North County Cat Hospital
North County Cat Hospital is a full service veterinary facility offering examinations, laboratory services, digital radiology, dental radiology, anesthesia, medical, and surgical therapy.
We Offer:
We Offer:
Thorough Examinations
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It is important to look for and address all the medical issues that a cat might have, not just what they are brought in for.
Our Secret Diseases video describes some of the medical conditions that we find in cats who appear healthy to their people.
Shelter Examinations
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To allow full examinations for all shelter cats, we partake in the "Shelter Examination" program. As a service to the shelter, we provide, at no charge to the adopter, full examinations of recently adopted cats.
Vaccinations and
Other Preventive Medicine
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We don't want to vaccinate unhealthy cats, so we don't vaccinate any cats whom we have not examined recently. We don't offer "shot clinics".
It is also important to us that clients are informed of some of the risks of vaccines so we always discuss these ahead of time. If you want to forego the talk your first time in, this video includes our "vaccine talk".
Microchip Implantation and Identification
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North County Cat Hospital has the Home Again high frequency international microchips but we can read most others.
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Internal Medicine
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We are well versed in feline internal medicine including:
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Pediatrics
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Geriatrics
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Urology & nephrology
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Gastroenterology
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Endocrinology
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Neurology
If advanced diagnostics or treatment are needed we can give advice regarding that.
Radiology
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We have high quality digital radiology equipment on-site.
Laboratory Services
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North County Cat Hospital has modern laboratory equipment in-house and can send samples to Antech, a large commercial laboratory.
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Anesthesia
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One of the reasons that we don't offer discounted surgeries or dentals is that we never cut corners when it comes to anesthesia. We evaluate each patient and are very careful with our anesthesia protocols.
We never use medetomidine (which cuts the volume of blood pumped from the heart in half).
If we use ketamine, we use about 1/10th the dose that might be used at a spay clinic.
For more detail, please see our video on Anesthesia Safety.
Surgery
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We offer general feline surgery including:
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Spays and neuters
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Mass removal
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Exploratory surgery
We offer other general and sometimes specialty surgery for our current patients but if your current veterinarian recommended a specialty surgery by a boarded surgeon and you are looking around, we recommend that you go to a facility with a board certified surgeon on staff.
Dentistry
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We offer general feline dentistry including:
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Dental cleaning and polishing
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Dental radiology
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Dental extractions
We excel at finding cats' dental problems and can treat almost all of them. If you have a cat with a questionable or known diseased mouth and are shopping around for quality, we are a very good choice. But we don't cut corners so if you are shopping around for the lowest price, we are probably not what you are looking for. We would never consider, for example, cleaning teeth without radiographing them to look for hidden problems.​
We don't offer:
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Root canals, crowns or other advanced periodontal or endodotic therapy, in part because we think that cats are usually better off with simpler treatments. If you are looking for those advanced treatments, we recommend a board certified dental specialist.
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Anesthesia free dental cleanings. These are likely to do more harm than good and can't be justified medically.
Dermatology
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At North County Cat Hospital, we treat cat skin diseases including:
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Allergies
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Infections
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Parasites
Ophthalmology
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We are very good treating eyes but as with other specialties, if your current veterinarian recommended referral to a board certified ophthalmologist and you are looking for that, we recommend that you go to a facility with a board certified ophthalmologist on staff.
Oncology
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We have good success treating some common cancers in cats. If you decide on aggressive surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation for your cat's disease, there are large specialty centers nearby that we can refer you to.
Behavioral Consultation
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Cats have a number of unique behavior problems. We are able to help with most of them.
Nutritional Consultation
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The topic of cat nutrition comes up a lot. For a preview of what we might discuss, please see our Cat Food videos.
Pain Management
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We are current on the most recent developments in pain management in cats.
Health Certificates
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Dr. Daly is a USDA accredited veterinarians. We offer health certificates for healthy cats to travel within the United States. We can give necessary rabies vaccines and perform rabies titer testing.
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By the way, if you received a kitten from a breeder with a health certificate that appears to be from us, it might be a forgery. We rarely write health certificates for kittens being sold as pets. Any health certificate for a kitten that is being sold is probably forged. If you call us at 760-758-6228 we can tell you about any specific certificates.
We are aware of one Himalayan breeder who has been using forgeries and we have tried to get the USDA to take action against the forger but they only have jurisdiction over veterinarians. They can't take action against unlicensed breeders.
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If you feel that you are a victim of the forger, the Federal Government may not help you but the San Diego County District Attorney might. Their phone number is 619-531-4040.
Emergency and Urgent Care
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North County Cat Hospital often takes emergencies from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Thursday and from 9:30 am until 11:00 am on Friday, especially for current clients.
However, there are a lot of times when we are unable to see emergency patients (for example, when we are in surgery) and there are some emergencies that we are not well equipped to treat (for example, snake bites) so it is always best to call ahead.
When we are not available, we recommend that patients be seen at an emergency animal hospital. For more information on nearby emergency animal hospital hospitals, please see our Emergency Information page.
Payment Options
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We accept payment by:
Common Credit Cards:
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Visa
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Mastercard
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American Express
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Discover
Check
Cash
Care Credit
This is a credit card created to pay for medical expenses, including veterinary.
Depending on the amount charged, interest is 0% if paid in 6 months. If you don't pay the entire bill within that time, you will be charged an extremely high interest rate on the entire balance from the first day.
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Payment is expected at the time service are rendered. We do not offer billing.
Things that you might want that
We Don't Offer:
We Don't Offer:
Evening and Weekend Hours
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We are a two-veterinarian practice so we are open limited hours.
We Don't Offer:
Boarding
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We think that most cats are better off having a good pet-sitter visiting them at home twice daily than they are staying in even the nicest cage. If we offered boarding, we would rarely recommend it.
We Don't Offer:
House Calls
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We have a well staffed and well equipped hospital and don't feel we can offer high quality care in a mobile environment.
We Don't Offer:
Discounts and Discounted Services
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Our goal is to provide consistent, high quality, fairly priced medicine and surgery to all of our patients and clients. We don't offer discounts or discounted services.
We Don't Offer:
Low Cost Spays and Neuters
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Spays and neuters are common surgeries but they are also serious surgeries that require a general anesthesia. It is potentially very detrimental to the patient to cut corners with them. If, for example, compromises are made on the anesthetic protocol, long term damage can be done. (For more information, please see our video on anesthesia safety.)
We Don't Offer:
Client Referral Rewards
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A "client referral reward" is compensating a current client for referrals. This is illegal. According to the California Veterinary Practice Act, "the offer... by any person licensed under this division... of any rebate, refund,... discount, or other consideration, whether in the form of money or otherwise, as compensation or inducement for referring patients, clients, or customers to any person ... is unlawful."
We Don't Offer:
Health Plans
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With these plans, a given amount is withdrawn from your account monthly and you get a predetermined level of service. If for some reason you don't come in, you continue to pay.
At North County Cat Hospital we know ourselves well enough to say that if we had health plans and someone stopped coming in, we would stop taking the payments. If someone didn't use all of the predetermined service, we would refund them for the unused portion. This makes these plans nonviable for us.
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We Don't Offer:
Grooming
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Although Dr. Daly has had thousands of hours of continuing education, the only formal "grooming" education he has ever had was in sheering sheep and trimming hooves. Unless a cat needs heavy sedation or anesthesia to be groomed, you are better off with a groomer.
