Wellness Care & Vaccinations

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Wellness Care

At Millersburg Veterinary Hospital, we believe that regular checkups and wellness exams are critical to your pet’s well-being.

A wellness exam gives us a chance to evaluate your pet’s overall health and to detect a possible problem before it turns into a serious illness. Your pet can’t tell you in words how he or she is feeling, so we rely on a thorough physical examination to determine your pet’s health.

Based on the results of the examination and your pet’s age, we may recommend further diagnostic tests, such as early disease screening blood tests.  We also recommend yearly testing for blood (including heartworms) and intestinal parasites.

A wellness visit is also a good time to discuss your pet’s lifestyle, life stages, behavior, and diet.

Yearly Checkups

Your pet ages relatively more quickly than you do. A yearly wellness exam is key to good health and should occur more frequently once your pet reaches their senior years. Just as with people, pets need more frequent attention as they get older to prevent, diagnose, and treat illnesses associated with aging.

The wellness exam will begin with discussing your pet’s health history, including your pet’s diet, water consumption, daily behavioral patterns, and general lifestyle.

Wellness Exams

We will note your pet’s temperature, pulse, respiration rate and body weight, (including a body condition score) and look for any signs of pain.

Your pet’s potential exposure to fleas, ticks, heartworms, and intestinal parasites will also be evaluated and we will make recommendations for products to protect your pet from these unwanted visitors. 

A comprehensive wellness exam includes:

Weight is an important consideration in the health of your pet as an extra 2 or 3 pounds can mean the difference between your pet being fit and trim or obese.

We will evaluate the ears color, exudate and smell. Your pets’ deep, curved ear canals provide protection for the inner ear, but these canals can also be a home for parasites, bacteria, and foreign objects.

We will examine your pet’s eyes, both by just looking at the lids and globe, and through an ophthalmoscope.

We will check your pet’s mouth, gums, and teeth for tartar build up, tooth abnormalities, broken and loose teeth, masses, infections, and other problems. We will also check the tongue and palate. We will show you how to care for your pet’s teeth at home, which helps to prevent periodontal disease and the associated bad breath, pain, and tooth loss.

The skin is the body’s largest organ and a good indicator of your pet’s health. We will examine the condition of the skin and hair coat. We will also check for fleas, ticks, and other external parasites.

We will check your pet’s legs and feet to evaluate the condition of the joints and muscles, and also its gait.

We will use a stethoscope to listen to your pet’s heart and lungs. Early signs of heart disease often are recognized during a routine wellness exam.

We will feel the abdomen to detect irregularities such as enlarged organs, masses, or areas that are painful.

We will palpate the lymph nodes to detect irregularities.

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