Does My Pet Need a Yearly Visit?

My pet isn’t due for vaccines this year.  Do I need to bring it in for a yearly visit?

For the last ten or so years the trend in the veterinary industry, based on studies of the duration of vaccine efficacy, has been to give dogs and cats their vaccines less frequently.  We won’t go into the science behind when and how we determine whether your pet is properly boostered, nor how long their vaccines are good for in this discussion.  Instead we’re focused here on answering the common question of whether they still need to come in if a vaccine is not due.  The short answer is “Yes.”.  But read on for some interesting reasons why!

Think from a perspective in relation to yourself.  Most people see the value in going to see their own doctor on a yearly basis for a wellness visit.  Usually they are not due for vaccines, but they see the value in going because they understand that the doctor knows best and that if something abnormal was found it is better to address sooner rather than later.  Now take that mindset and realize that our pets may only live about one-sixth of our own lifespan.  If they get a yearly wellness visit, they are only getting to see their doctor about every six “human years”!  Your doctor would not be very happy with you if you only stopped in every six years.

A lot can happen in six years.  Then think that if you skipped one of your “every six year” appointments because you “didn’t need a vaccine”, you wouldn’t see the doctor for twelve years straight!!  To you this analogy may sound silly, but from our perspective as veterinarians, it really is true.  Our pets live shorter lives, and therefore age faster in relation to us.  They absolutely need a yearly examination, and you could argue for visits even more frequent than yearly from the mathematical perspective we just described.

A small heart murmur, a benign looking skin mass, a potentially arthritic joint, dirty teeth and the relationship oral health has to whole body health… all these things can change drastically from one year’s exam to the next.  By the next yearly visit one of these issues could be to the point of crisis that an untrained eye may not perceive.  So, please bring your pet to us, even if they don’t need a vaccine in that particular year.

You could also draw an analogy to your children and their pediatrician.  You may think that your child is healthy.  But you’re probably certain to take them for their yearly or milestone visits since you would acknowledge that you wouldn’t want to see them come to harm by not having been looked at by a doctor.  Like our children, and even more so, our pets cannot properly tell us if there is a problem.  The early symptoms of diseases are often subtle anyway.

There is more that we accomplish on a yearly wellness visit other than a physical examination.  We highly advise that your pet gets certain labwork done, such as a yearly heartworm test and fecal examination.  Intestinal parasites are common, and many times will only be found on a fecal exam.  Parasites are usually not seen with the naked eye at home.  Long-term parasitism can lead to serious health issues, as well as be a risk to you and your human family members!  Check out this link to the CDC to find out what top human healthcare professionals advise in regards to how keeping your pets healthy can keep you and your family healthy as well (http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/).  Another fantastic thing that can be done at a yearly examination is a “wellness panel”.  This is a chemistry and CBC panel, offered at a promotional discount as part of a commitment toward caring for your pet in a preventative manner.  A physical examination alone cannot find every symptom of disease.  We can do an even better job watching out for problems and finding them early if you also have a wellness panel run on your pet’s blood. Remember that it is safest for your pet in the long run to have chronic problems caught early when we can do more to help control and slow the damage that problem may have on the rest of the body.

A last important reason to bring your pet in for a yearly visit, even on years when a vaccine is not due, is for certain legality issues.  The state board of veterinary medicine does not allow us veterinarians to dispense most medications without keeping up with a “valid client-patient relationship”.  A standard of care held by the board is for us to have seen your pet on a yearly basis in order to dispense their chronic prescriptions and preventatives.  Your pet may not be on medications like that, but even so we are mandated to keep yearly examinations even if only to answer things you may think are simple questions over the phone about your pet’s health and care.  We need to see your pet because it is appropriate and legally mandated upon us.  We do not wish to jeopardize our own licensure and ability to be here caring for your pets.  Sometimes we will need to be sticklers because of those rules.  But ultimately those rules are centered on your pet’s best interest.

Hopefully you’ve learned some things through this discussion.  The question of whether your pet needs to come in for an examination even if a vaccine is not due may sound like a simple one.  But, now you may see the complexity behind our simple answer… “Yes!”  See you soon!