Wellness care is the foundation of modern medicine. Appropriate wellness care throughout
your pet's life can potentially add years of quality time.
Pediatric Wellness
Just like people, pets are especially vulnerable and uniquely impressionable during
the first months of their life. As a consequence, the first several months of a
pet's physical and behavioral development are crucial. During this vital time, our
healthcare team will take a number of steps to assist in your pet's development.
Vaccines have long been the cornerstone of preventive care. Although we are now
much more discerning of the number and type of vaccination administered, they still
play a very important role in developing long lasting protection against infectious
disease. Based on your pet's breed, age, health status and lifestyle, our team will
help you decide which diseases your pet needs to be vaccinated against. Along with
vaccinations, our healthcare team will assist you in getting your pet growing in
the right direction. Starting down the path of appropriate intestinal parasite prevention
and screening, initiating proper heartworm preventive and testing regimens, and
guiding you through some of the 'puppy behavior' issues all pets seem to experience.
Adult Wellness
Because pets rarely come to us complaining of their various ailments, we value our
yearly examinations as an opportunity to help you evaluate your pet's health. During
the annual wellness exam, your pet's physical health will be evaluated along with
its diet, lifestyle, physical activity and body condition. Considering your pet's
well-being as a whole, our team will then be able to make recommendations regarding
vaccinations. The days of across-the-board yearly vaccinations for our pets have
thankfully been put behind us. Although vaccines remain a cornerstone of a healthy
lifestyle, each individual will have a tailored program developed for their needs.
Our team will assist you in developing an appropriate inoculation program for your
pet. Advances in medical knowledge and technology have led to longer lives of higher
quality for us and our pets. Although our physical examinations allow us to glean
valuable insight into your pet's overall health, we are still limited by our inability
to actually see what is happening inside the body. Therefore, we often will recommend
annual laboratory screening to get that 'peek' into the inner working of your pet's
vital organ systems. The extent of these tests will vary based on your pet's overall
health, age , breed and other factors. A few tests are recommended annually for
all pets. One that many pet owners have been familiar with for years is the stool
test for intestinal parasites. Although this is an old, low tech test, it is as
valuable as ever. In addition, we recommend yearly testing for heartworm in dogs
and yearly testing for feline retroviruses in cats that go outside or have exposure
to other cats. We have all heard that 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
cure,' and this has never been more true than it is with heartworm disease and intestinal
parasites. Therefore, our team will happily assist you in developing an appropriate
plan for preventing these diseases. One last pillar of adult wellness is dental
care. Dental disease impacts the entire body, and can lead to devastating diseases
such as kidney dysfunction. We will evaluate your pet's dental health and develop
an appropriate dental care plan after our examination.
Senior Wellness
Senior pets need much of the same care that adult pets need. Because our animals
age far too quickly, annual examinations are too infrequent for many geriatric pets.
We strive to detect disease before it becomes evident to you and before if affects
your pets quality of life. Unfortunately, disease progresses so quickly in many
older pets that semi-annual examinations are needed to allow us the opportunity
to intervene before the disease has progressed too far. Although age is not a disease,
it does increase your pet's risk of developing some diseases. Since early detection
is the key to maintaining wellness, we often recommend more in-depth laboratory
evaluations for older pets. As pets enter their senior years, professional dental
care becomes even more important. Chronic and severe periodontal disease may increase
the risk of some other diseases, including kidney, liver, and heart problems. Weight
management is critical in older pets as well, both to ease the strain on aging joints,
and to reduce the risk of diabetes and other illnesses.