Routine examinations are essential for ensuring that your pet’s physical health is maintained over time. Combining routine medical examinations, proper nutrition, immunizations, and parasite prevention gives your pet the best chance of achieving and maintaining long-term good health. When you bring your dog or cat in for a checkup, we can prevent or diagnose health issues early, when they are most treatable and manageable.
Physical Check-up
When you bring your animal companion to a veterinary hospital for an examination, they will assess your pet’s medical history and ask you about any specific concerns you may have about his or her health or condition and offer services like pet teeth cleaning if needed.
A veterinarian will examine your animal comprehensively by evaluating its weight, posture, and gait. Examine your dog or cat for lameness, such as a restricted range of motion and pain.
Each examination is intended to discover any irregularities or health issues your pet may be experiencing. Because our canine and feline companions cannot speak when they are in pain, these tests can assist us in determining what your pet is experiencing.
Vaccine Updates
Vaccinations protect your pet from prevalent, contagious, and often fatal diseases. Based on your domicile and your pet’s lifestyle, your veterinarian will recommend vaccinations for your cat or dog.
The standard vaccinations for dogs and cats are recommended for all pets, although lifestyle vaccinations are often reserved for animals with more frequent contact with animals from other households. By examining their vaccine and parasite prevention regimens, learn more about the immunizations for internal medicine conditions in cats and dogs they recommend for your pet.
Adult animals will need regular booster vaccinations to maintain disease resistance. Frequently, boosters must be applied annually or every three years. Your veterinarian will tell you when your cat or dog’s booster vaccinations are due.
Preventing Parasitic Diseases
Parasites may wreak havoc on a dog’s life, from discomfort and annoyance to death. External parasites such as ticks and mosquitoes may carry bacteria or parasites that can cause significant ailments; consequently, vets will recommend measures to prevent parasites from invading the body of your cherished pet during a regular cat and dog checkup. Understanding that some parasites can be passed to you and your loved ones is also essential.
They may occasionally require that you bring a stool sample from your pet to their clinic for testing for intestinal parasites via a fecal exam. Fecal tests enable them to evaluate your pet’s stool for parasite signs that would otherwise be difficult to detect.
Heartworm tests may be administered during your pet’s annual exam. This test helps your veterinarian detect early signs of heartworm disease in your pet’s blood. If your pet has contracted this fatal parasite infection, early detection provides them the best chance of being successfully treated.
Prevention of parasites can assist your dog or cat in avoiding fleas, heartworm, Lyme disease, ehrlichiosis, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, tapeworms, hookworms, roundworms, and whipworms.
Conclusion
So, this is what to expect during your pet’s yearly exam. This is also your time to ask your veterinarian any pet-related questions, such as what to feed them or how to brush their teeth. In addition, do not be hesitant to request that you see the same veterinarian each year. Not only will you create a rapport with the specialist, but they will also become acquainted with your pet. This again enables them to discover little fluctuations from year to year, which could be the first indicator of a problem that needs to be investigated and treated.
