We practice preventive medicine for dogs and cats to keep them healthy. Preventive medicine involves regularly scheduled exams and tests to detect problems early to identify and address them before they make your pet sick.
Routine lab tests include annual heartworm testing (a blood test), fecal parasite screening and other blood tests such as Complete Blood Cell Counts (CBC), blood chemistry screening to evaluate liver and kidney function, electrolyte, and blood sugar balance. Additional testing may be recommended to diagnose and monitor chronic conditions such as thyroid or endocrine diseases, for pets on daily medications and/ or to give us a baseline on your pets as they get older.
Vaccinations are part of preventive care. As we learn more about how well vaccines work and more about your animal’s unique lifestyle, including outdoor activities, doggie day care visits, grooming and travels, we come up with a vaccination plan that fits your animal’s needs and includes important boosters while avoiding unnecessary vaccines for your pets.
Parasite prevention and treatment is also an important part of preventive medicine. Even in our high desert environment we need to be aware of heartworms, fleas, ticks, skin parasites and intestinal parasites, and the other diseases that these parasites may carry. (See our pages on heartworm disease, fleas and plague, ticks and tularemia and intestinal parasites.) Medications to prevent heartworms, fleas, ticks, skin parasites and intestinal parasites are all available, and as we learn about your pet’s lifestyle, we design a parasite control plan that is tailored to help protect your pets (and you) from these parasites.
Call us to schedule an appointment for your pet’s annual physical exam, and we will cover all these subjects during your visit.