Responsible Pet Care


Providing your pet with the daily care to maintain a healthy lifestyle is a lot like taking care of yourself on a daily basis!  We are all different genetic wise, but there are many things that are done on a daily/monthly basis that helps us stay healthy and lead a high quality life.  Animals are no different!  Maintaining a healthy pet includes:

Good Nutrition:    Your pet should be fed a quality well-balanced diet that is appropriate for their stage of life.  We recommend feeding an appropriate amount daily; based on the feeding guide on the bag of food.  Consult a veterinarian for questions or more details.

Daily Exercise:    Whether it is a walk around the block, playing fetch in the yard, or chasing a piece of yarn, it is important for your pet to get exercise daily to help maintain muscles and a good body condition.  Extra body weight leads to increased risk for multiple health problems.

Quality Environment:    Ensure that your pet has a good environment to live in to reduce risk for injury or death.  Always have fresh water available and a shaded area for pets that live outside.  Also clean, comfortable bedding is important.

Regular Grooming:    A bath or a routine appointment with a groomer is a big step for maintaining good hygiene and helping to remove any fleas, ticks, or other parasites that may be using your pet as a host.  A routine grooming appointment will be breed dependent (example: shih tzu, schnauzer, poodle, etc).

Good Oral Hygiene:    Just like people, it is important to maintain good oral hygiene to prevent disease in the oral cavity and in other major organs.  We recommend daily brushing if possible, as well as using a dental treat to keep tartar off of teeth.  As needed/instructed by your veterinarian, it is highly recommended to have a dental cleaning and polishing to maintain healthy teeth and gums.

Annual Vaccinations:    It is very important to keep your pet up to date on annual vaccinations to protect them from potentially fatal diseases.  Please refer to our vaccination guidelines on this website or consult a veterinarian for recommendations.

Annual Wellness Exam:    We highly recommend your pet being examined by a veterinarian at least once a year, if not twice, to ensure that your pet is healthy and to be able to catch any disease or illness early if present.  This is not only important for young adult animals, but especially important for older animals.

Annual Intestinal Parasite Screening:    The environment around us houses parasites such as giardia, roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, coccidia, etc.  Your pet can be exposed by being out in the yard, what you track in on your shoes, from grooming another animal, or even from their mother.  The incidence for pets having parasites is so high that we recommend all animals be screened at least once a year for intestinal parasites.  Consult your veterinarian for the appropriate steps on having this done.

Year-round Heartworm Prevention:    Heartworms are transmitted by mosquitoes.  With the large population of mosquitoes, comes a higher risk for your pet being infected with heartworms.  It takes just 1 mosquito for your pet to become infected and the main treatment available is not the safest, not to mention it is expensive.  We highly highly highly recommend all animals being on a year round heartworm prevention program, which usually consists of giving your pet a tablet/chew once every 30 days.  Consult your veterinarian to get your pet started!

Flea/Tick Prevention:    Fleas and ticks are the most common ectoparasite to use your pet as their host.  An ingestion of a flea can infect your pet with tapeworms, an intestinal parasite.  Ticks can transmit multiple diseases, such as lyme disease, erlichia, rocky mountain spotted fever, etc.  Your pets can bring these pests into your home where they can then take refuge and continue to cause problems for your pet.  We recommend using a quality flea/tick preventive on your pet during the spring, summer, and fall.  It is important to make sure that you put a prevention designed for a cat on a cat, and prevention made for a dog on a dog!  Consult your veterinarian for appropriate dosages and for what they recommend as a quality product.


 

Last Updated 08/14/2010

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