A big thing I find with cats, especially indoor cats, is proper nutrition and portion control. We know that our kitties indoors don't get quite the exercise they do outside. They're not relying on hunting to survive and to be nourished because we're providing that food. Being overweight can cause a lot of problems, so keeping them at an ideal weight can prevent a lot of problems. Overweight cats can't groom themselves as well, and diabetes is a threat. Another thing you can do at home is to make sure your cat has plenty of environmental enrichment. That's the big name that we use because that can prevent behavioral issues. Behavioral issues are one of the leading causes of having to rehome your pet, wanting to rehome your pet, or even euthanasia, which we don't like to think about. If we can do things to prevent behavioral issues, it's a lot easier than treating them later. Things like cat trees, puzzle toys, two sides of our den have windows, and I'm a bird photographer, so we have birds all over the place. The cats will just line the couch and watch birds. Something to enrich their mental as well as their physical, is perfect. Playing with them is a little more difficult, but a laser pointer and things like that help.

During that appointment, we will do a complete physical exam. One of the first things we do is talk about history. So we ask questions like do you have any concerns? Because even on a regular wellness exam, a lot of times, clients have questions. Maybe their pet's doing something that they aren't used to or acting a certain way, and they want to know, is that normal? That's good for cats because if they change their behaviors or habits, there's usually a reason. They hide things so well. With the full physical exam, we talk about how we examine a pet from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail. We want to look at all aspects in between, whether that's looking at their teeth or proper dental hygiene, looking at their ears, making sure there are no infections there, listening to the heart, feeling the belly, and looking at the coat. That's a lot of what's involved in wellness exams.

It can help in a lot of different aspects. When we think about our younger cats, their immune systems are not exposed to many things, so vaccinations can prevent them from catching certain diseases. We talk a lot about flea and heartworm prevention. By going ahead and applying that prevention beforehand, we don't have to worry about fighting fleas or diseases that parasites can carry.

Preventive care for cats involves a lot of different things, but we're basically trying to keep our cats healthy, and we are trying to do things that will prevent problems from happening. That can involve parasites, vaccinations, or even just nutrition and husbandry.

From your veterinarian. That would be one option. Depending on what the medication is, we would be able to prescribe, and most things that we prescribe, we carry in-house. But there are certain ones that we would write you a prescription for or call that into a pharmacy where you and I would go to fill the medication, and you can pick up your pet medication there. You can fill them on the Online Store from here as well if you want to have them sent to you. But usually, you'd probably want to get it started, or at least get the first ones started, and then get your refills if necessary. If we carry it in-house, we would immediately prescribe it. One benefit is that you can get that before you ever walk out the door. If it was a medication that would be more long-term, we'd often recommend our online store just for convenience, or potentially a pharmacy locally that might carry that.

If it's a medication by mouth, some will just take it. Some people tell me that anything they put in front of their dog, they're going to eat. So that's great if you have one of those dogs. If you have one like Kyle that's a little wiser to the tricks, you can put it down the hatch. It's still effective. We may talk about other ways to administer medications, whether it's an injection, a topical, or liquid versus pills. Sometimes we might have it formulated differently. Dogs can be tricky sometimes.

There are different categories of pain medication. One we touched on in the other video is the non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, like aspirin. So the dog form of that would be Carprofen or Galiprant. There are a lot of different names for those different types of medications. That's one category. Another category would be Gabapentin, and Tramadol. Those are other types of pain medication that work in a different pathway, and they often work what we call synergistically, which means together. When you give more than one pain medication, if it's necessary to control pain, then you can give less overall pain medication, which is our goal because we don't want a pet to have a side effect or a problem with the medication. And then also there are other methods of helping pain specifically. We also offer the K laser therapy, which is not necessarily a medication, but it is a treatment for pain. And again, you can lower the actual medication you're giving your pet, making it safer overall.

That sounds like a loaded question to me. But yes, there are a lot of human medications that we use for pets. The disclaimer would be that we would want to make sure that we're dosing your pet correctly for the problem that we're trying to treat. One general, common medication that's used at home, and I would still recommend checking with your veterinarian, but Benadryl is often given for itchiness, bee stings, and sometimes even just to calm or take the edge off as it does in people. Sometimes it can cause sleepiness. There are some medications, but without being prescribed for your pet, it's not something that I would necessarily recommend.