Wellness Programs
At the Animal Clinic of Verona, your pet’s health is very important to us, and we understand that health needs change as your pet ages. Therefore, we have established different protocols for each stage of your pet’s life.
Young Pets
When pets first come in to our lives, they have unique health and wellness needs. Their immunity acquired from their mother is decreasing, and so receiving a vaccine series is essential to helping them mount their own immune responses to several serious diseases. Also, internal and external parasites are often transmitted from mother to offspring. Thus, good testing, treatment, and prevention programs are key to good health. In addition, our doctors recommend spaying or neutering all pets which are not used for breeding purposes. Not only do these procedures prevent unwanted puppy or kitten litters, they also provide numerous health benefits as your pet ages. Nutritional and dental counseling will help to ensure your puppy or kitten is getting off to a healthy start as well. Finally, microchipping is important to ensure permanent identification in case your beloved pet is ever lost or separated from you.
Junior and Adult Pets
As dogs and cats begin to reach adulthood, their health requirements begin to change as well. Annual vaccinations continue to sustain your pet’s immunity to deadly diseases. Heartworm and intestinal parasite testing and prevention are also important, as well as testing for tick-borne diseases. Maintaining good flea and tick prevention helps keep your pet comfortable and healthy.
Good dental health is also critical to good overall health. Pets as young as one year of age can begin to experience dental problems and approximately 80% of pets over the age of three have some form of periodontal disease. Therefore, yearly dental cleaning procedures become more important for adult dogs and cats. We also recommend annual lab work so that we not only have a good baseline of normal values, but also can detect problems in overall body functions early, before serious disease is present.
Senior Pets
Here, at the Animal Clinic of Verona, we are focused on maximizing your pet’s quality of life throughout all stages of life, including the senior years. The average dog or cat is considered a “senior citizen” at approximately the age of seven, and just as older humans see their doctor more often, it is also important to bring an older animal to the doctor more frequently. Therefore, we recommend semi-annual examinations for all of our senior patients. Our annual lab work is also more extensive, allowing us to better evaluate all of the body’s systems. As these systems become less efficient, treatments can be initiated to maintain longer, healthier and happier lives. Other age-related conditions such as osteoarthritis can be diagnosed with exam or x-ray and treated effectively so that your pet can live more comfortably in their later years.
In addition, we now offer a complimentary Pet Wellness Report. The report is a very thorough risk assessment based on your pet’s individual lifestyle. With the routine examinations and appropriate lab tests, these reports can give us a much better evaluation of your pet’s overall health.