Wellness services and preventative care are the foundation to giving our pets a long, healthy, comfortable, active life! At Guardian Veterinary Care, we pride ourselves on knowing your pets and family as well as the preventative care needed to keep them fit and healthy. Wellness care has a number of facets:
Understanding your Pet’s Lifestyle
Is your dog a couch potato whose travels extend to the backyard fence line, or is he your regular co-pilot on adventures all over Oregon, the PNW, or the World? Is his day not complete until he has sniffed every bottom at doggie daycare or explored the farm perimeter before you finish your morning coffee?
Is your cat the queen of the neighborhood, or is bird watching from the condo window more her style?
Some problems can happen to any pet, but where they live and travel can affect their risk of infections, parasites, and other diseases. Talking with us about your pet’s lifestyle will help us match the correct wellness care to their needs.
Early Disease Detection
When your pet comes in for a visit, we will be checking them out from nose to tail. We are looking for any clues to problems, or changes in their physique or demeanor, that could indicate a change in their health.
We also need you to tell us about any changes you may have noticed at home in their behavior, appearance, or attitude. Even small changes that can be dismissed as “aging” are sometimes symptoms of problems we can help. Catching and treating problems early improves our ability to heal pets, limits their discomfort, and often costs a lot less than waiting until problems are more overt and emergent.
In addition to a thorough exam and history, basic laboratory screening of organ function and common diseases can greatly enhance our ability to detect disease before it is severe enough to affect a pet’s behavior.
Parasite Control
With Portland’s mild climate, fleas and intestinal parasites have always been a problem here. With increased travel of pets and families, heartworm and tick-borne diseases are also becoming increasingly common. Part of understanding your pet’s lifestyle is understanding which of these parasites they are at risk for and how to prevent them. We are happy to work with you to find the preventative that works best for your pets and their needs.
Vaccination
Guardian Veterinary Care makes vaccine recommendations based on the latest American Animal Hospital Association and American Association of Feline Practitioners guidelines. Guidelines and options change over the years, but vaccination is still an important part of preventing infectious disease in pets. Happily, better research into vaccines and illnesses help us choose the safest and most efficacious immunizations, and to use them judiciously. As part of your pet’s wellness visit we will recommend vaccinations based on their lifestyle and history.