That's certainly an option, but from my perspective, it's not the best option. I think it's less expensive to prevent problems than deal with them as they come up for a couple of reasons. One reason is there can be long-term effects of things that we can prevent. These illnesses are sometimes not fixable, which can mean chronic care and chronic medications, which obviously can add up and be more expensive.

For example, if we can start that Lyme vaccine at eight weeks and keep it up to date year to year, it will keep your dog protected. The vast majority of dogs are very well protected by that vaccine. The company also guarantees the vaccine. So if God forbid, your dog gets Lyme disease even though they're vaccinated, their care is going to be covered by that company.

If we didn't do the Lyme vaccine and your dog contracts Lyme, we recommend regular monitoring of protein levels in the urine, Lyme C6 titers. Often they need several rounds of medications because Lyme can become a lifelong disease. In a tiny percentage of dogs, it can lead to kidney failure.

So when you think about the small things that you can do each year or each month, like a flea and tick preventative to keep these problems from occurring, it ends up being a lot cheaper than dealing with a problem as it comes up.

That's a great question. If you've had a puppy anytime in the recent past, you remember that we saw you a lot. That's because we want to see you first thing with your puppy, kind of establish who they are, how they are, and what they need. We also split up our vaccines over several visits. We’re seeing them relatively frequently with puppy preventative care to get them fully protected against everything and up-to-date.

As we get into the young adult years, we like to see your dog still at least once a year, just to make sure that they're maintaining okay, that we keep vaccinations up to date, and that no problems are developing that may not be apparent at home.

Then as dogs get into their older adult years, and even their senior years, we start to want to see them more frequently again. Dogs age more quickly than people do, which means that problems can arise much more rapidly. Seeing your older dog every six months can help us catch things early—things that you may overlook at home.

You’re a big part of prevention as well. Paying attention at any stage of life to changes in routine, changes in behavior or interaction, and certainly changes in water intake and output can all be indicators that something is going on.

I don't know that I can give a 100% guarantee on that, but we can do an excellent job with the products on the market now. The current product that we're using is called Simparica TRIO. It's all-in-one flea, tick, and heartworm prevention in a single pill, given once a month. I think it's the easiest thing that we've had in recent history to control fleas and ticks, but it's also extremely effective and super safe. The best we can do is give that prevention. And then, especially with ticks, we have to do those daily tick checks, as dogs and even our cats come inside. Just do that once-over check on your pets. One thing I've heard that works well is using a lint roller when your dog comes inside. Just kind of roll that down their back, and you can pick up those tiny little ticks that you may not be able to see very well on your fuzzy dog.

Preventative care can mean many different things, but the gist of it is knowing what you can do to keep your dog as healthy as possible for as long as possible. I think we all want our pets to live forever. I certainly do. That's not realistic. So our second-best goal is to keep them going as well as possible for as long as possible. Preventative care is the best tool that we have for that, by being proactive rather than reactive.

Pilling a cat is a funny concept, but some cats really handle it well. So the best thing to do is kind of grab the top of their jaw. It's called the maxilla, this bone here. Maybe bring down their lower part of the jaw and just pop the pill in, close their mouth, and massage their throat. But oftentimes cats take liquids better, so measure up the prescribed amount, pop it in the mouth, and encourage them to swallow.