Welcome to our new, updated website.

We hope you find the articles and additional information about your pet’s care and our new services useful for maintaining your pet’s health. I hope to write a new blog post every month, so check back in a few weeks. Also, if you have a topic you’re interested in, send us an email with your ideas..

I’d like to introduce some of our new services at the Bortell Animal Hospital.

Over the past year, we acquired a new laboratory sytem which enables us to perform more routine lab work in-clinic. Now, we can provide extremely accurate lab results usually in a shorter period of time.

We also purchased new imaging equipment including a digital X-Ray machine and an Ultrasound. The digital X-Rays enables us to perform high-quality images and detect disease processes with more relability. We also can e-mail the images to a veterinary radiologist for interpretation, if needed, on the more difficult cases.

The Ultrasound gives us a three dimensional view versus the two dimensional views of X-Rays. We perform routine ultrasound procedures and are easily able to refer our more advanced ultrasound cases to our visiting specialist.

In addition to our new imaging equipment, we now provide state-of-the-art dental work with our new dental machine. Research shows the health of your pet’s mouth impacts their overall health. With our new equipment, scaling, polishing and extractions, if necessary, can be performed with more ease with a shorter time for your pet to be under anesthesia.

Another important unique specialization we have added to Bortell Animal Hospital is Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM). This is an ancient art of medicine (over 2,000 years old) which has now been supported scientifically to be a sound medical practice. TCVM differs from a Western approach to medicine in that it strives to find the root case of imbalance in the body. The imbalance causes the disease process, so TCVM goes deeper than symptomology for treatment planning. After the initial exam and history of the patient, we diagnose a “pattern” of imbalance which provides information for me to prescribe an appropriate treament stratgy. This may involve herbal medicine, food therapy, acupuncture, life-style changes or a combination of these and Western medicine.

I have completed the certification for Veterinary Chinese Hebalist and Veterinary Food Therapist designations and, I’m in training for veterinary acupuncture. These certifications have involved more that 300 hours of continuing education and I find the options Eastern medicine provides for your pets extemely effective. I am finding great benefit as I integrate the best of the Eastern and Western approaches for preventative and treatment measures for your pet.

I hope you are as excited about our new services as we are! If you have questions, please get in touch. Meanwhile, check back in a few weeks for our next blog topic.

David A. Bortell, DVM, CVCH, CVFT