Wellness and Preventative Care

Annual wellness exams allow us to evaluate your pet’s overall health, and gives us an opportunity to detect and address problems before they become serious, in order to help you keep your pet on track to living a long, healthy life.

Overview
We follow your pet through the many phases of their lives. From specialized and preventative care during their younger years to regular wellness checks as they age, veterinarians seek to prevent and detect problems before they arise. We know your pet is important to you, and that's why we work hard to ensure they are given only the best care through all the years of their lives.

The American Animal Hospital Association recommends that your pet have a wellness exam at least once every year. As your pet ages, they recommend having even more (i.e. every 6 months). We believe strongly in preventive care and have developed wellness protocols for every stage of the life of your pet. Depending on your pet’s life stage, vaccines may be administered, as well as bloodwork and disease screenings.

Why are wellness exams important?
Wellness exams are important because they give us a chance to evaluate the overall health of your pet, while also giving us a baseline for their own unique bodies and tendencies. These exams can also allow us to detect potential problems before they become serious, and can even make your pet more familiar with our veterinary clinic, thereby making future vet visits easier on them and on you.

When should my pet visit the vet?
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” –Benjamin Franklin

We at Sugar Land Veterinary Clinic believe in preventative medicine as the best approach to keeping your pet healthy. This includes annual wellness examinations, vaccinations on a one- or three-year basis, external and internal parasite prevention, laboratory screening, dental hygiene, and dietary management. Our doctors will help determine what vaccinations and testing are appropriate according to you and your pet’s needs. We will discuss in detail what your options are to help you make the best possible health decisions for your pet.

How do wellness exams work?
During a wellness exam, our veterinary team will start out by taking your pet's vital signs and a brief overview of how your pet has been doing (also known as taking a history). Our veterinarian will then perform a comprehensive examination of your pet from nose to tail, and may also perform diagnostic tests such as blood work, urinalysis, or internal/external parasite testing. Depending on your pet’s life stage, vaccines may be administered, as well as disease screenings for heartworm, kidney, liver, blood disorders, and more.

Wellness examinations do not necessarily mean that your pet is going to be subjected to complicated or costly medical tests and treatments. These examinations allow us to prevent major health issues from developing undetected and gives us the opportunity to analyze and record baseline values such as temperature, body condition, and lab work. We measure these when your pet is healthy in order to provide better care in the event of illness or emergency. A dental health exam and a weight check are always important parts of a wellness exam and may indicate problems that can progress rapidly and have a significant impact on your pet's overall health.

We believe that early detection and subsequent correction of medical problems will help to ensure that your pet will live a long, healthy, and active life with you.