Our Services

Canobie Lake Veterinary Hospital is a full-service veterinary hospital offering the highest level of veterinary medicine, surgery and dentistry for pets. We not only see the traditional pets like cats and dogs but also welcome the more non-traditional pets like birds and exotics.

Dr. Magnuson and her technical staff provide the best in modern health care for your companion animals. To support this care, we have included an extensive list of medical, surgical and patient services:

• Birds & Exotics
• Comprehensive Physical Exams
• Vaccinations and Preventative Medicine
• Puppy and Kitten Examinations and Vaccinations
• Senior Pet Care and Geriatric Pet Evaluations
• Radiology
• Diagnostic Laboratory Testing
• Surgical Services
• Dental Services and Teeth Cleaning
• Nutritional Counseling
• Pharmacy
• Behavior Counseling
• Housecalls
• Euthanasia here or in your home
• Convenient check-in and check-out in the exam room
• Pet Identification and Microchipping
• Early Morning drop-offs  
• After-hours Emergency Service
• Board Certified Specialist Referrals

Birds and Exotics

All psittacine (hook-bill) birds and birds and non-psittacine pet birds including water fowl and chickens.
All reptiles including non-venomous snakes, iguanas, geckos, anoles, bearded dragons, tegus, monitors, chameleons, water dragons, turtles, and tortoises.

Pocket pets including hamsters, gerbils, degus, rats, mice, chinchillas, guinea pigs,hedgehogs, rabbits, and ferrets.
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Comprehensive Physical Exam

Vaccinations and Preventative Medicine

Pets today are living much longer than they used to. It is not unusual for us to see cats in their twenties and dogs in their late teens. This is because many of the infectious diseases that once killed our pets can now be prevented with routine vaccinations. We proudly use Fort-Dodge Vaccines and are pleased with their protection. Not every vaccine is necessary for every pet so it is important to discuss the potential risk factors with us to see which vaccines will best suit your pet.
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Puppy and Kitten Examinations and Vaccinations

Young puppies and kittens should receive their physical examination and begin their first set of vaccinations around 8 weeks of age. Additional exams and vaccinations are given every two to four weeks until they are sixteen to twenty weeks old. Thereafter, regular booster vaccinations should be given. During your pet's initial examinations you will also receive behavioral advice, nutrition counseling, and recommendations on disease prevention. This advice can go a long way toward preventing problems in your pet's adult life.
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Senior Pet Care and Geriatric Pet Evaluations

 Since pets are living so long with great preventative care and nutrition, we have recognized that our "senior citizen" cats and dogs have special requirements. Dr. Magnuson is well equipped with the knowledge and diagnostic tools to identify age-related problems and formulate realistic strategies to allow your pets to live longer and healthier lives. If your dog is five to eight years of age or older (depending on breed) or your cat is eight years of age or older it is in its geriatric years. We will be happy to discuss with you our recommendations for geriatric testing and geriatric diets.
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Radiology

 We have a state-of-the-art radiograph machine with digital imaging so we can quickly produce x-rays with extraordinary detail for proper diagnosing. This also allows us to email these images to specialists and have the x-ray viewed by Board Certified Radiologists if needed.
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Diagnostic Laboratory Testing

Our extensive in-house laboratory services allow us to do complete blood testing in as little as 13 minutes! This means that we can diagnose sick and injured pets quickly. We offer complete blood counts (CBC), comprehensive chemistry profiles, thyroid testing, liver profiles, urinalysis, fecals, gram stains, ear cytology, fine-needle aspirates, heartworm, lyme, and erhlichia testing all in-house. We also work with Antech, IDEXX, and Avian and Exotic Laboratories when we need further diagnostic testing.
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Surgical Care

Our hospital is well-equipped to perform most minor and major surgical procedures from spays and neuters to more complicated emergency and soft tissue surgeries.
Prior to surgery, each patient receives a thorough physical examination to identify any existing medical conditions that might endanger a pet's health. Because not all problems can be detected on examination, we also suggest pre-anesthetic blood testing. These tests not only give us a more complete picture of your pet's health, but allow us to tailor an anesthetic regime that is specific for your pet.
We offer a wide variety of anesthetic protocols tailored to your pet's individual needs. We use state-of-the-art anesthetic machines offering isoflorane anesthesia. We also utilize pulse oximetry, doppler blood pressure, and EKG on all anesthetized patients to ensure a smooth anesthetic procedure.
Pain management is an important part of our pre-operative, intra-operative, and post-operative anesthetic and medical protocol. All surgical patients including those undergoing routine procedures such as spays and neuters receive pain control medications.
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Dental Services and Teeth Cleaning

Dental care is extremely important to your pet’s health. We offer several preventative products and foods, as well as dental procedures to care for your pet’s teeth. With regular exams and dental check-ups you can help protect your pet from harmful diseases such as gingivitis and periodontal disease.
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Nutritional Counseling

Many pets require specific nutritional needs. We provide detailed information regarding the nutritional requirements for your pet. We also have several prescription and non-prescription diets on hand to meet the special dietary needs of your pet. Lean pets live longer! We also offer weight-loss counseling and programs. For a list of our avian and exotics products, click HERE.
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Pharmacy

We offer an extensive in-house pharmacy to fill your prescriptions immediately and we compound our medicine on-site for our avian and exotic pets. If you need a specialmedication that we do not have in stock we will direct you to Vetcentric, our on-line pharmacy, or Wingate’s pharmacy in Nashua, NH.
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Behavior Counseling

Dr. Magnuson has worked with local shelters for many years evaluating pets behavior. A trained pet is much more likely to stay in a home longer than an un-trained pet. The staff is happy to discuss behavior modification techniques and believes in the importance of positive reinforcement. We also work closely with many local pet trainers.
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Housecalls

Housecalls are an important part of our practice. Dr. Magnuson began her own housecall practice, known as Veterinary Homecare Services, in 2000. Due to demand for her services, she opened the stand-alone hospital to accommodate additional clients as well as to offer more extensive services. Dr. Magnuson feels it is important to continue to offer housecalls for pets that are excessively stressed or anxious during hospital visits. This is also ideal for people with multiple pets that would rather have the doctor perform annual exams in there home instead of taking all their animals to the doctor's office.
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Euthanasia in house and in your house

Saying good-bye to your life-long friend is extremely difficult. Dr. Magnuson has been performing housecall euthanasia for 7 years. This service is much less stressful on the pet and provides a peaceful and gentle way of passing. Making these decisions is exceptionally agonizing for clients. Dr. Magnuson understands and is able to help and counsel these end-of-life decisions. Her entire staff is also trained and able to offer advice and schedule these services to help minimize the stress on you and your pet.
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Convenient check-in and check-out in the exam room

Unlike many veterinary hospitals where you check in/out at a front desk, we check you in right in the exam room, and check you out there, too! We have so many different species of pets entering our hospital every day that we don’t like to “mix” everyone together. You are put into an exam room immediately upon arrival (we strive to be on-time all the time; however, emergencies can happen), a technician takes your history, and then Dr. Magnuson will perform a physical examination and determine what diagnostics and treatments are warranted. Once everything is complete, a technician will check you out, go over the treatment plan and give you all your necessary medications right in the same room. You exit out the rear door to avoid other pets coming in. The process is very smooth and much less stressful on you and your pet!
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Pet Identification and Microchipping

A great new pet identification system is microchipping. A small microchip can be injected under your pet’s skin with a syringe. This microchip has a number that identifies your pet. You register your pet with the national registry, and IF your pet goes missing, shelters, pounds, and police stations can scan your pet, look up the number, and call you. It is a great way to locate missing pets.
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Early Morning drop-offs 

We open at 7 am, so if your pet is sick and you have to work, you can drop your pet with us and leave him/her for the day. Dr. Magnuson will examine and develop a treatment plan for your pet before you pick up at the end of the day. When you drop off you will be given an estimate for the cost of services. At the same time you will provide us with your contact information so Dr. Magnuson can talk with you throughout the day regarding the progress of your pet.
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After-hours Emergency Service

We refer our after-hours care to Advanced Veterinary Services in Manchester, 666-6677 or Essex County Veterinary Emergency Hospital in North Andover, 978-682-9905. Both hospitals can provide 24 hour care for dogs and cats. For avian and exotic emergencies we recommend Angel Animal Medical Center in Boston, 617-522-7282 or Capital Area Emergency in Concord, 603-227-1199.
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Board Certified Specialist Referrals

There are several excellent boarded specialists in the area that Dr. Magnuson refers to and recommends. Please click on the service below to be directed to their websites.