Internal Medicine

Internal Medicine at 1st Pet Vet

A veterinary Internist, or Internal Medicine Specialist, is an individual who has received an additional 3 to 4 years of rigorous, advanced training in the diagnosis and treatment of disease involving internal structures of the body. This includes diagnosing and treating diseases affecting the heart, lungs, digestive system, hormones, urinary system, and hematologic (blood) systems, as well as oncologic (cancerous), infectious, and immune-mediated diseases. Internal medicine specialists have passed a rigorous certification exam and published peer-reviewed literature.

1st Pet Veterinary Centers offers comprehensive Internal Medicine services. Whether you have been referred to confirm a diagnosis, or to diagnose and treat an unusual or difficult problem, we will work as part of your pet’s medical team, in conjunction with your primary veterinarian, to determine the best course of action for your pet.

Internal Medicine Diagnostics

We utilize many state-of-the-art diagnostic tools including the following:

• Ultrasonography
• Endoscopy
• Echocardiography
• CT
• Digital Radiography
• Electrocardiography (ECG)

Internal Medicine Procedures

These are some of the more advanced procedures we perform:

• Abdominal and thoracic ultrasound
• Ultrasound guided biopsies and aspirates
• Blood pressure monitoring
• Bone marrow evaluation
• Chemotherapy
• Diabetes monitoring
• ECG Holter and event monitoring
• Echocardiography
• Enteral nutritional support
• Feeding tube placement
• Pericardiocentesis
• Respiratory therapy
• Total parenteral nutritional support

Frequently Treated Conditions

The following list is far from comprehensive, but includes many of the disease conditions that our Internal Medicine team frequently treats:

• Allergy testing and management
• Cancer treatments
• Chronic kidney disease
• Endocrine disease
• Heart disease
• Hepatic lipidosis
• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Immune mediated diseases (ex. Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), Canine immune-mediated hemolytic anemia (IMHA), Polyarthropathy)
• Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
• Liver Disease
• Pancreatitis
• Valley Fever