ANNUAL WELLNESS SERVICES
At Glacier Animal Hospital, we believe in that old adage that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” There is no doubt that the most important tools that we have at our disposal to diagnose problems that range between the obvious to the outwardly unapparent that might affect your animal are our hands, eyes, and ears. Nothing can take the place of taking a good history and performing a thorough physical exam every year to identify problems and make appropriate recommendations for your pet. The annual visit is also the time to perform diagnostics such as internal and external parasite screening as some parasites that infest dogs and cats can be a potential health hazard for the family. Regular blood testing is a tremendous aide in early detection of disease that might not show up in that all-important physical exam. Finally, this is our chance to review and administer immunizations to protect your pet from infectious diseases and individually tailor these immunizations so that they are appropriate for your dog or cat’s lifestyle. So remember to bring in your pets at least once a year for an annual wellness visit!
PUPPY AND KITTEN CARE
What is more fun than bringing home a new puppy or kitten? Watching a puppy or kitten at play sure is more entertaining than watching reality television shows! While your pet is still a puppy or kitten is such a special and unique stage of your pet’s life that is all too short and certainly cause for celebration, but it is also the life stage that creates the most questions for pet owners. For that reason, we try to allocate at least one hour of appointment time for your puppy or kitten’s first visit with us. In that initial visit we will go over diet and nutrition, housetraining techniques, behavioral issues, parasite control and prevention, micro-chipping, spaying and neutering, breed-specific or genetic health problems, and develop an individualized immunization protocol. Puppies and kittens are the most susceptible to infectious disease between six and sixteen weeks of age than they will ever be during the rest of their life, so the immunization schedule is of paramount importance in that first visit. But the physical exam, the act of actually getting our hands on that new pet, is the single most important diagnostic tool we have at our disposal, just as it is for older animals. The physical exam may reveal any problems your newest family member may have been born with or may detect abnormalities that could lead to problems in the future. Those first visits are so important and this is when one of our veterinarians and your new pet hopefully start to form a relationship that will last your pet’s lifetime!