Wellness & Preventive Care

Preventative Veterinary Care in Edmond, OK

Prevention Is the Best Medicine for Your Pets

For humans and pets alike, avoiding illness altogether is better than needing to treat an illness. Preventing disease in your pets is one of the best things you can do to ensure that they live long, happy lives. At Family Pet Hospital, we’re here to help your pets live healthy lives. We emphasize preventative care for your pets as one of our core services.

Overview

We follow your pet through the many phases of their lives. From specialized and preventative care during their younger years to regular wellness checks as they age, we seek to prevent and detect problems before they arise. We know your pet is important to you, that's why we work hard to ensure they are given only the best in care through all the years of their lives.

The American Animal Hospital Association recommends that your pet have a wellness exam at least once every year. As your pet ages, they recommend having even more. We believe strongly in preventive care and have developed wellness protocols for every stage of the life of your pet. Depending on your pet’s life stage, vaccines may be administered, as well as disease screenings.

Why are wellness exams important?

Wellness exams give us a chance to evaluate the overall health of your pet while also giving us a baseline for their own unique bodies and tendencies. They also allow us to detect potential problems before they become serious, and even make your pet more familiar with our veterinary hospital, making future visits easier on them and you.

Care Plans for Your Pets

What does a preventative care plan look like?

• Regular wellness exams

• Annual blood tests

• Annual urinalysis

• Parasite prevention

• Vaccinations

• Spaying or neutering

• Microchipping

Each of the steps above help us to establish a baseline of health for your pet. This baseline will help us pinpoint when there are changes in your pet’s health, enabling us to act quickly before a disease worsens. Keeping on top of your pet’s health as a regular practice can help increase your pet’s happiness and longevity.

Personalized Attention

We know that your pet is unique. Our veterinary professionals at Family Pet Hospital work with you to customize a preventative care plan specific to your pet. We factor in your pet’s age, breed, and life stage, among other considerations, when developing a care plan for your pet. For example, some breeds may be more prone to certain diseases that could impact their quality of life down the road. Senior pets have special needs that adolescent pets don’t. We’ll work with you to understand your pet’s medical history as part of developing a preventative care plan that best suits your pet.

Factors that might affect your pet’s preventative care plan include:

• Age

• Breed

• Preexisting conditions

• Lifestyle

• Behavior

• Diet

• Weight

• Household environment

• Activity level

When you visit us at Family Pet Hospital in Edmond for preventative care for your pet, we take a thorough look at all of your pet’s characteristics and risk factors before coming up with a plan that’s right for them. At Family Pet Hospital, we’ll do everything we can to make sure your pet lives their best life.

When should my pet visit the vet?

We believe in preventative medicine as the best approach to keeping our patients healthy. This includes annual wellness examinations, vaccinations on a one- or three-year basis, external and internal parasite prevention, and dietary management. Our doctors will help determine what vaccinations are appropriate according to you and your pet’s needs. We will discuss in detail what your options are to help you make the best possible health decisions for your pet.

How do wellness exams work?

During a wellness exam, our veterinary team will start out by taking your pet's vital signs. Our veterinarian will perform a comprehensive examination of your pet from nose to tail and may also perform diagnostic tests such as blood work, urinalysis, or intestinal parasite tests. Depending on your pet’s life stage, vaccines may be administered, as well as disease screenings for heartworm, kidney, liver, blood disorders, and more.

Wellness examinations do not necessarily mean that your pet is going to be subjected to complicated or costly medical tests and treatments. This allows us to prevent major health issues from developing undetected and gives us the opportunity to analyze and record baseline values such as temperature, body condition, and lab work. We measure these when your pet is healthy in order to provide better care in the event of illness or emergency. A dental health exam and a weight check are always important parts of a wellness exam, and may indicate problems that can progress rapidly and have significant impact on your pet's overall health.

Early detection and correction of medical problems will help to ensure that your pet will live a long, healthy, and active life.

I Have an Elderly Pet. Do I Still Need Preventative Care?

It’s never too soon or too late to start preventative care. Even senior pets can benefit from thinking ahead to prevent future disease. Preventative care for your senior pet can ensure that they live out their golden years happy and healthy.

Elderly pets have special needs that we take into consideration when structuring a preventative care plan for them. We’ll discuss your concerns about an aging pet and help you identify signs that your senior pet might be struggling. Knowledge is power! The sooner you notice changes in your pet, the sooner we can intervene.