pet care topics

Wellness
We use the term Wellness to refer to preventive medicine and the tools that are available to us in the veterinary field. In general, anything we do to maintain or improve the quality of life for our patients can be considered an aspect of wellness. This can include proper nutrition, annual veterinary examinations, dental care, appropriate vaccinations (based on risks), and preventive medications (such as heartworm). Wellness tools can also include gastrointestinal parasites testing, blood evaluations, urinalysis, and x-rays.

There is a significant amount of information that supports the value of early detection of disease and preventive management in improving the quality of life of pets (and decreasing overall cost to pet owners).

Although pets of any age can develop diseases and illnesses and certainly can benefit from all aspects of Wellness, it is our older (senior) patients that are more likely to have significant concerns. We consider dogs over 6 yrs old and cats over 8 yrs old as Senior.

Our Wellness Testing for dogs and cats is intended to identify changes in the blood that may lead to the early detection of irregularities related to many internal organs including the kidneys, liver, adrenal glands and thyroid gland. This year we have also added a Complete Blood Count (CBC) to evaluate red and white blood cells and platelets to give even more information. When appropriate, a Heartworm test is included. The importance of Wellness Testing can not be over stressed and in an effort to fit your budget, the price has been set at a fraction of what other facilities might charge.

In an attempt to gather even more valuable information, we now offer a second option called Advanced Wellness Testing that checks additional blood parameters and includes a Complete Urinalysis. This option is aggressively priced to provide exceptional value. All pets can benefit from Wellness Testing and it is strongly recommended for:
• senior pets
• pre-anesthetic screening
• pets with ongoing medications
• pets with previous blood work abnormalities

Please do not hesitate to ask us more about this extremely important topic.