Support Lifelong Wellness Through Routine Care
At Park Grove Pet Hospital, we strongly encourage every pet parent to practice preventative care for their pets with routine vet visits. Yet, we know that vet visits can be stressful, which is why we practice Fear Free handling for each one of our patients that helps them feel as comfortable as possible. Without pet wellness care, problems can develop as your pet ages and underlying diseases can go undetected until they are far more advanced. Help your pet achieve lasting health and well-being with regular preventative care!
Wellness Plans
Making A Personalized Pet Plan For Wellness
Unique to our hospital is our approach to your pet’s wellness care. We believe every pet deserves their own personal brand of veterinary medicine that best meets their needs. At Park Grove Pet Hospital, we offer wellness plans that help you save without compromising an ounce of your pet’s care. Ask us about our wellness plans at your next visit!
Examinations
Our Pet Wellness Visits
We recommend pets visit us on an annual basis as adolescents and adults and on a semiannual basis as seniors. This gives us the best opportunity to stay on top of your pet’s changing health as they age and ensure they receive the appropriate care to keep them healthy for longer. Regular wellness visits will change based on your pet’s unique needs and their age.
Here’s what a wellness visit may include:
- Nose-to-tail physical exam
- Weight check and body condition score
- Fecal exam (to check for intestinal parasites)
- Deworming (for puppies and kittens, if needed)
- Vaccinations (if due)
- Parasite prevention prescription
- Nutritional counseling (if needed)
- Age-appropriate blood work
- 4Dx testing (for heartworm and tick-borne illnesses, dogs only)
- Serum chemistry profile (seniors)
- Thyroid hormone level (seniors)
- Urinalysis (seniors)
Vaccinations
If you’ve owned a pet for years, you probably already know that vaccinations are imperative to his health and wellbeing. New pet parents, however, may have their reservations concerning pet vaccines.
At Park Grove Pet Hospital, we can explain more about vaccinations and the protection they provide. By learning more about pet vaccinations, you can make knowledgeable decisions concerning your pet’s health. Here are some basic facts you should know about pet vaccines.
Types of Vaccines
Pet vaccinations fall into two categories: core and non-core vaccines. Core vaccines are considered vital to your pet’s health, while non-core vaccines are given as recommended by your veterinary specialist, depending on where you live and your pet’s lifestyle.
Core Vaccines for Dogs Are
- Rabies
- Distemper
- Parvo-Virus
- Parainfluenza
- Hepatitis
Core Vaccines for Cats Are
- Rabies
- Feline Distemper
- Feline Calicivirus and
- Feline Rhinotracheiti
Your veterinary specialist can administer these vaccines during your pet’s annual wellness exam. We’ll also administer boosters on a regular basis to keep his protection strong over the years.
Puppy and Kitten Vaccinations
As baby pets’ immune systems aren’t fully developed, they need a series of vaccines to protect them from dangerous diseases after they’ve been weaned. Vaccinations generally start when they’re 6 to 8 weeks old and continue every 2 to 4 weeks until your kit or pup reaches 14-16 weeks of age. Once the series is done, we’ll personalize a vaccination schedule for your pet to provide the future protection he needs.
Parasite Control
Your pet’s active, outdoor lifestyle leaves them exposed to a wide variety of parasites. Picking up one of these parasites can cause symptoms ranging from mild discomfort to severe illness, so it’s best to take a preventative approach when it comes to parasites and your pet.
Thanks to modern advances, there are a whole host of preventative tools to help keep your pet safe from parasites. At your pet’s regular wellness exam, we’ll recommend some of the best options for your specific pet and discuss their benefits.
Microchipping
Imagine if your dog or cat got lost. You’d want to give him or her the best chance of getting home. With microchipping, you can.
Microchipping is a safe, permanent way to identify your pet in case he or she becomes lost. A microchip, which is a tiny device about the size and shape of a grain of rice, is placed just under the loose skin at the back of the neck. When a lost dog or cat without an ID tag is found, a veterinarian, shelter employee, or animal control officer can use a handheld microchip scanner to check for a chip. If the pet has one, it will transmit its ID number to the scanner via a low-frequency radio wave. The veterinary hospital or shelter then calls the chip manufacturer, retrieves the pet owner’s contact information, and calls the owner.
Nutrition & Weight Management
Proper nutrition is an essential part of your pet’s long-term health. Pet obesity is a pervasive problem that reduces your pet’s quality and quantity of life. Often, older pets are the ones who become obese because their diets are not changed as they age. Over the years, your pet’s nutritional needs evolve, so no one diet will work for their entire lives! When choosing your pet’s diet, grain-free options are a popular choice. However, there is strong evidence suggesting a connection between grain-free diets and heart disease, so we caution against these diets. Grains offer pets a unique source of nutrition that meat ingredients simply cannot provide.
Our veterinarians can recommend the best diets for your pet depending on their age, health, and breed. If your pet is overweight, we can also suggest an exercise regime to help manage those excess pounds. If you have any questions about grain-free diets or your pet’s nutritional needs, please don’t hesitate to contact us at 651-459-9663.
