Desert Cross Veterinary Hospital

06/23/2026

The Fourth of July is just around the corner and we are seeing more and more dogs that experience noise anxiety than ever before.

NOW is the time to call and schedule an appointment if your dog needs medication to help it through this loud holiday and to make sure they have a microchip in case they get out of your yard. People are always going to be setting off fireworks, that will never change, what you can change is how your dog is cared for around this time.

Call 928-348-0026 today and bring your pet in for an exam and medication and advice to help them through this celebration of freedom.

06/22/2026

Desert Cross Veterinary Hospital is a privately owned mixed animal hospital.

Dr Chapman graduated in 1997 and has worked in mixed animal practice for the past 20 years after doing mobile large animal for almost a decade.

Dr Bates graduated in 2023 and has worked at Desert Cross since and is an amazing doctor and surgeon.

Dr Hudecek graduated in 2023 and worked in Texas for two years before returning to Arizona and working for Desert Cross. She is a great veterinarian and very knowledgeable.

We believe that every animal deserves veterinary care and we strive to do that at whatever level the owner can afford. Nothing in today’s world is cheap any longer but we do the best with what you have to help you and your animals.

We are a volume practice so it affords us the ability to have less expensive prices. If you have a dog that needs a pyometra surgery, a splenectomy, a foreign body removed, a mass removal we are able to do these at more affordable prices because we are well established and economically minded. Please call us for an estimate. 928-348-0026.

It is our desire to help as many animals as we can each day. Sometimes the wait is a bit long but we try to give everyone our undivided attention when it is your turn.

If you are looking for affordable vet care or need an emergency surgery give us a call and we will do our best to try and help you and your animals.

06/18/2026

Wouldn't it be nice if we humans could be a trustworthy and kind as the animals? It costs nothing to be kind.

06/12/2026

I realize that we inside the veterinary/animal professions have really complicated the whole process of spaying and neutering. Half of us are seeing the result of unsprayed/unneutered dogs and cats and the death toll that it causes and the health issues because we work for our entire careers in the same area and we know thousand of animals for their entire lives. Then the other half that work in academia or in specialty hospitals that don't actually see animals for their entire lives, they are all about the issues that the small percentages of dogs and cats they see have. It is not a perfect world and none of us know what we don't actually experience or know.

So, after 30 years in the profession and 30 years spent in the exact same location and 20 years now as a mixed animal practitioner, these are my thoughts based on literally thousands of animal cared for over a lifetime.

Spay and neuter your dogs and cats. I do not care if you do it at 6 months or a year or three years if you can control their environment but for the love of animals, at the very least, spay your dogs and cats and neuter your cats. If you want to leave nuts on your dog and you can keep him in your fence, go for it.

I just do not see all the bad stuff the so called experts say are out that at a high enough rate to warrant the risk to your dog or cat and the potential for unwanted litters of puppies and kittens. Not only that but people are not getting dogs and cats like they were 6 years ago and it is becoming harder and harder to find them homes which results in them being dumped and that is freaking terrible!

I realize that spay neuter prices are sometimes out of your price range. It is absolutely something that you should start saving for when you purchase or acquire your new pet.

Our beginning spay price for dogs under 25 # is $155. The highest price for just the spay for a dog over 100 # is $490. A cat spay is $125. These prices are ONLY FOR THE PROCEDURE. You have the choice to choose blood work and IV catheter and fluids and those absolutely have an additional price associated with them.

If you need your dog spayed, please save the money and give us a call. I bought a matcha latte the other day and it was over $7. If you just stay away from Starbucks for 30 days you could save the money to have your pet spayed and decrease the pet overpopulation problem and potential save your pets life.

Call 928-348-0026 today to schedule your appointment.

06/10/2026

New World Screwworm is here in the Us and one of the five cases was in a dog. A dog that had traveled to Mexico and come back into the US and was then seen at a veterinary clinic in Texas.

New World Screwworm is NOT just a cow problem, it is an every living creature problem. Flys do not discriminate as to the type of critter they decided to lay eggs on.

While reports have NWSW still being 300 miles from Arizona, it only takes one person coming across the border with a fly or fly maggot to change all of that.

Dogs are the second most infected species in Mexico so you can not just ignore this problem and think it won't be an issue because you are not a rancher. It is going to be an issue.

Bravecto and the other flea and tick products will protect against the NWSW. My recommendation is that if you live in Arizona and you have dogs and cats that you invest in Bravecto or whatever flea and tick product that you use, that is actually prescribed by a veterinarian and not bought over the counter, and you keep your dogs and cats on it until NWSW is eradicated.

(NexGard (afoxolaner): Received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the FDA for the treatment of NWSW infestations in dogs.NexGard COMBO (esafoxolaner): Received FDA Emergency Use Authorization for treating NWSW myiasis in cats.Credelio (lotilaner): Authorized for the treatment of screwworm larvae in dogs.Bravecto (fluralaner) and Simparica (sarolaner): Both isoxazolines provide proven efficacy against NWS fly larvae.)

Any wounds on your animals that you used to just ignore and they went away on their own, you now need to pay more attention to. NWSW eats living flesh! This means that they can literally eat your dog or cat alive. It is not a joke and it is not something to be ignored.

If you find maggots on your pet, bring them in so we can collect and preserve the maggots and send them off for testing and get your animal treated as quickly as possible. Most readily available treatments have already been all purchased and I am sure the ugliness of humanity will soon show with the extreme overpriced resale of these med. The best thing you can do is to stay aware and keep checking your animals and do not just ignore wounds.

06/09/2026

We have a lot of clients who take their dogs to Mexico with them. ALL animal transportation across the border has been stopped. This means your little fluffy pooch.

Please make arrangements to leave your dogs home if you are going to Mexico.

06/07/2026

It was a great day doing a spay/neuter clinic in Willcox through our non profit Rural Animal Care Collective.

We spayed and neutered 63 dogs and 27 cats. It was a great day for the animals.

A huge shoutout to the Cochise Co Animal control and the Willcox Fire department for allowing us to use their facility.

It felt like everything was well organized and went smoothly, at least from my position at the surgery table!

Thanks to my incredible staff and a few other suckers for making this all possible.

06/04/2026

New world screwworm has been officially identified in Texas. Thankfully it is still 600 miles away from the Arizona border but we must remain diligent and on alert for its possible arrival.

If you are castrating, dehorning, lancing abscesses, have any injuries on your cattle or horses or sheep or goats etc please treat them more consistently and carefully than you have previously.

Merck has come out with a pour on Exzolt Cattle-Ca. It has a medication in it that will kill the larvae when they take their first meal. Investing in a bottle to have on hand before you need it might be a great idea.

If you find any maggots on any of your animals please please please bring a maggot in so we can send it off for testing.

Thank you for your concern and diligence in this matter. Together we can do our best to keep it from becoming the devastation that it might be.

05/30/2026

Good morning clients and friends.

Please take a few moments to read the image below. We have already had multiple calls and several people show up with baby bunnies. Please leave baby bunnies alone wherever you find them.

Baby bunnies are very difficult to keep alive and they have very specific nutritional requirements. We are not licensed to treat wild animals and therefore we legally cant do anything with them nor do we have the time.

I know that baby bunnies look so cute and it is hard to not want to pick them up and take care of them but you are sentencing them to death if you do. Let mother nature and their bunny mommas care for them. Thank you!

05/25/2026