Complete preventive veterinary care for your cat can help give them their very best shot at a long and healthy life. But which preventive services are best for your kitty? Read on to find out.
Preventive Care Plan to Promote Lifelong Good Health & Wellness
When it comes to the health of your feline family member, prevention is almost certainly better than treatment. At Western Carolina Regional Animal Hospital & Veterinary Emergency Hospital we offer a range of services designed to prevent disease and keep indoor and outdoor cats healthy from kittenhood through old age.
Preventive Wellness Care for Kittens
Set your tiniest family member on the path to optimal health and wellness with regular preventive veterinary care starting at about eight weeks of age. When you bring your kitten in for their first wellness exam your veterinarian will do a complete physical examination to assess their overall health, look for signs of any congenital defects, and check for external parasites. Vital kitten vaccinations will be administered as well as deworming medications to treat parasites such as roundworms and hookworms. As a final preventive measure, your veterinarian will perform a blood test to check for feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency virus.
Preventive Care for Adult Cats
During your kitty's first veterinary examination, your vet can create a preventive care wellness plan personalized to meet all of your cat's unique needs. Preventive services that our veterinarians at Western Carolina Regional Animal Hospital & Veterinary Emergency Hospital commonly recommend for cats include:
Regular Wellness Exams for Cats
Routine wellness exams are one of the most important elements of preventive care for cats. These physical checkups, performed when your cat seems perfectly healthy, allow your veterinarian to monitor your feline friend's health, catch developing health issues early, and provide any vaccines or other preventive services required.
Bringing your cat in for wellness exams also allows you to ask your veterinarian questions about your kitty's health. Are you concerned about a particular symptom or behavior your kitty is showing? Want to know how to brush your cat's teeth? Wondering about the best food to feed your cat? Wellness exams are your chance to get the answers you need.
Vaccines to Prevent Serious Illness
Cat vaccines are designed to safeguard your furry friend's health from a wide range of highly contagious, potentially life-threatening diseases. By keeping your cat's vaccinations up-to-date, you can help protect your kitty against serious conditions such as rabies, feline panleukopenia, herpesvirus, and calicivirus.
When you take your cat for their routine exam, your veterinarian can assess your kitty's lifestyle and risk factors to determine which vaccines are right for them.
Internal Parasite Screenings
Internal parasites such as hookworm, roundworm, tapeworm and whipworm can be lurking deep within your kitty's gastrointestinal tract. Often the early symptoms of internal parasites go undetected by pet parents.
Fecal exams - provided as part of your cat's comprehensive preventive wellness plan - can be a quick and efficient way to detect the presence of internal parasites before health symptoms arise. Since many internal parasites can be passed from cats to people, detecting the presence of parasites early can help to preserve the health of your pet and your family.
External Parasite Prevention
Fleas and ticks don't just make our pets uncomfortable, they can also spread a variety of serious diseases, including Lyme disease. To help reduce your furry friend's risk of developing health problems due to fleas and ticks, cat wellness plans at our Flat Rock animal hospital include 12 months of flea and tick prevention products.
Preventive Dental Care for Cats
Cats can suffer from a range of painful dental health problems, many of them preventable. To help keep your cat's teeth in tip-top condition routine examinations and cleanings are key. Annual dental appointments can help to clean away harmful plaque that can lead to gingivitis, tooth decay or tooth resorption in cats.
Note: The advice provided in this post is intended for informational purposes and does not constitute medical advice regarding pets. For an accurate diagnosis of your pet's condition, please make an appointment with your vet.