Routine pet care is vital to the lifelong health and well-being of your pet. Annual exams including vaccinations and parasite prevention can help keep them strong and healthy. Our Deer Park vets offer a routine pet care checklist and talk about how dog and cat veterinary wellness plans can help take the stress away from ongoing care.
Routine Wellness Exams to Help You Care For Your Pet
Throughout your dog or cat's life, they will require ongoing veterinary care from preventive care to protect them through each stage to routine examinations to monitor for other health concerns.
Our Deer Park vets are able to care for your pet at any age, providing care that is tailored to their specific needs starting with routine wellness exams.
Your veterinarian is your partner in your pet's healthcare, and we're passionate about educating pet owners about what type of care your cat or dog will need, and how often. Having a quick pet care checklist to keep on hand for reference (and planning these items on a calendar) will help to ensure your pet gets to all their annual visits, vaccine, grooming and dental appointments.
In this post, we'll share which tasks your vet should perform and what every pet owner should budget time and financial resources for.
Checklist For Annual Dog Veterinary Care
While your vet focuses on checking your dog's health status from head to toe and keeping vaccinations up to date, there are daily tasks every pooch parent will need to keep on top of at home.
Here are the routine care items that your vet will focus on during your dog or cat's routine wellness exam:
- Routine Exams
- Vaccinations
- Grooming
- Dental Hygiene
- Fleas and ticks
- Worming (heartworm and intestinal)
The following is a list of areas that you will need to address when you have your dog at home:
- Bathing, Cleaning & Brushing - It's important to bathe and brush your dog at home in between professional grooming sessions to maintain their clean coat.
- Feeding - Your cat or dog needs a consistent feeding schedule to stay healthy and thrive.
- Exercise - Your cat or dog needs a lot of exercise - make sure you get your daily walks, plenty of outside time and bonding time in.
Checklist For Annual Cat Veterinary Care
Your cat will require care from both our vets at Deer Park Animal Hospital and from you at home.
Here are some of the areas that your vet will focus on when performing routine care:
- Dental Cleanings
- Fleas and ticks
- Worming (Heartworm and intestinal)
- Grooming
- Vaccinations
- Physical checkups
Here are some of the key areas of care that you will need to address at home:
- Housing - Cats need their own space inside your home - a cat tree, condo or other structure to climb on, sleep in and scratch on (without ruining your new sofa).
- Toys - It's important for cats to have the mental and physical stimulation they need to stay entertained. High-quality toys will stand up to their claws and teeth and keep their minds sharp.
- Cleaning - Cats are fastidious self-groomers. However, if you notice a lack of grooming you'll want to contact the veterinarian right away as this may point to a more serious health issue.
- Play & Exercise - While cats spend many hours a day sleeping, they do require exercise and playtime. It's important to ensure they have enough space to run around.
- Feeding - Similar to dogs, cats benefit from being on a feeding routine and getting fed at the same time every day. In fact, they prefer a schedule. Maintaining a feeding schedule will be important for your pet's well-being.
Veterinary Wellness Plans at Deer Park Animal Hospital
While each clinic will offer a different selection of services with a pet wellness plan, they will all generally cover the basic needs when it comes to routine exams and preventive care. Regardless of what services are included, all pet wellness plans have a goal of keeping your pet healthy while keeping care affordable.
Cat and Dog Wellness Plans Help You Budget For Preventive Care
Veterinary wellness plans are able to combine the cost of annual routine care for your dog or cat and split it into equal monthly payments. This makes planning and budgeting for their care much simpler.
Discounts on Services & Products Are Available With Pet Wellness Plans
Pet wellness plans can save you money in two great ways. When bundling your pet's annual preventive services into veterinary wellness plans most vets then apply a discount to that annual cost to help save you money meaning that you are paying less for those services just by making monthly payments for your pet's plan.
But there is a second way that pet wellness plans can help save you money. Many vets will also offer veterinary wellness plan holders a discount on other services offered by their hospital. While some restrictions apply, this additional discount can add up to substantial cost savings.
With Veterinary Wellness Plans You Won't Need to Wait For Care
Our vets believe that prevention is the key to helping your pet live a long and healthy life. But many pet parents find themselves putting off their pet's parasite prevention and vaccines due to concerns about cost. Cat and dog wellness plans make paying for your pet's preventive care more affordable, which means no more delays! That's great news for both you and your pet.
Year-round protection against common conditions and parasites will help to preserve your pet's long-term health and prevent the need to pay for costly treatments further down the road.
You Can Keep Good Pet Care Habits With Dog and Cat Wellness Plans
The main point of a wellness plan is that you have already paid for the services, and this makes you more likely to schedule your pet for care. Pet wellness plans help to ensure that pet parents make time for essential veterinary wellness that might otherwise be neglected such as annual checkups and fecal exams for their pets.
Your vet will use this routine visit as an opportunity to examine your dog or cat for any concerning symptoms that they may be experiencing. These appointments also give you a chance to speak to your vet about any concerns you might have about your pet's health, behavior, nutrition...or anything really. Allowing your vet to provide you with informative advice on how to help your pet achieve optimal health.
Your vet will perform a fecal exam which can give them a good indication of the health of your pet's intestines and whether or not they are dealing with any parasites. Some internal parasites can be passed to humans, your pet's fecal exam helps to protect your health too!
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.