Adult Wellness Care

Adult Wellness Care includes:

• Physical examinations
• Vaccinations
• Fecal tests
• Heartworm tests
• Heartworm preventive medication
• Flea control
• Feline leukemia and FIV testing for cats
• Dental care and supplies for home dental care

We all know that a healthy pet is the first step to a happy pet. The foundation of this health is wellness care. Wellness care means providing medical care for your pet to ensure that the animal stays as healthy as possible and avoids becoming ill. To achieve this goal pets require routine examinations laboratory testing. This helps us spot any signs of discomfort or illness early on, so that rapid care can minimize the impact of disease and allow for a quick return to normal.

Cherokee Animal Hospital recommends that routine physical examinations be performed yearly on all adult pets. These thorough examinations allow the doctors to assess all body systems of your pet and to look for any changes that may signal trouble. For example, on every routine exam, the veterinarian will assess your pet's ears, eyes, nose, gums, teeth, skin, cardiovascular system, bones, muscles, and internal organs. This is done with a combination of instruments, such as scopes to examine ears and eyes, and listen to the heart, along with hands-on palpation of internal organs, and visual examination of the skin and other body parts.

An important part of the well care physical examination is the questions asked regarding your pet. This 'history' helps our doctors understand how your pet is feeling and how the animal interacts with you at home. This helps the doctors make suggestions regarding diet, behavior, and medications. Please be sure to ask any questions and raise any concerns regarding your pet during the wellness history and examination.

Vaccinations, laboratory tests, and monthly preventatives for heartworms and fleas are all part of routine wellness care. Routine labs include testing for intestinal parasites in dogs and cats, annual testing for heartworm disease in dogs, and testing for feline leukemia and FIV in cats. More specific information on vaccinations is provided under the Vaccination tab.

Home dental care is an important part of well care for your pets. The doctors can demonstrate the correct technique for brushing and the hospital stocks a large supply of dental care equipment for home use however our pets also require full dental cleaning. Again, more information is provided under Oral and Dental Care.