Preventive care is crucial to the lifelong health of your beloved pet. It helps to prevent conditions and address any potential concerns before they get too serious. Here, our vets talk more about the importance of preventive care for your pet and how your dog or cat would benefit from routine pet checkups in Rochester.
The Importance of Preventive Care For Pets
Preventive care is about maintaining your pet's good health and providing the care they need to give them their best possible chance at living a long and healthy life. Preventive care for pets starts with routine pet wellness exams in Rochester either annually or twice yearly depending on the needs of your dog or cat.
What exactly is preventive care?
Preventative care begins with routine prevention exams, scheduled either once or twice per year depending on your dog's unique needs. These routine exams are health checkups for your pet.
By bringing your furry friend in to see the vet, even when they appear perfectly healthy, you are giving your pet's healthcare professionals an opportunity to check for early signs of developing concerns, and to monitor your pet's overall health as it evolves over time. By getting to know your pet and their general health, our team is more easily able to spot uncharacteristic changes that can be an indication of a health concern.
By catching health problems in the very earliest stages, our veterinarians are able to begin treatment early, before the illness becomes severe and complications develop. In fact, health problems are typically most easily treated with diagnosed early, giving your pet their best shot at a good outcome.
Identifying health issues such as ear infections, gastrointestinal parasites, or cancer before their obvious symptoms appear means that treatment can begin when it is most effective, helping to prevent the spread of the disease or worse.
What You Can Do at Home to Keep Your Pet Healthy
You love your pets, but caring for their health is a big responsibility, That said, caring for your pet's health doesn't need to be complicated, simply focus on lots of love and follow these easy steps to help prevent health issues from developing:
- Ensure that you provide your pet with a nutritious and well-balanced diet
- Monitor your pet's weight and make adjustments as needed
- Help your pet get lots of exercise (This includes cats)
- Make sure that your pet is microchipped
- Keep toxic chemicals, foods and plants out of reach
Why are routine vet checkups in Rochester important?
Ideally, your pet should be seen for a routine physical exam by your veterinarian once or twice a year, even if the animal seems perfectly healthy. Regular wellness checkups help you and your vet team support your pet's good health and happiness.
By regularly attending wellness checks even when your pet seems healthy, you allow your veterinarian the opportunity to assess your pet's general health and test for diseases, illnesses, and conditions that can be hard to spot early on (including cancers and parasites).
Potentially serious medical conditions benefit from early treatment. During the checkup, your vet has two goals: to prevent health conditions from developing where possible and to spot early signs of disease so that they can be treated before they develop into more severe issues.
Here is what you can expect your vet to do during your cat or dog's checkup in Rochester:
- Listen to your pet's heart and lungs
- Check your pet's weight and stance
- Palpate your pet's abdomen to check for signs of discomfort
- Look at your pet's feet and nails for damage or signs of more serious health concerns
- Look at your pet's ears for signs of bacterial infection, ear mites, wax build-up, or polyps
- Inspect your cat or dog's coat for overall condition, dandruff, or abnormal hair loss
- Examine your pet's teeth for any indications of periodontal disease, damage or decay
- Examine your dog or cat's skin for a range of issues
- Check your pet's eyes for signs of redness, cloudiness, eyelid issues, excessive tearing, or discharge
- Feeling along your pet's body for any signs of illness
Note: The advice provided in this post is intended for informational purposes and does not constitute medical advice regarding pets. For an accurate diagnosis of your pet's condition, please make an appointment with your vet.