At Coal Mine Animal Hospital, we offer preventive pet care to the Littleton, CO area. Our individualized dog and cat wellness exam care and vaccination plans in Littleton, CO are designed for your pet—we never provide one-size-fits-all care at our hospital! We are firm believers in using preventive measures whenever possible, to prevent future health problems and catch them early.
Dog and Cat Wellness Recommendations
For your pet’s health and wellness, we recommend:
- Comprehensive annual physical exams
- Blood testing
- Regular heartworm testing and year-round parasite preventative. Internal and external parasites can affect both indoor and outdoor pets, and because many of these pests have hard-to-fight lifecycles, prevention is the best method of dealing with them.
For your pet’s further benefit, we also provide:
- HomeAgain microchipping- a safe, permanent identification
- A fully-stocked in-house pharmacy
- Nutritional counseling- Obesity is a common problem in older pets, and we can help with diet and exercise recommendations.
If you have questions about the wellness care provided by the attentive staff of Coal Mine Animal Hospital, please don’t hesitate to ask. We’ll be glad to give you more information.
FAQs about Cat and Dog Wellness Exam and Preventive Care
Annual physical exams are essential for evaluating the health and well-being of your pet, and to help detect diseases in their early stages.
As part of your pet’s “nose to tail” physical exam, we will:
- Discuss any concerns that you have with his/her health or behavior
- Check for significant weight changes. Weight loss or gain can be an early sign of disease. We will assess your pet’s diet and nutritional needs.
- Assess the condition of joints and the spine.
- Assess the hair and coat. Check the skin for signs of infection or parasites, “lumps and bumps” or other abnormal growths.
- Palpate the abdomen for abnormal masses or pain.
- Listen to the chest for heart murmurs, irregular heartbeat and abnormal lung sounds.
- Examine the eyes for cataracts, glaucoma, or inflammation.
- Examine the ears for parasites, infection, or inflammation.
- Evaluate the nose and nasal passages.
- Evaluate your pet’s teeth and mouth, and check for signs of periodontal disease.
- Palpate the lymph nodes to check for inflammation or enlargement.
Dog and cat vaccinations are very important for our pets because they prevent diseases, which in turn, promotes good health and a longer life! Some pets may not need every vaccine yearly. This is determined by each pet’s lifestyle. We will discuss your pet’s individual needs with you when you come in for a visit to make sure that we make an appropriate choice for your pet’s needs.
Cats can be affected by Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis, Feline Calicivirus, Feline Panleukopenia (Distemper), and Feline Leukemia (FeLV).
Dogs can be affected by Canine Distemper, Canine Tracheobronchitis (Canine Cough), Canine Parvovirus, Infectious Canine Hepatitis, and Leptospirosis.
All mammals can be affected by Rabies, including humans.
Parasites should be prevented because some of them are very difficult to get rid of. The process of treatment often compromises your pet’s health. Also, some external parasites, like ticks and fleas, can carry other diseases to your pet as well, creating a second problem. The danger of zoonotic diseases is another reason why prevention is extremely important.
