If there's a disease process going on, the doctor will recommend seeing your pet again. Again, we recommend exams every six months for a cat that's eight or older, but let's say the cat has a kidney problem, then we might want to see them every three or four months.

How often a cat should get a wellness exam depends on the age of the pet. If it's a kitten, we recommend them coming in very frequently up until about six months. We might even see them every three weeks for a checkup while they're getting their boosters. Once they're an adult, we recommend once a year, and then, once they become a senior, we recommend wellness exams every six months. Cats are considered seniors around the age of eight years old.

I would consider a baseline diagnostic test with a blood panel, checking their organ function, blood sugar, a complete blood cell count, and I’d look at all of the red and white cells. That's something that we recommend as a baseline, even in puppies. And then, depending on if they're on long-term medication, we might need to do that more frequently. That would be what I would consider a baseline. Depending on a puppy’s breed, we also sometimes recommend a baseline hip x-ray, looking for hip dysplasia or other orthopedic problems that might come up.

If we find a problem during the exam, we're going to talk about the treatment options and how often the dog needs to come back. These things would depend on what we found on the exam.

You should plan to be here for about 30 minutes. It's going to start with the technician asking you many questions about diet and the dog’s history, getting an idea of whether you have questions specifically for the doctor. The tech will also get the dog’s weight on the scale, take you into the room, and then have the physical exam done with the doctor. If there are any other tests that we recommend, we would need to draw blood, potentially take an x-ray, or other things like that. I would say the average is about 30 minutes.

Well, they're not required. No law says you have to bring your dog in for an exam, but we consider them vital to maintaining the pet’s health. So the more frequently we're going to see your dog, we're going to be able to diagnose diseases early on.