TotalBond Veterinary Hospitals is a well-established, full-service, small animal veterinary provider of progressive and comprehensive medical, surgical and dental care for your pets. We provide a broad spectrum of diagnostic procedures through in-house testing and the use of external laboratories. We also work closely with local practices when special diagnostic procedures are required. The facility includes a well-stocked pharmacy, in-hospital surgery suite, in-house x-ray capabilities, a closely supervised hospitalization area, and indoor boarding kennels with outdoor walking areas.
Vaccination
You can now store vaccination records and appointment schedules for your pet in the palm of your hand with our simple, easy-to-use app!
Veterinary Ophthalmology
Behavioral Counseling
Behavior Consultations are to identify the root causes of unacceptable behaviors and create a treatment plan. Treatment plans include behavior modification techniques and medications if necessary. The consultation is scheduled for one hour. During the consultation an extensive history of lifestyle, environment, nutrition, medical history, and previous behavior modifications will be reviewed as well as the behavior of your pet evaluated in an examination room. Consults also occur in the home environment depending on the problem. Problems such aggression, separation anxiety, noise and thunderstorm phobias, compulsive behaviors, inappropriate elimination, and nuisance behaviors such as jumping, digging, counter-surfing are common problems addressed during these consults.
Nutritional Counseling
Comprehensive Examination
During the first visit, an extensive history and Chinese physical exam will be performed to determine your pet’s unique pattern diagnosis. Acupuncture, typically using dry needles will be performed. In subsequent treatments, acupuncture may be delivered by injecting B12 into acupuncture points or using a gentle electrical current. During the second visit, food therapy is discussed and a top dressing of specific ingredients may be recommended. Top dressings are easy and quick to make and pets find them delicious! In rare cases, your pet may benefit from a totally home cooked diet and we will help find a way to make that easy and economical. During the third and fourth visits, herbs and tui-na techniques that we teach you to perform at home are discussed. Tui-na sessions at home last approximately 15 minutes and are an excellent way to spend quality time with your pet! Herbs are the most powerful of the four branches. An effective herb therapy helps reduce the number of necessary acupuncture visits.
Up to 4 wellness visits including all vaccines, intestinal parasite tests, deworming, and nail trims as outlined in our Puppy Wellness Package.
Pain Management
Platelets are normally known for their function of clotting blood, but recent research has revealed they also have hundreds of unique proteins and growth factors that have been shown to help manage inflammation and tissue degeneration. Because of its relative simplicity (isolated from a blood sample and injected into tissue), the ability of PRP to affect tissue healing and pain relief is an area of intense study. Dr. Epstein even has had PRP injections into his own arthritic shoulder joint!
Skin Condition and Allergy Treatment
While the vaccinations we give are by any standard not only safe but very safe, they are not without the possibility of adverse effects. Certainly some animals can and do have allergic reactions to their immunization. There are some growing concerns about the role that over-vaccination may play in the development of hyper-active immune conditions. And the granddaddy of them all: the infrequent but confirmed cause-and-effect relationship between vaccinations and the formation of sarcomas (malignant tumors) in cats has been established for more than 10 years.
And it begs the question of whether it is even necessary to vaccinate so often in order to maintain protection against the diseases we are targeting. The answer is: almost certainly not. Advances in vaccine technology and enhanced understanding of the immune system have allowed leading authorities in veterinary medicine to argue convincingly that a protective immune response will persist for years following certain vaccinations. A growing body of data supports administering core vaccinations (distemper, hepatitis, and parvovirus in dogs; distemper, herpes, and calicivirus in cats) at 3-year and possibly even longer intervals in our household companions.
Our bodies have abundant stem cells, but in adulthood they have become dormant. Arguably the most studied and certainly the best known Biologic/Regenerative modality in veterinary medicine involves the use of “Adipose-derived Autologous Mesenchymal Stem Cell” transplantation. It is important to note here that we are not talking about embryonic stem cells! “Autologous” means that the stem cells are the dormant ones isolated from the patient (from fat, “adipose” tissue) that are then subsequently placed (“transplanted”) back into the same patient. The principle of this therapy is to concentrate stem cells and growth factors, activate them, and get them to damaged tissue to elicit a cascade of anti-inflammatory and healing processes. The advantages of this technology is that there is published literature supporting its use in osteoarthritis (dogs) and ligament injuries (horses), and can be administered intravenously in addition to local infiltration e.g. joints. Further, the stem cells can be frozen and even cultured so that theoretically, there remains available a supply of viable cells for repeating the transplantation far into the future. In fact, a new application offered is the opportunity to collect fat at the time of any other surgical procedure (for example, spay/neuter), then culture those cells for an indefinite supply and perpetual use at any point in life – even years later!
Hip Dysplasia Treatment
Diabetes Treatment
Thyroid Disease Treatment
Knee Problems Treatment
Heart Disease Treatment
Kidney Disease Treatment
Cancer Treatment
The big “C†word, cancer, is among the most dreaded in medicine – both human and veterinary. You may be surprised to learn, however, that great strides have been made in our ability to manage a variety of different sorts of cancers, using different tools for different patients and conditions. Modalities include surgery, immunotherapy (teaching the body to attack the cancerous cells), and yes, chemotherapy to which some cancers are exquisitely sensitive.
For your pet, minimally invasive surgery (also known as Endoscopic Surgery) means a faster recovery time and less trauma. While not every surgery can be done in this manner, it is an alternative for some. Please see below for a list of common minimally invasive surgeries.
Laser Surgery
Dr. Jodi Werfal is a Veterinarian and Co-Owner, at TotalBond Veterinary Hospital at Bethel. Her interest in veterinary medicine began during a mentor program in high school and she went on to obtain a degree in Veterinary Technology in 1984. She graduated from Louisiana State University with her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 1991 and has been working with TotalBond Veterinary Hospitals. In 1994, she because the director of TotalBond Veterinary Care at Bethel, formerly Bethel Animal HealthCare Hospital. Her professional area of interest includes all aspects of small animal surgery, including laser surgery.
Small Animal Surgery
Declawing
In the event behavior modification or SoftPaws is unsuccessful at resolving the destructive and/or injurious behavior, OR the client at any time asks for information about declawing, we will educate the client with regards to onchyectomy at our practice, which includes the following principles.
As with all medical procedures, proper patient selection and evaluation prior to Regenerative Medicine procedures is extremely important. The doctor needs to set appropriate patient and pet parent expectations for any therapy option. This usually includes radiographs of affected sites, blood tests and urine tests for internal health – especially in older patients we are treating, that often will have other pre-existing conditions.
X-Ray
Dental Radiology
Proper care of the oral cavity, teeth, and gums are a crucial aspect to ensuring maximal comfort, quality of life, and overall health and well-being in our pets, just like it is for us. The accumulation of plaque, dental tartar, and calculus leads to infection of the gums and periodontal tissue….which you will notice this as increasingly bad breath, not to mention making for an uncomfortable mouth. Home dental care and regular cleaning of the teeth and gum pockets, along with dental x-rays, polishing, fluoride, and other treatments as needed (e.g. periodontal treatments, extractions if necessary, etc.), will help to preserve health and comfort not just with the teeth and in the mouth, but throughout the body as we limit access of oral bacteria to the bloodstream. Our approach to oral health takes an uncompromising approach to maximize both the safety and comfort of the procedure, and our staff will assist you in answering any questions you might have regarding details and scheduling.
20 years ago when I started training, this is the type of advice I gave because it was all I knew. At that time, like everyone else, the choke chain and pinch collar and a well-timed correction formed the cornerstone of dog training for me. And I thought that dominance was the root of all behavior problems. Combined with a strong ability to read aggressive dogs, a lack of fear of being bitten, and fervor for trying to master the techniques of whomever I could, these methods and ideologies served me well. They were the methods of the traditional dog trainer, now sometimes called a balanced dog trainer if rewards are sometimes used.