Are Annual Exams Really Necessary?
Vaccination is NOT the primary reason we do annual physical exams for our client's pets. The Animal Clinic of Kalispell is not a vaccine-driven practice, that's just not the "best medicine". We only offer the best medicine and sometimes this includes administering vaccines but that is not the primary reason we see pets in our practice for wellness.
Our overall focus is that our client's pets be able to enjoy a long life with them and their family free of pain, medical problems and disease. The key to this focus is making certain the pet is healty on a regular basis, at least yearly.
Our practice agrees and chooses to comply with the 2011 American Veterinary Medical Association's guidelines for wellness for dogs and cats which includes:
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History, evaluation of lifestyle and life stage, behavior and diet. Also, assessments are made for medical conditions, infectious diseases, year-round parasite prevention, dental care and nutrition.
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We educate our clients regarding bi-annual heartworm testing, at least annual internal parasite testing, early disease screening tests and microchip identification.
Annual wellness for pets is similar to us going to the dentist regularly. The dentist doesn't contact us to tell us to brush our teeth. All of us know that we should brush our teeth at least wice daily and floss every day, but we all recognize that brushing and flossing in no way replaces the need to have our teeth professionally cleaned and then examined. We just aren't trained like a dentist to see the tiny changes in our teeth and gums that indicate disease. If we want to have healty teeth into our 80's we know that regular visits to the dentis are necessary even if we believe that everything is normal. Too much time between visits is a recipe for oral disaster that we want to avoid.
Generally, humans know when something is not normal in their body. We may ignore sypmptoms for a while, but eventually we feel something has changed and we can elect to schedule an exam with a physician. That is our choice. Pets are not able to communicate with us how they are feeling or if something is wrong. It is our job as professionals to search, discover and alleviate problems that arrise in our client's pets. We will not find nor can we treat any abnormalities if we aren't looking for them.
Pets age so much more quickly than humans. Despite the fantastic veterinary medical advances and cultural changes over the last 50 years that have increased the life expenctancy in our pets, finding a dog that lives greater than 17 years or a cat greater than 20 years is till a rarity. A pet that is examined annually is similar to a person going 7 years between doctor visits. And as they do become geriatics, it is even more important to examine them more often. Physical and metabolic changes occur at a much more rapid pace as all of us age. We want to find problems early so they can be treated early. Early detection of disease lends itself to easier and less expensive treatments than waiting until a condition is more advanced.
A veterinarian's specific special training and a career of experience allow them to be able to percieve and discover things about pets that clients may not be aware. If there are aspects of the physical exam or history that are abnormal Dr. Clark will provide a specific plan to diagnose and then treat the pet so they can be healty again.
Our entire focus is to care for the clients by ensuring they are blessed to share a wonderful, lenghty and healthy life with their pet. The most important step in that process is getting the pet into the clinic to be examined by a veterinarian at least on an annual basis to maintain a working medical knowlege of the pet.
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