Waterloo West Animal Hospital

Looking out for you and your pet's care.

For immediate response to your pet's emergency, please telephone us.    We are happy to respond to your general inquiries via phone or fax.

Xylitol toxic and potentially deadly to dogs!

This new gum and candy sweetener is found in many sugar free gums, candies, oral hygene products and other food items and can cause liver failure, acute hypoglycemia and seizures. This has been found to be true only in dogs so far. As little as one piece of gum per 20lb or 9.6kg of dog can be potentially fatal if not treated immediately. Please read the labels of what you are eating, using in dental hygene products or on gum to prevent your pet from this toxic substance! We treated several dogs last year and we have already had patients sick with this in 2007 as well. Please be careful.

"They tell me I was gone for seven months..."
Read Stewy's story.

Heartworm warning -
Please read Riley's story.

Staff Updates

Jenna-Lee is a R.V.T graduate (2007) of St.Clair College in Windsor, Ontario. She is a great addition to our staff and we would like to welcome her to our family. She has two cats, Yoko and Spaz, and one dog, Jake, and a well loved fish named Matter (from Cars). She loves snow boarding and playing guitar and music of all types. Thank you and welcome Jenna-Lee!

Amy (Animal Health Assistant and Receptionist) She has moved back home to Prince Edward Island to prepare for Veterinary School at the Atlantic Veterinary College this fall. Amy’s pets are all doing well, her dogs, Mishka and Moose, her ferrets, Zion (except for his current bladder infection), Ares, Isis and Nyx and her cats, Darwin and Q.

She is hoping on her vacation in the summer, to travel to Europe. The organization is still in the works at this time.

Since she will be starting her Veterinary degree at the Atlantic Veterinary College this September. We miss her but are happy that her dreams of veterinary medicine are coming true. She will officially be the fourth veterinarian in her family (both parents and one sister already).

Congratulations!

Adrian (Dr. Stroia) He and his family just got back from their holidays in Mexico. They had a great time but it was obviously as any vacation would be TOO SHORT! We are very happy to have him back. Robert is now a very active 2 year old! He is looking forward to the better weather, seeing a backyard devoid of snow. He now has a new fascination for Thomas the train toys! We will be experimenting him on Bob the Builder next… He is fluent in English, Romanian and Hungarian due to his family ties. If we could all be so lucky! What a wonderful gift from his family!

He graduated in December from the Lifelearn laser surgery certification program and passed the American Animal Laser Society examination as well. Congratulation Dr. Stroia! He will be doing more courses this year in Ultrasonography, Orthopedic surgeries and Digital Radiography.

He is very busy already for the April through June Heartworm Season.

Ashley (Animal Health Assistant) She will be working hard over the summer to help most of the other staff take some vacation time. Her two dogs Spike and Shannon are doing well. They are both close or already teenagers, so we expect she will have her hands full with late night parties and worrying when they will be coming home and of course the worst-doggy alcoholism!

She is finishing her last term of her degree in Animal Physiology. She is very busy studying and looking forward to a break for a possible trip to Europe for this summer.

Ashley will be starting her veterinary technician course this September at Seneca College. We will miss her but are happy that her dreams of becoming a veterinary technician are coming true.

She is currently, in her spare time recording a demo CD for several record labels. We will have to see where this may lead her as well!

Jen (Registered Veterinary Technician) Her cats Churchill and Thatcher are both doing well. She has been very busy at the clinic as always for the past 9 years. She attended the Ontario Animal Health Technician Conference in February. She will be taking several Lifelearn Veterinary Technician courses from March through June this year. Jen is still looking into her vacation plans for this summer. The current variable weather hasn’t been too inspiring to plan her holidays for Ontario so she is looking into visiting Prince Edward Island and hopefully enjoying the coastal weather, sights and beaches this summer.

Jennifer (Groomer) Her Championship Standard Poodle, Memphis, had her puppies during her sister’s wedding June 30th, 2007. (Thank you midwife Shannon for the puppy delivery!) They are all growing well and she kept Solacyas Cheeky Lachine, a brown female Standard Poodle puppy, and has already attained her Canadian Championship March 30th, 2008! She is only 8 months old and already a Champion! This makes 3 generations of Champion Standard Poodles living at home. Paris was of great help with the litter (their grand-mother) in raising them and house breaking them. Memphis (her daughter) the proud mother of the litter didn’t object to the interference of her own mother with the puppies. She just became mother once again. Her new baby girl is a baby rat named Blueberry. The staff is already looking for studs for Blueberry and has plans of adopting their offspring! So young and her life already planned out for her…

Jennifer was very busy during March Pet Grooming Month. She has no vacation plans unfortunately to look forward to at this time due to all of her other commitments and some family health problems that seem to be slowly resolving. She has had a lot on her plate to deal with. All of her pets are doing great. Congratulation on the Canadian Championship with Cheeky! Thank you for your 7 1/2 years already at Waterloo West Animal Hospital!

Kim (J.O.A.T) He is slowly recovering from his back injury over the past year, since falling at the daycare in March 2007, while taking Daniel there. The slippery floor at Daniel’s daycare left him quite incapacitated for month, initially hospitalized with several repeat episodes of painful spasms back at the hospital. He has been doing physiotherapy and his back specialist has him on medication as well since the accident at the daycare in Kitchener. They have still not improved with any warning signs for wet floors for when the parents come and go for the children. Daniel had to be taken out of the daycare since they have been disinclined to keep any warning signs when they have and have had obvious hazards in situ.

Kim still tries to continue with the landscaping work and maintenance and of course the constant snow blowing this winter but he pays a heavy price in pain and set backs (no pun intended since this is not a joke) each time for his own healing. He is very busy with the I.T. at Waterloo West Animal Hospital and the networking especially since the inclusion of the integration of an Ultrasound unit and Digital Radiography software have all been added. This helps so that each client can see and get enlargements and focus on important sites on the computer screen in each exam room when being explained the Digital Radiographs or Ultrasound results of their pet.

He, as always, is very busy with his four children and is looking forward to this September when Daniel will be old enough to enter junior Kindergarten. Daniel is only three but active and mischievous as any toddler. He also loves his own two dogs Shadowfax and Eragon and Shannon’s puppy Buzy-we suspect that with the latter they are about as active and at the same play mental age to make a perfect combo! The two eldest children have started a book writing club at their school and are learning various musical instruments. The eldest is only 5 courses away, at 10 years old, from starting her lifeguard training (she is unhappy about the wait until she is older to formally start those courses). She may get a little too far ahead of herself and have a year to wait since she won’t be the official 12 years old they need until July 2009. The five year old has become a Bakugan and Pokeman fanatic, let us not forget his love for Thomas the Train and Bob the Builder, those latter two have rubbed off on his younger 3 year old brother. His French, English, Spanish and a smidgeon of German are coming along well for a Kindergartener! Kim does enjoy the time at school the kids spend and won’t be looking forward to the end of June and the kids summer holidays. (Hum, every parent I am certain is wondering, but WHY?!) Thank you Kim for your unfailing support and work for over 11 years now at Waterloo West Animal Hospital. We are ever so grateful!

Lisa (Animal Health Assistant) She has been doing a great full time job as one of our animal health assistants. She is a GEM! She has 4 Great Danes, Apollo and Majik who are home buddies and Flash who has been a Canadian Champion since 2004 and will be working towards his UKC Championship in the United States this year. He is looking forward to getting his dual title. Neo, their extra small 65kg or 143lb Great Dane puppy will be working on his American and Canadian Championships this year. Both Lisa and her husband Trevor enjoy the dog shows and the championship challenges. They also have a cat Tickles who is a great fly catcher but unfortunately they have not found any championship events for Tickles to test this skill! The humans are looking forward to their vacation in Kentucky this October.

They will be celebrating their 12 years of blissful marriage this May.

Lisa loves reading, cross stitching (which is now considered an extreme sport as both Lisa and Shannon have personal injuries from their new ultimate sports activities), knitting, gardening and many artistic mediums such as charcoal, watercolours, oil and pastels. Great job Lisa!

Melissa (Veterinary Medical Receptionist) has been very busy at work and takes time off for snowmobiling while the snow lasted. She also enjoys walks with Clyde and he really enjoys running the trails now with less snow. She was not looking forward to the muddy spring but appreciates the more even path and will be even happier with drier ground thus summer will be acceptable! She has been too busy to think of any vacation plans for this year so far. She will be spending time at Canada’s Wonderland with Ryan-Roller Coaster Addicts, they just purchased season passes and have rented a cottage for a week in August for fun in the Sun, Lake and Beach with her two boys. We are so grateful for her seven and a half years at Waterloo West Animal Hospital. Thank you Melissa!

Melissa (Registered Veterinary Technician) (AKA MO) We welcomed Melissa from Georgian College in Orillia last year. She graduated last year and is a wonderful addition to our family at Waterloo West Animal Hospital. She has a dog named Bella, a rabbit Jasmine, her rat is George and her hamster is Dexter. She comes with an obvious love and personal knowledge of pocket pets.

She loves to cook (thus is dangerous to be around for the waistline!) and travel. She spent time in France as an exchange student so is fluent in French and has extended her travels to Italy, England, Germany, Lichtenstein, Austria and Spain. Her next venture in Europe is to extend her travels to Poland and Russia. She loves to read and with her time in Spain enjoys reading in Spanish as well. She is honing her language skills for her travels to the further eastern portions of Europe.

She will be busy increasing her skills this year with Lifelearn courses on Emergency Medicine and Haematology in Guelph from May to November.

She plans to spend her summer working on her first new HOME (Congratulations to Melissa or “Mo”) and learning all the new and wonderful ordeals related to homeownership. In her spare time she will be honing her Super Nintendo and Sega skill! (Another extreme sports enthusiast-careful with those thumbs!)

Welcome and thank you for being at Waterloo West Animal Hospital, Melissa!

Shannon (Registered Veterinary Technician) Shannon had her tragically vehicular fatality in January and has since replaced Beast with a newer model of Taurus (we are still waiting on the Tasmanian Devil Sticker for Beast II). Her 13 year old Taurus, the Beast, (Tasmanian devil sticker on the back) suddenly and unexpectedly died on Monday January 21st, 2008. All are over our mourning since Beast’s peppier replacement came along. The memorial service was Memorable for Beast the First.

Her fiancé, Jay has adapted to Kitchener life since moving here months ago from Toronto and enjoying his new job (he works in the security field) (Beast I died after his arrival…but Beast II is still going strong). He helps at home by walking the 3 dogs, Hugo, Zodiac and Buzy but he isn’t trained yet for the litter boxes for the 5 cats and 6 ferrets. We are still waiting on the courses to start on “how to change litter 101”, “feeding your pet properly and with the correct amount 102” and “vacuuming the home 103”. Please contact Shannon if you hear of any courses starting earlier. She will be greatly appreciative.

The 5 of them (dogs and humans) are looking forward to Summer to be able to start camping season. Shannon attended the Ontario Association of Veterinary Technician conference in February and got lots of great dinners from the various Sale Representative. She will also be busy with several Veterinary Technician courses in Guelph at the University through Lifelearn between March and June. Thank you for all your help over the past 3 years Shannon, her dedication to the animals at the clinic has been unfailing

and time is never an issue when she is caring for any pet! She still loves cooking and cross stitching in spite of recent injuries (Cross Stitching is now considered an extreme sport as both Lisa and Shannon have personal injuries from their new ultimate sports activities).

Shannon will have the privilege of being the maid of honour at her sister’s wedding this July and thus has been very busy with all of those preparations over the past year!

Trishia (Registered Veterinary Technician) Has started her second year at Waterloo West Animal Hospital. She has two cats Guinness and Percy and two bunnies Peter and Peach. She did fantastic with her veterinary technician expertise to assist in physiotherapy one of the owners’s dog while they were unavoidably away for a few months. He has come through beautifully a severe car accident and he is getting along fantastically. She now misses him since he went home! She is enjoying her new apartment and in her rare spare time makes various types of beaded necklaces that several of the staff have been lucky enough to sport. She has not had time with all of her other obligations to plan her vacation yet this summer. We are certain when the time comes she will think of something wonderful to do for herself!

She will be a bridesmaid at her friend’s wedding this August.

She will be taking later this year some Lifelearn courses at the University of Guelph to hone her knowledge with Emergency medicine and haematology. She was unable due to other obligations to go to the Ontario Association of Veterinary Technicians conference in February. Her time table is just too full. We are grateful for all her care and expertise with the pets at Waterloo West Animal Hospital. Thank you Trishia!

Dr. St-Pierre Has been busy daily at the clinic between surgeries and appointments. The clients have been very active with regular medicine as well as requesting Homeopathy and Animal Chiropractic Care. She has been busy assisting Dr. Stroia increase his medical and surgical knowledge of exotic medicine with her twenty years of experience. (Please try to remember she graduated now at 9 years old!) She will be attending her 20th year class reunion in June and her brother’s wedding in July.

She has plans to retake several of the Ultrasonography courses she has already done, especially with the new digital probes and the new animal computer programs for the clinic’s machine. The digital Radiology has assisted in better pictures of the animals, faster and more precise information and general education for the clients to understand better their pet’s health. She is continuing further with Lifelearn with her Orthopedic and will be spending time in Vancouver with more advanced Orthopaedics courses in May this year. Lifelearn at the Ontario Veterinary College is now offering for the first time an advanced ophthalmologic surgical course to hopefully increase her already twenty years of experience in that area as well. It never hurts to see what new if any techniques are being used and compare techniques with the various board certified ophthalmologists. She spent most of her course time with horse chiropractics (she has spent many a weekend traveling to barns to assist the horses to get back to health through her chiropractic certification) so has decided to do as much as possible this year for the dogs, cats and exotics in medicine and surgery.

April through June will be Heartworm Season at Waterloo West Animal Hospital.