How Wellness Pet Exams Can Help Detect and Prevent Health Problems

Bringing your pet in for wellness exams can help you gain a better picture of your pet’s health. The American Veterinary Medical Association recommends these exams to give your fur kid the right help at the right time. Knowing how pet wellness exams can help prevent and detect health issues can help your pet live a happier, healthier life. Here are the details:

Why Wellness Exams Are Important

Prevention and early detection are crucial to maintaining your pet’s general health. Catching a disease in its early stages takes less effort, expense, and difficulty to resolve. The treatments at this stage are often successful. Your veterinarian will consider your pet’s breed, general health, age, and lifestyle when recommending a wellness program.

What Your Veterinarian Looks For

Your veterinarian will look at many different areas during the pet wellness exam. It aims to detect the slightest changes in your pet’s health. This allows your pet to receive early treatments or adjustments to prevent the disease from worsening. Here are some areas that your veterinarian will check during a pet wellness exam:

• Checking your pet’s dental health will allow your veterinarian to detect any oral problems that could affect your pet’s general health. The veterinarian will look for signs of tartar, gingivitis, and loose teeth. Dental problems can lead to heart and kidney issues.
   

• Inspecting your pet’s ears can help your veterinarian treat any infection. It can detect any growth inside the ears as well. Your veterinarian can also clean your pet’s ears the right way. Doing so can prevent ear infections from happening.
   

• Examining your pet’s hair and skin for many issues, such as infections, parasites, and hair loss, can help prevent or treat these problems.
   

• Checking the eyes of specific breeds can help prevent or spot ulcers, cataracts, or glaucoma. Necessary treatments will follow.
   

• Inspecting the lungs and heart can help spot issues or prevent them from occurring. Managing these diseases is possible, especially if the veterinarian catches them early.
   

• Examining bones, muscles, and joints is possible during the wellness exam. Your veterinarian can start treating muscle loss, gait changes, and limping right away. Lifestyle changes are often necessary.
   

• Checking the abdomen is possible by palpation. The veterinarian will do this to see if there are vital organs with abnormal sizes. Large kidneys may show renal failure. A large spleen may indicate a tumor.

Routine Tests

Your veterinarian will perform routine testing on younger pets. This will allow the veterinarian to gather baseline data for your pet’s health. Older pets can also go through breed- or species-specific routine tests. Here are some of these tests:

• The heartworm test is an annual test. This ensures that your pet stays free from this deadly parasite.
   

• Blood tests can help with older tests. This can reveal diabetes and anemia.
   

• Stool exams can reveal internal parasites that may be hiding in your pet’s gastrointestinal tract. Deworming can prevent the worsening of parasitic infestations.
   

• Urinalysis can test your pet’s urine for diabetes, kidney problems, or infections.

Wellness exams can help your pet have a long, happy, and healthy life. At Boca Chica Animal Hospital & Pet Resort, we provide only high-quality treatments for your pet’s health and well-being. Please bring your pet to our facility in Brownsville, Texas, for an in-person consultation. Call 956-541-5249 to set up an appointment or learn more about our pet wellness exam packages.