What is Preventative Care?

Preventative care is a proactive rather than reactive approach to pet care. It means that instead of waiting until your pet is sick to seek help, you do everything possible to prevent illness. A good wellness care program for pets that can help accomplish this includes:

Wellness examinations – Frequent thorough nose-to-tail examinations are essential to keeping pets well. They allow us to gain familiarity with you and your individual pet and pick up readily on subtle changes. Wellness visits are also a great time to discuss concerns or questions you might have.

Routine vaccination – Vaccinations are important to help prevent many serious illnesses that plague our pets. Not every vaccine is for every pet, so it is important for us to evaluate your pet and his or her lifestyle to determine which vaccines are recommended.

Wellness screening – Periodic screening tests such as fecal examinations and blood and urine testing are often recommended on healthy pets. These types of tests allow us to establish a baseline normal for your pet and may even help us to identify problems early in their course.

Preventative medications – Preventatives such as heartworm medication and flea and tick preventative can be essential to keep healthy pets healthy.

Spaying or neutering – If not breeding your pet, spaying or neutering them is essential to prevent many types of cancer and other health problems.

Dental care – Routine dental care and cleanings can prevent serious problems including pain, infection, and disease of major organs including the heart, liver, and kidneys.

Importance of Preventative Care for Pets

No one wants a sick pet. Active preventative care for pets offers several great advantages. A proactive care approach can keep your pet healthier and happier over his or her lifetime.

Animals are not the best at letting us know when they are sick or hurting. Instinctual behaviors are often quite powerful, and may pets hide signs of problems until things are very bad. Because of this, oftentimes pet owners do not recognize that their pet may be in trouble until things are very advanced.

Good preventative care for pets can:

  • Prevent many problems and diseases before they become a problem
  • Result in better treatment outcomes when problems do exist as they tend to be caught earlier
  • Equate to less pet care costs due to disease prevention and early intervention
  • Even result in better quality and quantity of life for your pet

What’s not to like? Start this New Year off right and bring your pet in to get a preventative care program started if you haven’t already. After all who doesn’t want to celebrate more New Year’s Days with their furry friend?