Internal Medicine

Part of providing comprehensive care for your pet includes offering the skills of specialists who can step in and offer advanced diagnostics, therapeutics and case management when your pet’s disease process becomes more complex. Because of advances in wellness care, pets are now living to a ripe old age. Advanced age is often accompanied by various diseases that can interact, can be difficult to manage, and can compromise your pet’s quality of life. Your regular veterinarian is often your biggest ally in managing these diseases, however sometimes the disease processes require that your pet be referred to a specialist. At NVRH we are pleased to offer internal medicine services to augment the care of patients with complicated disease processes.

Dr. Meg McBrien, our board certified veterinary internist has special training in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the cardiac, respiratory, gastrointestinal, urogenital, endocrine and hematologic systems. Our internal medicine service is designed to complement the care that your regular veterinarian provides for your pet. Once your veterinarian refers your pet to the internal medicine service, Dr. McBrien will evaluate all the information your veterinarian provides as well as any new developments in the case. She and her staff will collect a complete history from you and talk to you about how your pet has been doing. After evaluating the information Dr. McBrien will recommend a diagnostic plan of action. Once the results of the diagnostics are available (often the same day) she will recommend therapeutic options. Because Dr. McBrien is often managing patients with chronic disease, she will communicate her findings and recommendations with your veterinarian to allow everyone in your pet’s medical team to be up to date and allow them to provide the most well-rounded health care for your pet.

Dr. McBrien performs abdominal ultrasounds for liver, gall bladder, spleen, kidney, pancreatic and urinary bladder problems. She also offers cardiac ultrasounds for heart and lung problems. Internal medicine also offers endoscopy, colonoscopy, rhinoscopy and bronchoscopy, diagnostics and therapeutics for endocrine and infectious diseases such as Cushing’s, Addison’s, thyroid or electrolyte disorders, diabetes, lyme disease and leptospirosis.

Often our internal medicine service is able to perform diagnostics on an outpatient basis, however should your pet need to stay overnight in either our intermediate care ward or our intensive care unit, our staff of doctors conduct patient rounds at least twice daily and interact with Dr. McBrien regularly to make sure that your pet receives the best care possible. Our intensive care unit is staffed round the clock by a team of highly skilled doctors and technical staff who provide care for the hospitalized critical cases. Depending on how critical your pet is, our team approach gives your pet access to Dr. Finster, our criticalist, and our surgical service as well providing yet another layer of specialized care.

To learn more about the specialized field of veterinary internal medicine, please visit the website of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine at www.acvim.org

Internal Medicine Staff

Meg McBrien, DVM, is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine with board certification in Small Animal Internal Medicine. She is a graduate of Ohio State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and spent nine years in general small and exotic animal practice. She completed a three-year Internal Medicine residency at Medvet Medicine Center for Pets, a 30-doctor specialty and emergency hospital in Columbus, Oh. She most recently helped build an Internal Medicine practice at a 24-hour emergency referral hospital in Minnesota.

Technical Support Staff

During your visit to our internal medicine service you will also interact with our certified veterinary technician Chris Crossly. Chris has over 30 years experience in veterinary medicine, ranging from general practice to surgery. She initially joined our emergency team and though she enjoyed the excitement of the emergency service, Chris has truly enjoyed the professional rejuvenation and challenge that internal medicine has recently brought to her career. She is also an adjunct instructor for the online DLVTP program at San Juan College. Having raised two beautiful daughters and managed a house complete with two dogs, one cat and a parakeet, Chris reports that internal medicine is almost ‘quiet time’ for her.