Wellness Exams in Lake in the Hills, IL

Preventive Care That Catches Problems Early

Many disease processes in animals are treatable. The key is catching them early. When we perform a wellness exam, it is exactly that, an evaluation to determine where a patient is at with their overall wellness. This is more than just a physical exam, it is an in depth discussion looking for any silent predictors of problems ahead.

It is touching base on nutrition, new research, and behavior. It is an investment in your pet’s longevity and overall quality of life. Wellness means determining what is “normal” for an individual pet so that we have a clearer picture of the situation if it someday becomes “abnormal.”

Dogs and cats are remarkably good at carrying on as though nothing is wrong, both having evolved to hide weakness. By the time an owner can plainly see a problem, it may have been brewing for some time. Our goal is to catch as many of these problems before they boil over.

At Healthy Paws Animal Hospital in Lake in the Hills we have built the wellness visit around time and personal undivided attention. There is no waiting room. You and your pet are escorted directly to an exam room with floor to ceiling windows, and you stay in that room with your own veterinary technician and doctor through checkout.

No dogs on leashes in a crowded space, no doors opening and closing, no strange smells and sounds while you wait your turn. We are only as good as the care we are able to provide, and a frightened patient can limit what we are able to learn. We try and set you, your pet, and us up for success.

Wellness Exams by Life Stage

Puppies and Kittens (Under 1 Year)

Puppies and kittens are the best. So energetic and curious, bouncing around and exploring every new thing. Preventive wellness care should start immediately after a new furry friend enters the home. An initial exam allows us to identify common and treatable issues that often come with a new pet. It allows us to ensure that as an owner you have all of your questions answered from day one about toileting to nutrition to training. From there, we take the opportunity to educate on things at home an owner can do to keep their new family member safe. We spend time discussing anything and everything on your mind, reassuring while giving guidance, setting everyone up for success.

There is also another “job” happening during our puppy and kitten visits that is as important as the medicine. Young animals are constantly learning, absorbing the world. We want to show them how fun it can be to go to the doctor, laying the groundwork for future success. Handled gently, fed treats, allowed to explore the room and never forced, by the end of our visit, most of our young patients have decided it is a pretty fun place, a recipe for future success.

Adult Dogs and Cats (1 to 6 Years)

In the days of old, going to the vet was synonymous with getting “shots.” While still important, vaccines are not the primary reason we see our patients annually. It is the physical exam and the record and relationship we build from it. A few extra pounds, early dental disease, a heart murmur that was not there last year, a lump that is new, a silent ear infection: These are the findings that we are catching and thus able to investigate before they are a crisis. Prevention of a problem is always preferable to reacting after the fact, when it may not be fixable.

At every adult visit we update vaccinations that are due based on your individual pet’s lifestyle, not a blanket protocol. We review parasite prevention and keeping your pet safe based on their exposure risk and needs. We decide on the best food for their stage of life, evaluate their weight, and discuss any new behavior concerns. An exam from head to toe is not complete without a discussion and in depth history from a pet’s owner.

Senior Pets

Our senior pets need us more than ever. They rely on us to keep them healthy and comfortable, ideally allowing their bodies to age gracefully. Older pets change faster than we expect them to, and changes in their health can happen just as fast.

Dogs are generally considered senior around seven years of age, and cats between eight and ten, though breed and size can impact these numbers. Senior exams are recommended every six months at some point as we recognize that a lot can change in a little time and the sooner we are able to identify changes, the better we are able to handle them.

Senior visits are the same comprehensive experience, with an added focus on issues that tend to affect our older friends. Early signs of joint pain, changes in sleep or toileting, increasing thirst, and weight changes are just a few of the common items we are often addressing during these visits. Our exam, discussion, and labwork testing allow us to identify kidney disease, diabetes, thyroid disease, and liver disease, to name a few, ideally before they are permanent. Our goal with a senior pet is not simply more years. It is good years.

Bloodwork and Diagnostic Screening

Often we are asked why labwork should be done on a healthy pet. This is actually one of the reasons to perform testing, to prove that a pet is truly normal at a point in time. If a pet becomes ill within the next year and labwork is found to be abnormal, we now have a baseline to refer back to as a reference. This can be key in determining prognosis.

Even more importantly, in some rare cases we find that an apparently normal pet actually has early indicators of internal disease. The sooner these issues are identified the better the chance of successful intervention. It is recommended that wellness labwork be performed on all pets annually and on our senior cats and dogs every six months.

Diagnostics we may recommend include:

• Complete blood count, which evaluates red cells, white cells and platelets
• Chemistry panel, which assesses kidney values, liver enzymes, blood glucose, protein and electrolytes
• Thyroid screening
• Urinalysis, which tells us how well the kidneys are working and screens for infection and crystals
• Heartworm disease and tick borne disease testing, recommended annually for every dog
• Fecal testing for intestinal parasites, several of which are transmissible to people

Running these tests while your pet is healthy is what makes them useful. Laboratory reference ranges are built from a population, not from your dog. By performing annual or semi-annual labwork on a pet we can determine their normal allowing us to customize our analysis beyond just what the laboratory says is normal. Individual trends in lab results are where the true informational power comes from.

Nutrition and Lifestyle Review

Every wellness exam includes a real conversation about your pet’s weight, what they eat, how much, how it makes them feel, how much exercise they get, and any changes in their activity level.

Weight is the single most modifiable thing we discuss. Excess weight is not a cosmetic problem. It contributes to arthritis, diabetes, respiratory disease and often a shorter life.

In cats a change in weight is often the earliest sign of disease. Losing one pound in a ten pound cat is more than ten percent of body weight. That is significant and often hard to see with the naked eye or using a human scale.

We will give you specific recommendations on nutrition rather than general advice, and if a diet change is warranted we will tell you which food, how much, and how to make the change without a hunger strike or an upset stomach.

A Calm Visit for Your Pet

We listen to our patients.

A wellness exam should not be something you dread on the drive over, and it should not be something your pet has to be forced through. Our team works with pets rather than against them, and we read what an animal is telling us before we ask anything more of them.

In practice that means treats through most of the exam, gentle handling, soothing scents, towels and hiding places for our cats who want them, and a pace set by the animal in the room rather than by the clock. For a fearful patient we will stop, change our approach, or discuss safe medication options that make the visit possible rather than pushing through and teaching that pet to be more frightened for their next visit. Fighting an animal to finish an exam only makes every appointment after it harder.

Schedule Your Pet’s Wellness Exam

Whether this is a puppy’s first visit or a senior cat’s twice yearly wellness check, we would be glad to meet you both. Healthy Paws Animal Hospital is privately owned, and has cared for pets in Lake in the Hills, Algonquin, Huntley, Crystal Lake, Cary, the Village of Lakewood and Woodstock since 2010.

Call us at (815) 322-5400 to schedule, or request a visit online. If your pet is due, or if something has simply felt different lately, we will work you in.

Questions and Answers