New internist and new specialized equipment expected to improve access to internal medicine expertise for primary care veterinarians and pet owners in BC
Vancouver, BC – Primary care veterinarians in the Vancouver Lower Mainland and throughout BC and northern Washington can look forward to shorter wait times for internal medicine consultations.
Boundary Bay Veterinary Specialty Hospital (BBVSH), a 24-hour specialty, emergency and critical care hospital in Langley, BC, has expanded its veterinary internal medicine service.
Board-certified veterinary internist, Dr. Kimberly Hooi, BVSc, DVSc, DACVIM (SAIM), has joined BBVSH’s internal medicine team and will work closely with other on-site specialists in critical care, surgery, radiology, oncology, cardiology, and neurology. Dr. Hooi is available full-time for referrals for internal medicine consult including consultations with primary care vets to determine if a referral might be beneficial for a particular case.
Internists perform advanced diagnostics and therapeutics and create treatment plans to help veterinarians manage patients that are not easily diagnosed, that do not respond to standard treatments or have multiple disorders. Internal medicine can help patients with refractory diabetes, blood disorders, infections, digestive tract problems, hormone/endocrine or immune disorders, diseases of the kidney, liver, gallbladder, lungs and urinary or reproductive tracts may benefit from the specialized diagnostics and treatments that an internist performs.
Dr. Hooi specializes in minimally-invasive diagnostics (such as respiratory, upper and lower GI, and urinary tract endoscopy; endoscopic foreign body retrieval and biopsies and bone marrow aspirates and biopsies) and image-guided procedures and interventions (such as tracheal and urinary tract stenting, feeding tube placements, stricture dilation). To support minimally-invasive diagnostics, BBVSH’s hospital has specialized diagnostic equipment including an on-site 64-slice CT scanner and an on-site high field (1.5T) MRI. The most recent acquisition is a C-ARM fluoroscope, allowing for images to be viewed in real-time during interventional procedures, such as image-guided surgery.
FOR PET OWNERS
For pet owners interested in veterinary internal medicine services, Boundary Bay Veterinary Specialty Hospital encourages that they obtain a referral from their primary care veterinarian whenever possible to ensure the proper transfer of medical information.
FOR PRIMARY CARE VETERINARIANS
Primary care veterinarians are invited to request an internal medicine referral and download and/or print our “Meet our new Internist” flyer and Internal Medicine department flyer to share within your clinic.
