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You’ve heard it many times – your pet should see a veterinarian at least once a year for a preventive health visit or an annual wellness exam. But what if you don’t think there’s anything wrong? Why is this necessary? Is it really necessary?

Say Yes to the Preventive Health Care Visit!

You might not realize how important this regular physical check-up is to your pet’s health. The veterinarians commonly find signs of disease, and when found early, something can be done:  more diagnostic tests might be needed and then medical treatment or surgery can be done in a timely fashion.

A long and healthy life. That’s what we all want and that’s why the preventive health exam is one of the best things you can do for your pet!

WHY?

As veterinarians we want to help animals, to care for animals, and to make them better. Every day we see pets that have diseases or conditions that could have been prevented – either altogether, or at least prevented from being so debilitating.

Pets age more quickly than people do. They have a faster metabolic rate, faster heart rates and shorter life spans, so physiology and pathology go a little quicker as well.  Many people have a physical check-up once a year by their own doctor or they get screening blood tests, ECGs, ultrasounds, and other tests.  Many conditions can be detected early and dealt with.  If you would be checked yourself once a year, shouldn’t your pet, who is growing, aging, changing so much faster at least have a health check-up that often?

Pets can’t tell us in so many words if something “just isn’t right”. They may limp, they may groan, then may refuse to eat, but by this time there is something really wrong.  You may think you’ll know if your pet is sick, but many pets, especially cats, hide their feelings and hide any signs of anything being abnormal.  As veterinarians we are trained to examine, to listen, to touch, to smell, to feel and to look for problems. What cannot be detected with a physical exam may be picked up with blood tests, x-rays, or ultrasound.  All these procedures can become very valuable in detecting a problem early on so that treatment can be started early on as well.

WHAT SHOULD I EXPECT?

An annual physical exam allows the veterinarian to assess how things are going at different stages of your dog or cat’s life.  The doctor will discuss concerns and answer any questions you may have about diet, exercise, dental care, behavioural problems, and vaccinations.

The doctor will check vital signs: the temperature, pulse or heart rate, and respiratory rate. These should all be normal.

Then the doctor will check all the parts of the body.

The nose: Looking for abnormal discharge or swelling.

The eyes:  Looking into the eyes and around them for internal eye problems, discharges, abnormal colour, redness, and lumps on the lids.

The mouth: (this is a big one!) The doctor looks inside at the tongue and roof of the mouth, but most importantly at the gums and teeth.  Do you know that 85% of pets have some form of dental disease? Gingivitis, periodontitis, broken teeth, BAD breath. I see this all the time. Sometimes you may not have even thought to look into your dog’s mouth to see what’s going on in there.

The ears: Itchy, smelly, red? Painful or causing head shaking?  Ear infections are also pretty common.

The lymph nodes: there are many of these all over the body. Some at the neck, shoulders and hind legs are palpated.

No, it’s not a massage!  Even though sometimes it seems your dog is just getting a good rub down, a big part of the physical exam includes palpation. This just means feeling for lumps, swellings, pain, hard areas that shouldn’t be hard and soft areas that shouldn’t be soft.  The sense of touch is very important. It’s a real hands-on exam!

The abdomen, chest and muscles will also be palpated, checking for abnormal masses or pain.

The heart: The doctor will listen to the dog or cat’s heart with a stethoscope. They are listening for the rate (not too fast, not too slow), and for rhythm or abnormal sounds, like a heart murmur, for instance.

The lungs: Using the stethoscope as well, the vet is listening for congestion and abnormal sounds.

The coat, skin, overall body condition are assessed. We want a shiny coat and not flaky, dry, itchy skin. We don’t want any parasites!  And of course we don’t want to be too, ahem … fat and not too thin either.

The back, legs, and tail: The veterinarian is checking for pain, swelling, lumps, signs of arthritis, and any abnormalities in movement.

WHAT ABOUT VACCINATIONS?

The veterinarian will recommend vaccinations based on your pet’s age, species, lifestyle, and what sort of diseases exist around this area. Every year we see pet’s with diseases that could have been prevented by proper vaccinations.

 

WHAT CAN I DO?

There are many things you can dog between veterinary visits based on the findings of the exam and the recommendations of the doctor.

Good nutrition, staying at a healthy weight, dental home care, exercise and massage, grooming tips, pain management, and medications as needed are all evaluated, prescribed, and recommended for your particular dog or very particular cat!

In veterinary college we were taught about “fire engine” medicine, which is when you deal with emergencies and serious conditions. You put out fires.  Necessary, yes definitely, but very unfortunate if those fires could have been prevented.

We were also taught about preventive medicine. It would be so much better for your cat or dog and you if a disease was prevented before it was a three-alarm fire.

Look at it this way:  wouldn’t it be better to purchase a smoke detector or carbon-monoxide detector rather than deal with a house fire or worse?

And we all know the old saying, “An ounce of prevention…”

 

 

If you’re getting a new puppy or kitten this spring, you need to plan on vaccinating your pet. If you want to brush up on what this means and what it’s all about, you’ve come to the right place!

 

What’s all the fuss about?
There’s another world out there living with us that we cannot see, but we can see the effects of its existence. This is the micro world of bacteria and viruses – the tiniest of organisms that can only be seen with a microscope and, in the case of viruses, only a very powerful one at that.
All organisms want to live, to survive, and to reproduce. Many so-called “bad” bacteria and viruses survive best in living tissue. Different families of these tiny bugs prefer to live in certain species of animals and invade certain areas of the body. Well, as you know, your pet’s body is also trying to survive and thrive. Fortunately it has been provided with its very own security back up response team – the immune system.

 

The immune system is made up of many workers and soldiers, but the ones most pertinent to our story are the cells that produce antibodies, the lymphocytes. These are tiny white blood cells that live in the blood stream and the tissues. Their job is to survey their surroundings and look for foreigners – those bacterial and viral invaders. Once they meet someone who doesn’t belong, they start to form very specific weapons against them called antibodies. These antibodies work to kill, slow, debilitate and hopefully just give the bad bug the boot out of the animal’s body.

The body needs to be exposed to bacteria and viruses in order to make its own antibodies, or it needs to be given the antibodies through another route.

 

When a baby kitten or puppy is born, its immune system is not yet mature; the baby is wide open for infection. Fortunately, the mother produces a first milk, colostrum, which is rich in antibodies. The antibodies from the mom will be passed on to the baby through the baby’s intestines during the first 24-48 hours of life. This protection shared from mom to baby lasts for only a period of time, however, and how long that is varies between individual puppies or kittens. We DO know that by 14-20 weeks of age, maternal antibodies are gone and the baby must be able to continue on its own immune system.

In the meantime, since we don’t know how the mother’s antibodies are doing, we give inactivated vaccines to puppies and kittens at about every 3-4 week intervals in order to give some early protection before their own immunity is really strong.

What are vaccines and why are they needed?
Vaccines can be thought of as little tiny bits of the bacteria or viruses that have been inactivated (killed or modified live), meaning they can’t cause the disease, but they resemble the bug enough to trigger the immune system. The immune system recognizes something foreign and makes its weapons against it. In this way, if it were ever to now come in contact with the real live, fighting bacteria or virus, it’s already prepared and can swiftly conquer the enemy before any signs of illness are even detected.

 

Common diseases that we see in puppies in kittens in this area are caused by viruses and bacteria and therefore we want to vaccinate them in order to prevent disease. This helps not only your pup or kitten, but also helps to decrease the spread of the disease in the general population.

Common core diseases in dogs:
• Parvoviral enteritis – otherwise known as “Parvo” – caused by canine parvovirus
• Canine distemper – caused by Canine Distemper Virus
• Some types of pneumonia and respiratory disease – caused by Canine Adenovirus Type 2 and/or Parainfluenza virus
• Canine infectious tracheobronchitis – caused by Bordetella bronchiseptica bacteria

In cats, common core diseases in our area are:
• Feline Upper Respiratory Disease – caused by Feline Herpes Virus (Rhinotracheitis) or Calici virus
• Feline Panleukopenia – Caused by Feline Panleukopenia virus (which is related to canine parvovirus, but not the same)
We recommend puppyhood and kitten hood vaccinations against the above viruses and bacteria. This means regular visits to your veterinarian during the first few months of life.

Ideally puppies and kittens should be vaccinated against the above infections at age 8 weeks, 12 weeks, and 16 weeks.
VERY IMPORTANT: It’s just not enough to vaccinate your pet once at 6 weeks of age. That would be like playing Russian roulette. In fact, the most important vaccine a kitten or puppy can have is at 15-16 weeks of age, when his or her immune system is mature enough to produce its own antibodies. Multiple vaccines during the first 2 to 4 months of age are the best way to help prevent disease.

There is also Rabies – caused by the Rabies virus – which, while not common in our area, is a serious disease with human implications and can be completely prevented with the vaccine.

We vaccinate against these diseases because many of them are very serious and even fatal. They may require aggressive hospital treatment and may have lifelong effects if the pet survives.
We want to help you help your puppy or kitten to have the best fighting chance against them.

Vaccinations are the way to go.
Make the appointment with your veterinarian and ask more questions about how vaccines can prevent disease in your kitten or puppy this spring!

 

Every day we provide food for our pets. They depend on us for this basic need. They don’t have to make the decision of what to cook tonight after work; they’re not tempted at the grocery store or the weekend party to make the not-so-healthy-food choice. We decide for them and they eat. What a great opportunity we have to give them good health by controlling what they eat!

There are a lot of pet foods available in all shapes and sizes and blends and types.  Many of them are very good but some aren’t so good, depending on many factors.  We all know that we could survive by eating junk food day after day, but would our health be optimal?  As humans, we thrive on certain amounts of protein, fats, carbohydrates (macronutrients), certain amounts of fiber, and then enough vitamins and minerals (micronutrients).  The same is true for cats and dogs.

Make sure what you feed your cat or dog has been properly formulated and well-balanced for them.  Cats and dogs are not small people.  They need different nutrition than you and I do.

Cats are carnivores – they need meat.   They need a higher protein and lower carbohydrate diet than dogs.  They need the amino acid, taurine, to be provided in the diet.  Cats will do better, especially with age, if they eat a wet food or a combination of wet and dry.

Dog are omnivores – plants and meat. They still need a good balance of macro and micronutrients – one that is formulated for dogs.    It’s very important that young, growing, large breed dogs are not fed a diet too high in calories – as it would promote rapid weight gain and rapid growth, ultimately leading to joint and bone problems.

Some breeds of dogs would benefit from a lower fat diet. Others, depending on the activity level, size, and environment would do better with lower or higher caloric intake from carbohydrates.

 

 

Food is medicine.  Many specially formulated veterinary diets are made to be an important part of the treatment of certain diseases and conditions – diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease, skin disease, and pancreatitis. Your veterinarian will often prescribe food as part of the treatment plan.

Pet foods that are made by a reputable company have been formulated after rigorous research and testing and safety checks.  These days knowing what’s in your pet’s food is more important than ever.

Talk to your veterinarian or one of the knowledgeable staff about nutrition.  We can help you choose food and choose wisely.