Routine Health Checks

Regular health checks (once or twice a year) are a very important disease prevention measure for your pet. These routine health checks are usually incorporated into the annual vaccination, where the vet will thoroughly examine your pet to ensure that all is well. This gives the vet an opportunity to detect and prevent problems at an early stage. Just think, pets age more quickly than humans, so an annual exam equates to a human getting a physical every 5-7 years. Plus they don't always show signs of early disease, and they cant easily communicate discomfort to us.

What is a geriatric pet?

As a rule of thumb, we say dogs over 8 years old and cats over 12 years old can be considered 'geriatric pets'. This is the age when, unfortunately, age related diseases start to catch up with them. Examples are heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease, hormonal diseases and cancer.

We advise that all geriatric pets have a routine health check at least every 6 months, so that we can identify and treat any diseases early, and therefore significantly extend the lifespan for your pet. We also advise that pets with chronic medical conditions (e.g. arthritis) have a routine check-up every 3 months, to reassess the dose of any medication the pet is receiving and make sure we are maximising the quality of life.