Health checks for pets are vital to ensure their continued well-being.
Health checks are important, especially when considering one year of a dog's life is equivalent to seven years of a human life - how often would you visit your doctor in a seven-year period?
- Regular six-month health checks
- Annual health checks
- Adolescent health checks
- Repeat prescription health checks
Regular six-month health checks
Regular checks are very important because your pets cannot tell you when they have aches and pains or are feeling under the weather - often they simply appear quieter than usual.
This is why we encourage clients to have regular health checks for their pet, at least every six months. The other types of health checks we perform are listed below.
Annual health checks
These are carried out at your pet's annual booster vaccination and include a thorough examination along with answering any questions you may have. We will ask about your pet's drinking, eating and toileting habits as well as more general questions about their behaviour and exercise patterns. Quite often information gained from asking an owner about their pet's routines can be vital in detecting early symptoms of disease or illness. A full clinical examination by the vet will follow which will include sounding the heart, listening to the lungfields, checking carefully for signs of problems with the eyes, ears or mouth, assessing joint movement and close inspection of the coat and skin amongst other things. Only once we are satisfied that your pet is fit and healthy will we go ahead and give the necessary vaccinations.
Adolescent health checks
Your new pup will receive a card in the post indicating that their six-month adolescent health check is due. This is a consultation with a veterinary surgeon and is important due to the many changes going on in your pet’s dynamic life at this stage. It gives the vet an excellent opportunity to assess your pet's progress and condition in various areas e.g. teething, behaviour, diet, growth rate and much more.
It is an ideal opportunity for the owner to discuss any queries they may have. The timing is important since a lot of potential problems, if picked up early enough, can be avoided if the correct action is taken. It is also a good time to discuss neutering, worming, flea control and micro chipping (carried out at 8 weeks in dogs).
If you are on our Pet Health for Life Plan then the adolescent health check, micro chipping, flea control and worming will all have been included (and discounted) in the initial cost of the plan.
Repeat prescription health checks
Apart from the many clinics and health checks run by our team of qualified veterinary nurses, another routine health check performed on your pet will be a repeat prescription check-up for those animals on continuous medication.
This consists of a consultation with a veterinary surgeon and is required if your pet requires a repeat prescription but has not been seen by us within the previous 3-6 months.
Animals on continuous medication that have been seen at the practice within 3-6 months can have their medication collected over the counter without the need for an appointment. Owners are requested to phone in the prescription order at least 48 hours in advance if possible since each individual prescription must be checked and authorised by a veterinary surgeon.
