Keep your pet healthy with regular check ups. 

Twice yearly examinations are important.  Today most aspects of veterinary medicine are geared toward preventative care.  The best money spent on health care is the dollar spent to keep your animal healthy.  Preventing a problem eliminates pain and discomfort that occurs as a result of illness.  Also preventing a problem means you don’t have under take costly treatments or surgery to make your animal well again. It is our goal to provide your pets with a long life and the highest quality of life possible.

Many times animals are sick and don’t let you know they are ill until the problem has become critical.  A regular wellness exam can identify medical problems early. In some cases early evaluation of your pet can prevent disease all together.

Pets age faster than people

Dogs and cats age seven times faster than people. Most of us don’t need a medical checkup more than once a year, but dogs and cats are different.  Pets on average, age up to seven times faster than humans. By the age of two they are adults. At age 7 dogs and cats are considered seniors and by age 10 they are geriatric.

Twice a year wellness exams are a critical part of your pet’s health care. A long with a check up, laboratory tests on blood and urine are very important.  Pets, especially cats, and some dogs will hide the signs of illness until they are almost at a crisis stage. Conditions such as dental disease, kidney and liver disease, anemia, arthritis, allergies, heart disease and other medical problems can be diagnosed early. Some cancers, especially skin cancer can also be cured if diagnosed early and treated aggressively.

Parasite Alert!!

Parasitic Zoonoses area diseases caused by parasites, primarily of animals, that can be transmitted to people.  The growing popularity of cats and dogs and the high rate of parasitic (worm) infections have resulted in widespread soil contamination from infected eggs and larvae.  Since children often play outside they are the most at risk for disease transmission.  The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends a microscopic fecal examination for each pet every 6 months to check for internal parasites.  This is especially important if you have children in your home.

Vaccinations

The American Veterinary Medical Association, American Animal Hospital Association, and the American Association of Feline Parishioners, recently published guidelines stating that vaccines should be administered on a case-by-case basis to pets.

Finlayson Animal Hospital and Alpine Animal Clinic have adopted a modified vaccination protocol.  We use a risk base approach to vaccinations: using the most up-to-date vaccines available.  Different pets have differing life styles and environments and therefore different exposure to infectious disease.  A few core vaccines are essential for all pets.  Any additional non-core vaccines are determined by evaluating your pets risk to infection by diseases for which we have available vaccines.

Quality information on line

A good source for informatiton about many animal diseases is VeterinaryPartners.com.  This is a web site for none veterinarians to get accurate and up to date information about many problems that animals develop.