The Importance of a Pet Wellness Exam

Pet wellness exams are as important as any of your regular medical checkups. Your veterinarian can detect medical problems at an early stage before they become worse. Preventable diseases in pets are rising because pet owners are not taking their pets for regular visits to the vet.

What Is a Wellness Exam?

A wellness exam is a thorough physical examination done on your pet by their vet. Its main aim is to detect early diseases or infections and curb them before spreading into something life-threatening.

What Happens During a Wellness Exam?

Pet wellness exams entail several steps. Your vet will need a history of the lifestyle your pet lived. They will then record the pulse and respiration rates. They will conduct a head-to-tail evaluation as well as every part of the pet's body.

After analyzing your pet's entire body, your vet will give you a recommendation. This may include pain management, nutritional counseling, dental care, or behavioral advice. Your vet will advise about any vaccinations the pet needs based on the lifestyle your pet lives.

Vets conduct intestinal parasite screening and heartworm testing annually to prevent illnesses that endanger the pet’s life or that can cross over to people. Your vet can do some lab tests if necessary. Based on the findings from the wellness exam, you will get recommendations to help in achieving and maintaining good health for your pet.

How Often Should Pets Have a Wellness Exam?

Your pet’s vet will advise on the frequency of the wellness exams based on your pet’s lifestyle, breed, age, and medical history. Pets with a medical problem may need more checkups than healthy pets. Most vets recommend yearly checkups for pets below seven years, and for older ones, wellness exams after every six months.

What Gets Checked During a Wellness Exam

Your vet will look for the following issues and conditions:
 

• Behavior – Your vet can rule out some medical issues when you discuss the behavioral patterns of your pet. If they do not find any disease, you can ask if there is any medication that can modify your pet’s behavior.
   

• Weight – The vet will check nutritional health using the pet’s weight.
   

• Dental problems – The vet will do a thorough examination of your pet’s dental and oral health. They can recommend teeth cleaning if there is a need for it.
   

• Infections, skin conditions, tumors, allergies – Your vet can detect abnormalities on your pet’s fur and skin through a thorough examination.
   

• Eye disease – The vet will look for and treat issues that affect your pet’s vision, such as glaucoma or cataracts.
   

• Heart and lung disease - The vet will use a stethoscope to detect potential heart or lung problems.
   

• Parasites – They will detect and treat diseases carried by ticks, fleas, tapeworms, and roundworms to help prevent the spread of deadly diseases.

Importance of Wellness Exams

Your pet has an innate ability to hide illness. Regularly scheduled wellness exams can detect and address preventable diseases, such as dental disease, ear infections, and obesity. Your vet can also do early screening for kidney disease, arthritis, and diabetes.

The ultimate result of keeping up with your pet’s routine wellness exams is the early detection of illnesses. Prevention provided by the wellness exams also allows your pet to live a happy, healthy, and long life.

For more about pet wellness exams, visit Community Pet Outreach at our office in Lewisville, Texas. You can also call (972) 848-8930 to book an appointment today.