Here at Perkins Road Veterinary Hospital we have always stressed the importance of exams every six months. One exam is the Annual visit where your pet, depending on whether they are feline or canine, receives a complete, thorough physical exam, appropriate vaccines, heartworm testing, and a fecal exam or deworming. Six months later, they receive another thorough physical exam, any appropriate vaccines, fecal and or deworm medicine.
Why are wellness exams important?
1. One year in human lives compares to 5-7 years for your pet. An exam every six months equates to you receiving an exam every 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 years.
2. If your dog goes outdoors, on walks, plays with other dogs, goes to a groomer, or boards while you're out of town, then their Bordetella vaccine should be boostered every six months. The Bordetella vaccine helps prevent or lessen the severity of a very common, easily transmissible upper respiratory infection.
3. As animals begin to age, more health problems occur. These problems may not be apparent to you, the owner. By examining your pet twice yearly, early detection and diagnosis helps improve your pet's quality of life.
4. Wellness exams are the perfect time to perform routine blood and urine tests. These screening tests allow us to see a picture of what is going on inside your pet's body. It is impossible for us to know how healthy your pet is internally without performing these tests. A healthy appearance on the outside DOES NOT equal a healthy pet on the inside. In our years of practice, we have discovered many, many disease processes going on in animals who appear to be healthy. The sooner the problem is diagnosed and a treatment plan administered, the better chance your pet has for recovery and for living a longer, healthier life.
5. The CAPC (Companion Animal Parasite Council) recommends a fecal exam or deworming your pet at least twice yearly.
6. We want our clients to be happy. We want our patients to live long, happy, pain free, high quality lives. Wellness exams and routine screening tests are a big step towards you helping us help your pets achieve these goals.