Pet Health and Wellness

Wellness is more than a check-up; it is a comprehensive plan for healthy living. Together, we will create a plan that is unique to your companion animal’s age and lifestyle, as well as your needs and desires. We recommend annual examinations, even if your pet’s vaccines are up to date. Animals age more10 rapidly than humans and conditions may change suddenly. Obesity, dental infections, ear infections, and tumors of the skin or elsewhere are the most common conditions to be present without the owner noticing. Prevention is the key — detecting the problem early is less expensive and your pet avoids the pain and discomfort of a more involved procedure.

Blood and Urine Screening Tests

Periodic blood and urine tests are run to verify that all internal organs are normal. During a physical examination, we can see the outside of your pet, listen to the heart, and palpate the abdomen to detect pain or enlarged organs/masses. Without blood and urine chemistries, we are often unable to diagnose a subclinical disease or problem in its early stage. These procedures detect problems such as low-grade anemia, infections, diabetes, kidney failure, urinary infection, and bladder stones.

If your pet is clinically ill, we run these tests to find the problem. It could be that this problem started months ago without showing any symptoms. Many times we see animals that the owner says “just became sick,” and we can tell that the pet had been declining for weeks or months.

A simple sign — such as weight loss — can easily go unnoticed in a small cat or a very large dog. Weight loss is often the sign of something amiss internally, such as cancer or kidney failure. Drinking more than normal amounts of water is typically a sign of early kidney failure or diabetes. Diagnostic blood and urine screens are simple and relatively noninvasive tests, yielding a wealth of important information.

The typical wellness visit includes the following:

• Comprehensive physical exam—Eyes, ears, skin, coat, teeth, and internal organs.
• Blood work—Detects organ disease before your pet has signs of illness.
• Urinalysis—Detects protein in the urine, early infection, and crystal/stones.
• Internal parasites—Testing stool for worms.
• Heartworm—Blood test to be sure your pet is free of this mosquito-born disease.
• External parasites—Set up prevention program.
• Vaccinations—Set schedule.
• Spay or neuter—For any non-breeding pets.

For both internal and external parasites, we will recommend the appropriate treatment and preventives. We will also discuss proper nutrition and feeding for your animal, as well as a suitable exercise program.

This is also a great time to review any behavioral problems you have been having and, for those that are being introduced to existing animals, discuss their integration into the household or herd. At MarketPlace, we are here to assist you in all of your animal care needs.

For informative articles and videos on a wide variety of pet care topics, see our Pet Care page.