COVID-19 Update (updated 5/18/2020):

 

Hello to our wonderful customers,

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The state of CA has laid out a 4-stage plan to reopen non-essential businesses, based on the level of risk posed for community transmission of Covid19. CA is currently in Stage 2, during which low-risk businesses may reopen with specific safety protocols in place. In Stage 3, higher risk businesses will be able to reopen as long as they can meet safety requirements.

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At the moment, we do not have enough information to assess if our business is low or high risk. We are certainly able to limit interactions between humans at our clinics, however, the risk of viral transmission between pets and humans remains unclear and, because of this, we must proceed at this time assuming that there is a risk. The protocols for limiting infection risks between dental hygienists and patients is much more complicated, given the specific nature of the service.

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I want to clarify that if your pet is in need of veterinary care, you should not avoid getting that care. So far, data shows fairly definitively that although dogs and cats can get sick from the novel Coronavirus, the rate of transmission seems to be very, very low and infection does not appear to sicken animals significantly. We have thus far not seen a single documented death (or even serious illness) in dogs or cats from Covid19. This is good news for pet owners and you should not fear taking your animal to the vet for care, and especially should not avoid having them vaccinated on schedule. (It would be truly terrible to see a resurgence of other communicable diseases in our pet population because people didn’t get their pets vaccinated!)

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Regarding non-anesthetic dental cleaning, however, we do have some concerns. We know that dogs and cats are able to contract this Coronavirus from humans, though infection rates appear much lower than human-to-human infection rates. What we do not know yet is if humans can contract it from dogs and cats, however, it is reasonable to think that they might. Given the very nature of how we work, with our faces 12 inches from the pet’s face for extended periods, we have worries that this poses a risk of aerosol infection for our pet patients (should we be unknowingly sick) as well as for us, the hygienists. This means that in order for us to work safely, at the very least, we will need proper PPE and adequate ventilation of our work space. At the moment, neither of these conditions can be met. We are working on the ventilation issues and should be able to improve this at some of our clinic locations. The PPE issue, we hope, will be resolved in time as the supply chain for these items improves, but the timing of that is unknown. 

 

All of this means that we do not expect to reopen in June as we had hoped. Additionally, since we don’t know when we’ll be able to reopen, we have stopped taking new appointments. If you would like to be notified when we reopen, please email us directly at info@pettooth.com, and we will add you to our waitlist and email you as soon as we have any information. For those of you with already-booked appointments, we will continue to postpone until we are able to resume services. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions and check out our Resources page to see relevant articles.

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We wish you and your pets physical and mental wellbeing during this incredible time. We hope to see you very soon.

Maia