster”, or check forsythhumane.org/foster for incoming animals. THANK YOU for your willingness to help and your dedication to animals in need. Please share this post to help us reach as many fosters as possible!

07/31/2024

Due to a Spectrum outage our phones and internet are currently down. If you call or email we will get back you as soon as we are able. We apologize for the inconvenience.

04/12/2024

Dont be fooled by pet of the day Bailey's size, this handsome great dane is a gentle giant and a total lap dog!

03/18/2024

Hope everyone had a happy St. Patrick's Day!

Our pet of the day, bearded dragon Vinnie certainly enjoyed the sunshine!

03/15/2024

It's the final day of Bernard's dental journey!

Overall he had five teeth extracted, and one that we are watching closely. Dr. Patton gave him a 24 hour injection of a narcotic pain medication, as well as daily oral anti-inflammatory medication. He will need to eat canned food until his sutures dissolve in about 7-10 days, but then he will be okay to return to dry food.

Bernard will need a dental cleaning with x-rays next year, and then every 1-2 years for the next few years. His dental disease may progress to where he loses the rest of his teeth, or his remaining healthy teeth may stay healthy for the rest of his life.
We do know he is going to be so much happier without his painful, crumbling teeth.

Bernard is a good reminder that cats are excellent at hiding signs of pain or illness. It's important that all cats get a yearly nose to tail exam, even if they seem healthy!

03/14/2024

Day four of Bernard's dental!

We have our dental x-ray results, and they are not pretty.
Poor Bernard has severe feline tooth resorption. This is a common, but poorly understood dental condition.

You can read more about tooth resorption:

https://www.vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/cornell-feline-health-center/health-information/feline-health-topics/tooth-resorption

https://vetmed.illinois.edu/2023/02/15/feline-tooth-resorption-treatment-options/

🐱 Thankfully for dogs, this is a cat only disease! 🐱

Unfortunately for Bernard, the only treatment for the type of resorption he has is extraction of the damaged teeth.

First, Dr. Patton performs a dental nerve block. Just like in human dentistry, our veterinarians make the tooth numb before we work on it.

You'll notice Dr. Patton is wearing a jacket, hair cover, mask and eye protection. Unlike during abdominal surgery, where surgeons where masks to protect the patient, all this gear is to protect Dr. Patton. During the dental, we use an ultrasonic scaler to clean the teeth and a high speed drill when we need to extract teeth. Both of these can result in bacteria, water, calculus or even teeth flying through the air!

Next, Dr. Patton carefully lifts the gums away from the teeth and underlying jaw bone. She uses the drill to section the teeth into pieces, then gently removes each piece. Finally, she sutures the gum closed back over the empty tooth socket.

After extractions, we take another x-ray to make sure all the pieces of the tooth are gone.

Once the diseased teeth are removed, Dr. Patton scales, cleans and polishes each remaining tooth.

Finally when anesthesia is over, patients recover in our treatment room, where they are directly supervised until they are able to sit up. Bernard stayed nice and warm during his dental, but for patients who get a little cold, they remain wrapped in a Bair hugger (warm air blanket) until they are back to normal temperature.

Tomorrow we will look at Bernard's post dental instructions, and check in with how he is doing at home!

03/13/2024

Day 3, and it's dental day for Bernard!

Bernard was dropped off bright and early between 7:45am-8:15am.

Before surgery, cats stay in our cat ward, a separate room that is kept quiet and warm for our feline friends. You'll notice Bernard has a cozy bed and a litter box, but no food or water.

Just like in human medicine, it is very important not to eat or drink prior to anesthesia.

When it's time for the procedure, Dr. Patton starts with an injection of a pain medication and sedative. Then we clip the hair on his leg and place an IV catheter. The catheter means pets can receive IV fluids during the procedure, and if there is an emergency can receive emergency drugs immediately.

Next Dr. Patton places an endotracheal tube in Bernard's trachea (windpipe.) This allows us to deliver anesthetic gas and prevents any of the water from his dental cleaning from going into his lungs.

While Dr. Patton starts examining his teeth, our anesthesia assistant carefully hooks Bernard up to our monitoring equipment. We measure Bernard's heart rate, his breathing rate, the amount of carbon dioxide in his breaths, the amount of oxygen in his blood, his pulse quality and his blood pressure.

Notice Bernard is wrapped in a blanket and wearing little baby socks? 🧦

Animals and people under anesthesia tend to get cold, so we use a combination of a Bair hugger (which blows warm air on the patient) warm blankets, a fluid warmer and socks to keep patients at a safe temperature.

Once Bernard is stable on the table, we start with dental x-rays.

Tomorrow we will post Bernard's complete x-rays and diagnosis... but you are welcome to post a guess!

03/12/2024

Day 2 of Bernard's dental journey- bloodwork!

In cats, our veterinarians usually draw blood from the inside back leg (medial saphenous vein.) Sometimes this is a multi person process!

There are several important parts of preanesthetic blood.

First is the complete blood count (the cbc).

This tells us about red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. We do not want to do surgery if a pet is anemic (low red blood cells) has an infection (white blood cells are our infection fighters) or doesn't have enough platelets (which cause blood to clot.)

The next section, the chemisty, give us information about how we'll the organs are functioning. Pets need to have a healthy liver and kidneys to metabolize the anesthesia drugs we use. If we know a pet has a concurrent disease, we can use different protocols to keep them as safe as possible.

In cats, we also recommend a blood test called the pro-BNP. This test looks for evidence of heart disease. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the most common heart disease in cats and a leading cause of unexpected anesthetic death.

Unfortunately cats with this disease do not generally have a heart murmur, so a regular physical examination will not find HCM.

Thankfully Bernard's blood values looked great, so he is ready for anesthesia.

Tomorrow we will start the dental and see what's going on with Bernard's teeth!

03/11/2024

Meet pet of the day, Bernard!

Bernard is a 3 year old domestic short-haired cat. He eats his dry food enthusiastically and loves to play fetch with a rubber ball.

At his annual exam, Dr. Patton noticed Bernard had some suspicious areas in his mouth, and recommended an anesthetized dental exam and cleaning.

This week, we will follow Bernard through all the steps of a dental cleaning.

Up next? Presurgical bloodwork!

02/15/2024

It's valentines week, and we love Doctors Ray and Jeni!

💘🧡💖💗💘💝💘💗💖

02/14/2024

💗💘💝It's valentines week and we LOVE our receptionists and assistants! 💖💝💖

Part two!

02/12/2024

😍 It's valentines week and we love our assistants! 🥰

(Part one!)

02/05/2024

Pet of the day "Archie" is all smiles for his puppy visits!

01/10/2024

Goodbye paper files!

We are hard at work making the change to digital records. This makes referrals and patient transfers easier and faster.
Plus, no one has to decode the doctor's handwriting!😅