Even if your pet seems to be acting normal, they are often able to mask any sign of illness or discomfort. This is why routine physical exams are integral to your pet’s health. At our hospitals, we recommend wellness exams once or twice a year, depending on your pet’s age and health conditions.
Since the lifespan of pets is much shorter than ours, we strongly encourage regular wellness visits to preserve the health and longevity of our furry friends. These routine check-ups will allow your veterinarian to address potential health concerns, discuss their behavior or diet, and determine any course of action to maintain their health. Particularly with pets, the sooner we are able to identify an issue, the sooner we can help!
Our practical and fresh approach to comprehensive wellness exams goes way beyond routine vaccinations, but focuses on nurturing your pet with compassion and providing them state-of-the-art medical care.
Depending on your pet’s age, we not only physically examine your pet, but perform:
Keeping your pet up to date on vaccinations is crucial to maintaining their overall health and wellness. Just as with humans, there are a vast number of contagious diseases that can easily be spread to your pet. Our goal is to maintain a regular vaccination routine for your pet in order to build their immune system and protect them from any disease they may come into contact with.
At our hospitals, we believe in using vaccines only as needed and creating vaccination schedules based on each pet’s individual and unique needs. We have identified core vaccinations that we recommend for all pets and non-core vaccinations that may be recommended based on age, species, breed, lifestyle, and health.
Core Vaccinations include:
Canines:
Rabies*, DHPP (Distemper, Hepatitis, Parainfluenza, and Parvovirus)
Felines:
Rabies*, FVRCP (Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis, Calicivirus, and Panleukopenia)
*Rabies vaccination is regulated by New Jersey state law.
Non-core vaccinations include:
Canines:
Lyme, Canine Influenza, Bordetella, and Leptospirosis (may be given with the DHPP vaccine as DHLPP)
Felines:
Feline Leukemia and Chlamydia
Parasites such as fleas, ticks, and worms are some of the most common yet harmful threats to your pet. Parasites exist in almost every environment and are especially dangerous because they often cannot be seen by the naked eye. Parasites can cause sickness, discomfort, pain, and even death in extreme cases. This is why, at our hospitals, we address parasites through year-round preventative care.
See below for more information about the most common parasites in dogs and cats:
Fleas:
Fleas are small, invasive bugs that hide in the fur of both cats and dogs and can cause a range of ailments including dermatitis, itching, bacterial infections, allergies, and hair loss. The most important thing to remember when dealing with fleas is that a female flea can lay up to 50 eggs per day in your pet’s fur, so the best way to stop the infestation is to prevent it with year-round regulation, medication, and grooming.
Ticks:
Ticks are small bugs that bite and suck the blood of their host and can cause a number of illnesses, particularly Lyme disease, Ehrlichiosis, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Ticks are often found in wooded, grassy areas, so it’s important to check your pet, as well as yourself, after you’re in that kind of environment. The best way to protect your pet against ticks is to follow a recommended tick preventative regimen and check your pet’s skin and fur during daily grooming.
Heartworms:
Heartworm disease is one of the most serious threats to a pet’s health. Heartworm disease is caused by parasitic worms spreading into a pet’s internal organs through mosquito bites. The pet then becomes host to worms that can mature and produce offspring, all while harming their health and potentially causing lung disease, heart failure, organ damage, and even death. These ailments are irreversible and can cause your pet prolonged pain and suffering. Treating heartworms once they’ve inhabited a pet is extremely difficult, expensive, and time-consuming, so the best way to treat them is to practice preventative measures all year long.
Intestinal parasites:
Other intestinal parasites that can be harmful to your pet include tapeworms, hookworms, roundworms, and whipworms. All of these parasites can hide in a pet’s intestinal track and steal nutrients, possibly resulting in serious health concerns. These parasites are easy for pets to pick up since they can be found in contaminated soil or the feces of other animals, and extremely easy for pets to pass onto their owners. As with other forms of parasite control, prevention is the only way to protect your pet from the many forms of parasites.
While we hope that your pet always sticks by your side, it’s the unfortunate reality that accidents can happen and pets can easily get lost. According to the American Humane Society, approximately 10 million pets are lost in the US each year, and only 15% of dogs and 2% of cats are returned to owners.
A microchip is an easy, non-invasive way to ensure that even if your pet does get lost, you can easily be reunited and bring them home. Microchipping is basically a way of giving your pet a form of identification. It is a small device that has a unique ID number and when it is scanned, it transmits that number. A microchip is typically injected in the loose skin between a pet’s shoulder blades in a safe, easy, pain-free procedure, similar to a vaccination. A microchip is roughly the size of a grain of rice, so your pet won’t even feel it.
Once inserted and registered with a pet recovery database , the microchip will stay with your pet for life and greatly increase your chances of being reunited with your pet if they are ever lost or stolen. We also highly recommend using collars and ID tags in addition to microchipping so your pet can be as safe as possible.
Obesity is a common problem among pets, as it can be easy to overfeed a cute dog or cat that knows how to beg. Being overweight is a serious problem for animals, and can cause real health issues. With proper diet and exercise, all pets should be able to meet their dietary needs and stay within a healthy weight range.
Pet’s nutritional needs change as they enter different stages of their lives. The best way to make sure your pets’ needs are being met is to consult with us about a diet made specifically for his or her lifestyle.
Our approach at our hospitals is to use food as medicine, which can help prevent disease and prolong your pet’s life. We offer nutritional counseling for pet owners of Tenafly, NJ and surrounding communities. If you have any questions about your pet’s diet or would like more information about your pet’s nutritional needs, please contact us today. We can set up a nutrition plan for your pet.
Here are some nutrition tips we recommend:
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