Scheduling your pet’s veterinary exam when they appear perfectly healthy may seem unnecessary, but regular wellness care is vital to your furry pal’s health, happiness, and wellbeing. Our Oak Creek Veterinary Care team explains why you should click Book an Appointment now to schedule your pet’s next wellness visit.

5 key benefits of regular wellness care for your pet

Regular wellness care is a cornerstone of your pet’s health and happiness, and these appointments are an important part of their overall preventive health care plan. Consider these five regular wellness care benefits:

  • We establish your pet’s healthy baseline — Although veterinary medicine has established standard reference ranges for blood work values and vital signs, your four-legged friend’s healthy levels may not fall within this normal realm. However, a pet’s “abnormal” results can be perfectly normal for them. By following your pet’s patterns over the years, our team can spot subtle changes that indicate when your furry pal is experiencing true abnormal diagnostic values.
  • We detect disease in its earliest stages — All too often, pet owners do not know that their cat or dog has a health issue until the problem has become advanced and their four-legged friend is significantly ill. However, through regular wellness care and screening tests, our team can detect disease at its earliest stage. Early detection testing offers the best prognosis, easiest treatment, and most affordable ongoing monitoring and care.
  • We help protect your pet from contracting infectious diseases — Pets can suffer from a host of infectious diseases and other health issues, but these conditions are preventable. For example, rigorous rabies vaccination protocols have virtually eliminated this deadly disease in U.S. pets. Other core vaccinations greatly reduce the severity of many conditions if your pet contracts a disease, often completely eliminating the transmission risk. Our team can also prescribe parasite prevention to help protect your pet from heartworm disease, fleas, tick-borne illnesses, and intestinal parasites, many of which can be transmitted to other pets or people.
  • We provide recommendations for keeping your pet healthy at home — While our team helps maintain your pet’s health through vaccinations and diagnostic screenings, you can also help ensure your furry pal’s wellbeing by establishing healthy habits at home. By learning how to brush your pet’s teeth, groom them, and manage their inappropriate behavior issues, you help keep your four-legged friend happy and healthy, and out of our hospital for illness and injury treatment.
  • We save you money — Although an annual or biannual veterinary visit seems counterintuitive to saving money, regular wellness care does exactly that. For example, you recognize that keeping up with your car’s regular maintenance helps your vehicle run properly, preventing costly breakdowns. In turn, when you budget for your furry pal’s regular wellness care, you help stave off a multitude of expensive health problems.

The importance of routine wellness care for pets

Scheduling your pet’s veterinary exam when they appear perfectly healthy may seem unnecessary, but regular wellness care is vital to your furry pal’s health, happiness, and wellbeing. If you have difficulty wrapping your brain around the importance of your furry pal’s routine wellness care, consider these common scenarios: 

  • Diamond’s dental disaster — A 5-year-old dachshund, Diamond was in the prime of her life and appeared perfectly healthy, except for that nasty doggy breath. Not thinking much of Diamond’s oral odor, her owner continued to feed her pooch her favorite canned diet, attributing her dog’s foul breath to the particularly pungent food. However, during Diamond’s annual wellness exam, her veterinarian discovered that she had a horrible case of dental disease. Despite exhibiting no poor oral health signs, other than bad breath, Diamond had severe gingivitis, excessive tartar buildup, and several loose teeth.

  • Rita’s renal disease — Rita, a grumpy 10-year-old cat, hadn’t visited her veterinarian in several years, mostly because she and her owner became extremely stressed when faced with her travel carrier. Plus, despite her sour outlook, Rita appeared to feel fine, and her owner concluded they were both better off avoiding the stress of dealing with the carrier. However, Rita’s owner decided she wanted to add another cat to the household, but she wanted to ensure Rita was healthy before doing so. Rita’s owner scheduled a veterinary wellness visit and managed to lure the cat into her carrier. Despite Rita’s unwillingness to cooperate, her veterinary team obtained a blood sample and ran geriatric blood work as part of her routine diagnostic screenings. One of Rita’s results indicated early stage kidney failure, which is common in older cats. Seeing that Rita had completely normal blood work during her last visit, which had been several years earlier, her veterinarian found this subtle kidney value change concerning. Typically, a pet does not exhibit signs associated with kidney disease until they lose about three-quarters of their kidney function. Therefore, an early detection screening test that focuses specifically on kidney function is critical for older cats. By diagnosing Rita’s chronic renal failure at such an early stage, her veterinarian was able to manage her condition successfully for many years to come.

Your pet’s preventive care is essential to their continued health and wellbeing, so ensure they attend their annual wellness visit. To help keep your pet in tip-top shape, schedule their preventive care appointment with our Oak Creek Veterinary Care team.