Wellness Care
Annual Exams: This is an opportunity for you and your pet to meet with one of our doctors. The doctor examines your pet from head to toe. We have instruments that help us look deeply into eyes and ears and the doctor also palpates lymph nodes, abdomen and joints to detect any abnormalities. Of course an exam isn’t complete without listening to heart, lung and abdominal sounds.
Laboratory Diagnostics: Your pet needs annual bloodwork to monitor the interior functions of the body. Even pets that appear very healthy benefit from this. Not only does bloodwork establish a normal “baseline” for your pet, it often pinpoints abnormalities long before an animal shows any signs. Early detection can make such a difference in the quality and length of your pet’s life. Some of the routine tests we do analyze kidney and liver function, monitor thyroid and glucose levels, and also screen for infection or signs of parasites.
Vaccines: We always recommend age-appropriate vaccines. Through your input we also tailor your pet’s vaccine schedule to his or her lifestyle. This helps avoid over or under-vaccinating cats and dogs. We schedule Bordetella (kennel cough) every 6 months to accommodate most boarding and grooming facility requirements. We now give safer Purevax Feline FeLV and Annual Rabies vaccines. These vaccines provide protection without the need for adjuvants, chemical additives that may present potential risks to feline patients such as injection site reactions and chronic inflammation.
Parasite Control: Helping your pets stay free of parasites is not only good for them, but also keeps your home environment safer for its human occupants. Some intestinal parasites, such as roundworms, can be passed from pets to people. Good hand washing after petting the animals helps, but it also necessary to keep your pets on good quality deworming medication. People are often surprised to find out how common these parasites are because pets frequently show no sign that they have them! To determine infection, we can submit a pet’s fecal sample to our outside laboratory for evaluation.
The other parasite that is extremely common in this part of Oregon is the flea. ALL YEAR LONG we see pets that are suffering from them. Sometimes the infested animal is even one that is kept strictly indoors.
The products we carry and recommend most often work on both fleas and many of the intestinal parasites. For dogs we recommend “Sentinel”. It is a once a month flavored tablet that deworms (not tapeworms), prevents heartworm and prevents any fleas that get on your dog from reproducing. Before an adult dog can start on Sentinel we do a simple blood test to ensure they are not already infected with heartworm, which is spread by mosquitoes. Puppies less than 6 months of age do not require testing. We also think Vectra 3D or Frontline Plus are great for dogs. They are topical products that kill fleas and ticks.
For cats we find that both “Advantage Multi” and Program injectable work very well. Advantage Multi is a monthly topical product that protect against fleas, roundworm, hookworm, heartworm and ear mites. Program injectable is a 6 month injection that protects your cat's environment through interrupting the flea life cycle.