What is involved in a dog wellness exam?
A dog wellness exam starts when you schedule your dog's appointment and bring them to our vet hospital. The veterinarian's assessment begins as soon as they enter the room. Initially, our nurses will ask about your pet's history, medications, supplements, and diet. The veterinarian will then conduct a comprehensive physical exam. This includes checking the dog's body condition, eye brightness, skin, weight, and more. We use our eyes and hands to feel for abnormalities. We examine the eyes, nose, facial symmetry, teeth, jaw, lymph nodes, ears, and head symmetry. We then assess muscle mass, heart, lungs, abdomen, kidneys, urinary bladder, and legs for any signs of issues. We also inspect the skin, hair coat, feet, pads, and toenails, and perform a quick check of the anal area. This thorough exam helps us detect subtle abnormalities that could indicate health issues.
Regular wellness exams can improve both the quality and length of your dog's life. We recommend starting these exams when your dog is a puppy, usually between six and eight weeks of age. However, if you adopt an adult dog, it's equally important to set up a relationship with a primary care veterinarian to ensure your new pet's health and well-being.
Dr. Noel Lucas
Blue Oasis Pet Hospital
What are some dog wellness recommendations that my vet is likely to make?
After conducting a physical exam, your vet will likely discuss preventive care strategies. This includes immunizations based on your dog's lifestyle, whether they are outdoorsy, frequent groomers, or homebodies. Preventive care also involves protection against heartworm disease, fleas, and tick-borne diseases, which are common in areas like Nashville and Tennessee. Your vet may recommend regular checks for intestinal parasites and dental disease. Preventive home care for dental health may also be suggested to keep your dog's teeth bright and clean.
Early detection of diseases is crucial. It's easier and less expensive to treat or manage diseases when caught early. For geriatric dogs, vets recommend more frequent check-ups, typically every six months, to monitor for new or existing health issues. Geriatric dogs, depending on their breed, may start from around 13-14 years of age, or earlier for larger breeds. Frequent visits help in managing their health and ensuring a better quality of life.
If your dog has allergies, your vet can perform allergy testing, either through a blood test or by referring you to a veterinary dermatologist for skin testing. This helps in identifying specific allergens and managing your dog's allergies effectively.
Overall, regular wellness exams and a strong partnership with your vet can ensure that your dog remains healthy and happy throughout their life. If you're in the Nashville area and looking for a reliable veterinarian, consider visiting Blue Oasis Pet Hospital.
Dog Wellness - FAQs 1
Dr. Noel Lucas
Blue Oasis Pet Hospital
What should pet owners bring when they come in to see their veterinarian?
Yeah, so when you come in to see your veterinarian, please bring any prior medical history that you have from another veterinarian. Their medical records are really helpful for us. We don't have to have them in order to help care for your dog that day, but we might ask some questions of you that you're not quite sure about, and those questions might be answered in their former medical records. If it's a new puppy for you and it's never had a doctor's visit but maybe the breeder has given some vaccinations or some treatments, we love to see those medical charts or those little puppy charts. This way, we can actually see when they had a vaccination, the date, and what it was, so we can fill in some of the blanks. So, prior medical records are really helpful—don't have to have them, but they help.
What should pet owners do if their dog is on any medications?
If your dog's on any medications, it's really nice if you just throw them in a Ziploc baggie and bring them along with you. If we prescribed them, we usually have them in your medical record, but if we've not prescribed them or maybe they were prescribed by one of the area veterinarians or at the ER, critical care center, or maybe a specialist, it's really nice for you to bring those medications with you so we can see their dose, strength, and frequency. Sometimes we'll find that you were not giving them at the correct frequency or maybe you were giving less than you were supposed to, and we can catch mistakes that way by reading the bottles and asking you what you actually have been doing.
What information should be noted about preventatives?
If your dog's on any preventative, such as Parcatreo or Brevecto or one of the other preventatives on the market, we want to know what they're on and when their last dose was given. So, if you can remember to jot that down or think about what their preventatives are and when you last gave them, that would be helpful. Sometimes you're not the one coming with the pet—you are the primary caregiver, you are the one giving all the medications, you've been to their veterinarian before, but now your husband's coming in or maybe your son, and they have no idea what their prior history has been, what their diseases are, what medications they are on, or what preventatives they are on because you're the one doing it. Some communication or jotting down some of that information for us, like what food they're on or what preventatives they're on, can save some steps in time when we have another pet parent or caregiver bringing in the pet. Just doing a little forward thinking about what your pet may need when they come in, or what they're on, or what foods they're on, is really incredibly helpful when they're here for their general checkup.
How long does a general dog wellness visit take?
The length of time—we schedule about a half an hour for just a general dog wellness visit. That doesn't mean that's all it's going to take; that just means the time we have allotted. Oftentimes, it's going to probably be close to an hour by the time we have you come in, weigh your pet, get you checked in, go through the history of what your pet's eating, and any problems or concerns that you might be having. We're going to then discuss any vaccinations that are needed, what preventive care your pet may already be taking, and then we need to do the physical.
How does the dog's behavior affect the physical exam?
It depends on the dog. If they're super friendly and like to be interacted with, then that physical exam can actually go pretty quickly if they're a compliant dog. However, that's not always the case when they come into a veterinary office. Some dogs are incredibly anxious and nervous, and we might have to slow down our processes to make them feel more comfortable. We are a fear-free certified practice here at Blue Oasis, so we are trained to read the emotional well-being of your dog. If they are feeling overwhelmingly stressed, we will slow down or stop moving forward with even their physical exam. We will regroup and maybe prescribe some calming therapies and reschedule that pet to come back at a different time with them feeling much more comfortable about us interacting with them and doing our physical exam.
What happens if the dog is comfortable during the exam?
If they're enjoying themselves, we're feeding treats, and they're getting lots of peanut butter and squeezed cheese, and we can do a good physical exam, then we're going to do a good health exam. Then, we're going to administer any vaccinations they are due for, and we might even recommend, and often do, taking some blood. Oftentimes, we want a poo sample from that pet. We're not going to get it from them while they're here; we're going to send you home with a homework assignment to get some poop. Or, if you can remember, or our team asks you, please bring that sample in with you during their wellness visit so that you don't have to run home and come back during that visit. That would be really great.
What is the importance of a good physical exam?
A good physical exam for us is always the first baseline diagnostic test. Even if we do nothing else but just a good physical exam on your dog, we're going to be able to tell you a whole lot about their health and if they're healthy or not, just with a good physical. But that's kind of the whole outside of their body. We can listen, we can feel for the inside stuff, but we can't really tell about the function of what's happening inside their body, especially if they have any tick-borne diseases, heartworm disease, intestinal parasites, or any kidney or liver issues. That's where blood work is going to be recommended, along with a good fecal examination to look for intestinal parasites. We also screen them for heartworm and tick-borne diseases, so that's why we want to get blood, poo, and sometimes urine, because those things look more inside the body. So that's part of a comprehensive examination.
Any closing thoughts?
If you need a good veterinarian or are in the Nashville area and you're looking for something a little different, like a fear-free certified hospital where we really take the emotional well-being into your dog's physical exam time, we invite you to partner with a fear-free certified veterinary professional. We are an AAHA certified hospital here at Blue Oasis, so we really invite you to check us out and schedule an appointment with us.
If you still have other questions and you'd like to reach out to us, you can call us directly at (615) 975-2583 , or you can email us at [email protected]. But please do reach out, and we'll get back to you as fast as we can. Don't forget to follow us on social media Facebook, Instagram
Dog Wellness - FAQs 2
Dr. Noel Lucas
Blue Oasis Pet Hospital
When you come in to see your veterinarian, what should you bring with you?
Please bring any prior medical history that you have from another veterinarian. Their medical records are really helpful for us. We don't have to have them in order to help care for your dog that day, but we might ask some questions of you that you're not quite sure of, but it'll be answered in their former medical records. If it's a new puppy for you and it's never had a doctor's visit, but maybe the breeder has given some vaccinations or some treatments, we love to see those medical charts or those little puppy charts so we can actually see when if they've had a vaccination, when the date was, what was it, so we can actually fill in some of the blanks. So prior medical records, really helpful. Don't have to have them, but they help.
What if my dog is on any medications?
If your dog's on any medications, it's really nice if you just throw them in a Ziploc baggie and bring them along with you. If we prescribe them, we usually have them in your medical record, but if we've not prescribed them or maybe they were prescribed by one of the area veterinarians or at the ER, critical care center, maybe a specialist, it's really nice for you to bring those medications with you so we can see what their dose, strength, frequency. Sometimes we'll find that you actually were not giving them at the correct frequency or maybe you were giving less than you were supposed to, and we can catch mistakes that way by reading the bottles and asking you what you actually have been doing.
What about preventatives?
If your dog's on any preventative, so let's say they're on Simparica Trio or Brevecto or one of the other preventatives that are on the market, we want to know what they're on and we're gonna want to know when their last dose was given. So if you can kind of like remember to jot that down or think about what their preventatives are and when you last gave them. Sometimes you're not the one that's coming with the pet, that you're the primary caregiver, you are the one giving all the medications, you know you've been to their veterinarian before, but now your husband's coming in or maybe your son and they actually have no idea what their prior history has been, what their diseases are, what medications they are on, what preventatives they are on, because you're the one that's doing it. Some communication or jotting down some of that information for us or what food they're on or what preventatives they're on can save some steps in time when we have some other pet parent or caregiver that's bringing in the pet.
Any other tips for preparing for a wellness exam?
Just doing a little forward thinking about what your pet may need when they come in or what they're on or what foods they're on. It's really incredibly helpful when they're here for their general checkup.
How long do wellness exams usually take?
The length of time, we schedule about a half an hour for just a general dog wellness visit. That doesn't mean that's all it's gonna take, that just means the time that we have allotted. Oftentimes it's gonna probably be maybe close to an hour by the time we have you come in, we weigh your pet, get you checked in, go through the history of what your pet's eating, any problems or concerns that you might be having. We're going to then discuss any vaccinations that are needed, what preventive care that your pet may already be taking, and then we need to do the physical. It depends on the dog. If they're super friendly and like to be interacted with, then that physical exam can actually go pretty quickly if they're a pretty compliant dog. However, that's not always the case when they come into a veterinary office. Some dogs are incredibly anxious and nervous and we might have to slow down our processes to make them feel more comfortable. We are a fear-free certified practice here at Blue Oasis, so we actually are trained to read the emotional well-being of your dog. So if they are feeling overwhelmingly stressed or stressed, we will slow down or we will stop moving forward with even their physical exam and we will regroup and maybe we'll prescribe some calming therapies and we'll reschedule that pet to come back at a different time with them feeling much more comfortable about us even interacting with them, doing our physical exam. But if they're enjoying themselves, we're feeding treats and they're getting lots of peanut butter and squeezed cheese, and we can do a good physical exam, then we're going to do a good health exam, and then we're going to administer any of the vaccinations that they're due, and then we might even recommend, and we often do, that we take some blood and oftentimes we want a poo sample from that pet. We're not going to get it from them while they're here. We're going to send you home with a homework assignment to get some poop, or if you can remember or our team asks you, please bring that sample in with you during their wellness visit so that you don't have to run home and come back during that visit. That would be really great.
What is the importance of a good physical exam?
A good physical exam for us is always the first baseline diagnostic test. Even if we do nothing else but just do a good physical exam on your dog, we're going to be able to tell you a whole lot about their health and if they're healthy or not, just with a good physical. But that's kind of the whole outside of their body. We can listen, we can feel for the inside stuff, but we can't really tell about function of what's happening on the inside of their body, especially if they have any tick-borne diseases, if they have heartworm disease, if they have intestinal parasites, or they have some kind of like kidney or liver issue, that's where some blood work is going to be recommended and a good fecal examination to look for intestinal parasites. We also screen them for heartworm and tick-borne diseases, so that's where we want to get blood, poo, sometimes urine, because those things look more inside the body, so that's part of a comprehensive examination.
Any final thoughts for pet owners?
If you have need of a good veterinarian or in the Nashville area and you're looking maybe even for something a little different, like a fear-free certified hospital, where we do really take the emotional well-being into your dog's physical exam time, we really invite you to partner with a fear-free certified veterinary professional. We are an AHA certified hospital here at Blue Oasis, so we really invite you to check us out and schedule an appointment with us. Thank you so much.
If you still have other questions and you'd like to reach out to us, you can call us directly at (615) 975-2583 , or you can email us at [email protected]. But please do reach out, and we'll get back to you as fast as we can. Don't forget to follow us on social media Facebook, Instagram