Annual Exam, Care, and Vaccine Recommendations for Young Dogs
1-6 years old
For most breeds of dogs, this is an age of prime health and activity, but as you know, dogs age quickly and each year is roughly equivalent to 7 years of human aging. So, it's important to check for problems, infections, joint injuries, oral health, heart disease, and skin health on a regular ... at least yearly... basis.
Here's what we recommend
A good annual examination. We go over gums, teeth, eyes, ears, lymph nodes, heart and lung sounds, abdominal palpation, spinal palpation, joint palpation, genitals, anus, and urethral openings. We'll look closely at skin problems. We'll discuss your pet's nutritional needs, weight problems, shedding problems, and so forth.
Rabies vaccination. At our practice, for dogs older than 1 year, we use the rabies vaccine that is legally approved for 3 years of protection. It's the best vaccine available. We recommend giving it, though, every year, at least for active dogs that are outdoors alot. Why every year? Because it works better, it's dirt cheap, super safe, and you'll be here anyways, if you're a responsible pet owner, for your pet's other vaccines.
Vaccinations for Parvo, Distemper, Hepatitis, and Flu. For most dogs we should do this yearly. However, newer vaccines are becoming available that can be given every 2-3 years and for some dogs, this will be appropriate.
Vaccination for Lepto. Kidney disease is the number cause of death (other than trauma/car accidents) in middle age and older dogs, and the number one cause of kidney disease is a little germ called lepto. We have an excellent, newly improved vaccine vaccine for lepto, but it doesn't give protection for much more than a year, so needs to be repeated yearly.
Just as a point of interest, Lepto belongs to the same family of organisms as syphilis and is a zoonotic disease contagious to humans.
And just so you know, like flu vaccine in humans, there is some controversy about the effectiveness and reactiveness of lepto vaccine, but for the vast majority of dogs, we recommend this life saving vaccine.
I like to deworm most pets every 6 months in addition to what ever other worm control products you're using such as Revolution and other heartworm preventives. Keeping worms under control is a constant battle and deworming is a free service when you're getting vaccines.
Heartworm Screen if you haven't been good about giving heartworm preventive on a regular basis. This is a common and deadly disease. We have 3 choices for doing this test. We have a free screening test that is adequate for many situations but this test misses early cases of the disease. We have a very accurate and sensitive high tech test that costs $18 that also tests for Lymes disease and Erlichea disease, both of which are more common than we think and are responsible for mild to moderate malaise, joint and muscle pain, and lethargy.
Consider microchipping and Pet Insurance
Treat any problems we detect
Refill Heartworm preventive, get some TD teeth cleaning treats and/or enzymatic dental gels, and flea control if needed.
And, of course, we'll take great delight in seeing you and your pet.
We are now recommending that dogs and cats get a midyear wellness exam:
If you bring your pets to us for annual wellness exam, there's no charge for the midyear wellness exam. This is good medicine, allowing us to pick up on minor and not so minor problems, allow more doctor to patient time, and allows us to perform a few extra recommended services:
Extra midyear services we recommend for dogs 1-3 years old:
Parvo is such a deadly and common disease among young dogs, and so effectively prevented by inexpensive vaccinations, we highly recommend that dogs under 3 years of age get a parvo booster about every 6 months. We use the new, improved high titer vaccine, which is the best available, and there's no "visit" fee. Giving the vaccine is just $10.
This is also a good time to deworm your pet. The newer dewormers are nearly side effect free, inexpensive ($3-6 depending on the size of your dog)
If your dog is not a strickly house pet and is exposed to marshes, creeks, steams or lake shores, we recommend a midyear booster of lepto vaccine.
Despite deworming your pet, we also recommend bringing us a stool sample for testing; worms are getting resistant. We have convenient little containers to give you for collecting stool samples. ($14)
And this is normally a convenient time to renew your Revolution, Frontline, or heartworm prevention supply
Extra midyear services we recommend for dogs 4-6 years old:
At this age, most dogs are in their prime and after several years of vaccine boosters are well protected from many diseases including parvo.
But we still recommend a mid year wellness exam ( free ) so we can check for ear, eye, dental, and skin problems, go over joints, listen to heart and lungs, and so forth.
And we also recommend the following extras:
A lepto vaccine booster (lepto and other vaccines made from bacteria as opposed to virus' tend to last less than a year)
Deworming
A fecal check
For Middle age and Older Dogs: Exam and Vaccine Recommendations
As dogs get older, they may not need to be vaccinated as often, but they certainly need to be examined at least once a year. The new standard for ideal veterinary care is every 6 months.
Starting at about 7 years of age for most breeds, we routinely detect the following problems on yearly examinations:
Dental and gum disease is very common and should not be neglected !
Cataracts and many other eye problems
Arthritis
Kidney disease
Skin Problems
Anemias
Heart Disease (the number 2 killer of older dogs in this age group)
Masses and Cancers
Cysts
Knee ligament injuries
Prostate Problems
Infections of one sort or another
Thyroid Problems
Diabetes
And on and on
These problems are so common in middle and older age, I can almost guarantee you I can find at least one problem that would benefit from some attention. And the way we find these problems early enough to allow effective treatment is by looking carefully, by looking twice yearly, and by testing.
So here's what I recommend:
Yearly; A good exam to check gums, teeth, eyes, ears, spine, and skin. Joint manipulation, range of motion, and abdominal palpation.
Our goal here is to identify problems that if treated in the early stages will prevent future major trouble and to make your pet comfortable.
We may recommend a urinalysis, blood work, a fecal examination, and/or radiographs ... all depending on the individual patient. and on what we find during the exam.
Vaccination for Lepto, which causes kidney disease.
Mid Year: For regular patients, we offer a free mid-year wellness exam. We'll email you or send a post card to remind you of this visit, and each year we'll recommend a routine screening test appropriate for middle age dogs in general and certainly any test that would be appropriate for your dog's problem specifically.
Typically I like to do a urinalysis at age 7-8 years, a blood panel at age 8-9 years, and a chest and spinal radiograph at age 10-11. This is very much like being a 50 year old human where typically it's recommended you get a blood panel, a colonoscopy, and radiographs. The idea is the same; detect common problems before they become deadly.
In addition to routine testing, as part of our wellness exam we recommend deworming most dogs at mid year, getting a weight on record, and discuss updating your pet's diet for this life stage.
And because worms are getting resistant to our deworming medicines, we recommend a midyear fecal check.
For frequent boarders, we'll discuss whether or not to give a mid year kennel cough booster. Even the best Kennel cough vaccine gives only partial protection. It gives fair to good protection for about 6 months. And then adequate to fair protection for another 6 months. So how often you give it depends on how often your pet boards or is exposed to lots of other dogs.
And, of course, this is a convenient time to stock up on monthly flea and heartworm control.
Every One-Three Years:
Vaccination for Rabies, Distemper, Hepatitis, and Parvo. Whether or not we do these vaccines every 1, 2, or 3 years depends on the dog's life style, interaction with other animals, breed, and so forth. Often we'll give Rabies one year and the combination of other vaccines the next year when you bring your pet in for an annual wellness exam and the annual lepto vaccine.
Screening Test for Heartworm disease, Lymes and Erlichia; now that we have an inexpensive test kit for these diseases, we recommend testing every few years starting at middle age. Most dogs with these diseases aren't deathly ill, but rather suffer different degrees of just feeling lousy, tired, achy and so forth. Now that we're testing routinely, we find that lots of dogs we thought were healthy are carriers of one of these tick borne diseases. They are treatable
Dentistry. We certainly won't recommend dentisry if it's not needed, but most pets in this age group need tarter removal and polishing. We'll check every time your pet comes in for an exam. In addition to actual dentistry performed under light anesthesia, we have several new products that help a great deal with dental hygiene and oral health. Most dogs in this age group need these products for ideal health.
There is now a new vaccine for gum disease that we'll recommend if your pet has soft and spongy gums.
For Really Old Dogs
A good exam every 6-12 months.
Laboratory testing, radiographs, vaccines, nutrition, supplementation, and medication designed specifically for the patient.
In general, this typically means managing arthritis, advanced gum disease, kidney problems, seborrhea, sensitive bowels, and thyroid problems. For each of these conditions, common in old age, we have an arsenal of fairly effective remedies and palatives that are very likely to make your aged pet much more comfortable.
Most really old dogs would greatly benefit from:
K-D Diet
Pancreatic Enzymes
GL 900 Glucosamine and MSM
Omega 6:3 fatty acids
Frequent dentistry as needed
Oral Gel Maxiguard dental enzyme gel
Frequent shampooing with a emollient, moisturizing shampoo like HyLyte
Arthritic pain medication as needed.
B-12 injections
We'll discuss the benefits of all these options when you bring your older pet in for it's annual wellness exam and free mid year check and EKG
