Internal Medicine

Offering bone marrow sampling.

Offering blood product transfusions.

This is a great way to perform glucose curves to monitor insulin therapy and can be done at home. Blood glucose values are measured every 5 minutes for up to 5 days. CIGM and other diagnostic and treatment options for diabetes are offered through the hospital’s diabetes clinic, which is part of the internal medicine service.

Feeding tubes are most commonly used on the Small Animal Internal Medicine service to support ill patients while they recover from a temporary illness. These tubes are tolerated remarkably well and can ensure that your pet receives its full food and water requirements during the important recuperation period. Animals are still able to eat and drink with them in place and so they are used to transition ill pets back into their usual feeding routines. Feeding tubes can also make it easier to give multiple oral medications in pets with long-term diseases. These tubes are placed under general anesthesia. An esophageal feeding tube (also known as an E-tube) is placed through the skin and into the esophagus. These are typically used for days to weeks. A stomach tube (sometimees called PEG tube or G-tube) can be placed through the body wall directly into the stomach using endoscopic equipment, thus avoiding the need for surgery. These tubes have to stay in place for a minimum of two weeks, but may remain in place for life. The most common complication of feeding tubes is infection at the tube site. Therefore owners need to change their pets’ bandages every 1-2 days and monitor their insertion sites. Special collars can be used in place of bandage material, making maintenance of these tubes at home even easier.

We offer a wide range of minimally invasive procedures, including interventional radiology, to treat various respiratory, urinary, gastrointestinal, liver and vascular diseases.

Dr. Bartges, a member of our internal medicine team, provides consultations on nutrition in health and on the nutritional management of diseases. This includes obesity management, homemade diet formulation, critical care nutrition, and commercial diet recommendations for dogs and cats who are healthy or have various metabolic problems. Learn more.

Endoscopy refers to a procedure that allows visualization of structures and organs within the body without surgery. Endoscopy is performed using a scope that is composed of a flexible or rigid tube and a mini camera which both projects video to a television screen and allows us to record videos or still pictures.

Endoscopic procedures are named according to the organ system that is being investigated. Some examples include:

• Bronchoscopy – Investigation of the lower airways
• Cystoscopy – Investigation of the urinary tract and bladder
• Gastroscopy – Investigation of the stomach
• Enteroscopy – Investigation of the gastrointestinal tract (including stomach, small intestine, and colon)
• Rhinoscopy – Investigation of the nasal passages

Endoscopy is used as a diagnostic tool, both to see the insides of specific structures in the body, and also to obtain tissue, cell or fluid samples for further analysis. Furthermore, endoscopic procedures can be used to remove potentially obstructive objects from the nose, esophagus or stomach or to remove stones from the urinary bladder.

Endoscopy also has the advantage of evaluating regions of the body that were historically difficult to investigate surgically, including the nasal passages and lungs. Endoscopic procedures are commonly performed in the human medical field. In veterinary medicine, endoscopy is now being used for many procedures that once required more invasive surgery. Unlike these procedures in humans, endoscopic procedures in pets do require general anesthesia, as it is important that the animals are completely still for these procedures.

These procedures are minimally invasive, complications are rare, and they are generally associated with a shorter recovery time and less post-procedural discomfort.