You can protect your furry family member with a pet wellness exam. Our veterinarian in South Haven, recommends bringing your pet in for an annual checkup even if they aren’t sick. Evaluating a healthy pet can provide important information for their health records. Additionally, regular exams make it more likely that you will catch problems that arise in the early stages. This makes treatment more effective and increases the likelihood of a successful outcome.
Vaccinations against heartworm and other life-threatening conditions can protect your pet if they are exposed to common diseases. Talk with our veterinarian about appropriate wellness programs based on your pet’s age, health, and breed.
What’s Included in a Pet Wellness Exam?
When you bring your pet in for a checkup, our staff will take a medical history and find out if there’s anything unusual about their recent behavior or health. Tell us your concerns to help us better diagnose any problems that may arise. We also find out more about your pet’s lifestyle, exercise routine, and diet.
In certain cases, we may ask for a fecal sample to run tests that detect parasites.
Here are other steps we perform to get all the information we need to assess your cat or dog’s health:
- Weighing your pet
- Gait analysis (The way your pet stands tells us a lot about their health!)
- Checking nails and feet for damage or unusual signs
- Listening to the lungs and heart to make sure they’re healthy and strong
- Looking at the skin for signs of lumps or dryness
- Examining the skin for dryness, bald spots, and dandruff
- Assessing eye health by checking for discharge, redness, and vision issues
- Looking in the ears for signs of wax buildup, infections, or polyps
- Inspecting your cat or dog’s teeth for signs of gum or periodontal disease
- Palpitating specific areas for signs of lameness or swelling
- Testing range of motion
Over time, blood tests become an important point of comparison to monitor your pet’s health.
By providing a urine sample you help us determine whether your pet’s bladder and kidneys work properly. Urine provides specific information unavailable through blood work alone. This is particularly important for older felines and canines at risk of a variety of conditions and diseases.
It’s important to provide stool samples for your pet wellness exam. We use this sample to test for roundworms, hookworms, tapeworms, and other parasites. Worms lay eggs that show up in your pet’s feces. This makes it extremely easy to spot problems under a microscope.
Heartworms spread to your animal when an infected mosquito bites them. They embed in the heart and lungs, causing respiratory issues. As they mature, heartworms can cause life-threatening symptoms. It’s important to detect this condition as soon as possible for your pet to recover fully.
Are You Ready to Schedule a Pet Wellness Exam in South Haven, MI?
A pet health evaluation can give you peace of mind or alert you to any problems that can threaten your pet’s well-being. Perhaps you’re wondering how often you should come in for a pet health screening? Ideally, you should bring in your animal at least once a year so that they can remain up to date with their shots and take diagnostic tests to catch any underlying problems affecting their health status. For younger cats and dogs, we recommend frequent wellness checks based on the breed and overall health.
Talk to your veterinarian regarding how often to schedule checkups for your pet. As a rough guideline, you can schedule annual wellness exams for your cat or dog and twice a year for geriatric animals over the age of ten. This varies by breed, so check with our staff regarding the lifespan of your pet and how often you should bring them in for an exam.
Are you ready to schedule a pet health screening for your cat or dog? Come to our friendly office to receive the care and attention your furry pal deserves. We know you love them — let us help you preserve their health and keep them around as long as possible.
Contact Jimbabwe Acres, PCW to make an appointment today!
Our gentle, experienced vet can perform these checks quickly without discomfort to your animal. Often, the vet will continue asking questions about you and your pet to lay the foundation for comprehensive preventive care.
If you have a puppy or kitten don’t skip wellness checks. This is when we ensure that your pet has all the vaccinations they need to thrive. Additionally, we may ask to see your older pet more often if they have serious health conditions. We take senior pet care seriously because we want your pet to live a long and healthy life free of disease and discomfort.
A Word About Your Older Pet
According to the old saying, dogs age seven years for every human year. While this isn’t true, puppies and kittens do age quite differently from their people. In truth, depending on the breed, your dog or cat ages four to 15 times the rate you do.
This aging occurs more rapidly as your pet approaches adulthood. For example, puppies become adolescents by their first birthday. By their second birthday, they’ve reached adulthood, comparable to 24 human years. While there’s nothing you can do to fight the natural aging process, you can do everything in your power to keep your pet safe and healthy so that they can enjoy a longer lifespan.
Note that large dogs tend to age faster and live shorter lives than smaller breeds. Talk to us about strategies for keeping your pet in great shape.
Diagnostic Tests That Determine Underlying Health Issues
Diagnostic tests are an important part of your animal’s health assessment. These tests provide information unavailable through a physical examination alone. The most common diagnostic tests include the following.
Blood Testing
Your pet’s blood holds the key to understanding their overall health. Physical symptoms sometimes only appear after your pet is really sick. With blood tests, we can detect irregularities that point to specific disorders. A blood panel typically generates information regarding the animal’s blood chemistry profile and blood count. It also answers the following questions:
Is your pet anemic? Are the internal organs working properly? Do they have an infection? Will their blood clot regularly if your pet becomes injured?
