We want your canine or feline friend to live a long, happy, healthy life just as much as you do. That’s why Summit Animal Hospital recommends a comprehensive annual wellness exam at least once a year. We tailor our low-stress wellness services to your pet’s age, breed, and lifestyle while taking the time to discuss their specific needs, including vaccinations, weight management, and behavioral training.
To learn more about our specific wellness services, click on the topics below, and contact us if you’d like to schedule an appointment.
Preparing for Your Pet’s Wellness Visit
Upholding the low-stress philosophy of our practice, we advise you to bring your pet in a carrier or on a leash. Just be sure that your pet is first acclimated to the carrier before your visit. We recommend keeping your pet on the bench instead of on the floor, as this will help reduce stress levels. We also advise you to fast your pet before their appointments.
About the Pet Wellness Exam
During your pet’s wellness exam at Summit Animal Hospital, we conduct a nose-to-tail assessment to determine if they’re healthy. This includes a check of the weight, temperature, skin/coat, and mouth. If any abnormalities are detected, we can provide our treatment recommendations or schedule an appointment for advanced diagnostics to examine your pet internally.
Pet Vaccinations
Another critical component of the wellness visit is vaccinations. Just as with human vaccines, dog and cat vaccines help protect against a number of potentially-fatal diseases, such as rabies, Bordetella, and feline leukemia. For your pet’s safety, we use low-volume vaccines on all of our canine and feline patients. We can customize a vaccination schedule for your pet during your appointment.
Weight Management
For the weight check portion of the visit, we determine your pet’s body condition score and help you understand what the ideal weight is for your pet’s specific breed and age. If we find your pet to be overweight, we can provide tips for diet and exercise to help them return to a healthy weight. We also offer complimentary weigh-ins so you can check your pet’s weight loss progress.
Behavioral Counseling
We value the human-animal bond, which is why we feel behavioral counseling is such a critical part of owning a pet. We believe behavioral guidance is especially critical for compliance at home for teaching puppies and kittens, but we provide behavioral counseling for pets of all ages. If you have an older pet with an ingrained behavior that needs to be changed, we can provide a separate counseling session for them. Our counseling services can address a number of pet behavioral issues, regardless of age.
Puppy and Kitten Care
We recommend that all puppies and kittens receive their first wellness exam at about 6 weeks of age. In addition to the nose-to-tail exam and vaccinations, we can also address various other issues to help get your fur baby started on the right paw. These include behavior and socialization, litter/house training, proper handling, nail trimming, ear cleaning, carrier/kennel, and spaying/neutering.
Senior Pet Care
We provide individualized senior pet wellness services, based on your pet’s specific needs. Our team places a strong emphasis on comfort and quality of life as well as pain management. We also address the many health issues that are common in senior pets, such as obesity and gum disease. With consideration to your pet’s changing dietary and physical needs, we can conduct a senior dietary analysis and arthritis evaluation as well. For most senior pets, we may also advise laboratory work on a more frequent basis than younger pets to detect diseases.