During your pet’s preventative care examination your doctor will:
1. Listen to your pet’s heart and lungs – At that time the veterinarian may catch early signs of cardiac disease, infections, or obstructive diseases.
2. Check your pet’s teeth and oral cavity– This is an important step towards preventing dental disease and to ensure that puppies and kittens are losing all of their baby teeth.
3. Evaluate your pet’s vision – During this time your veterinarian can catch early signs of blindness, cataracts, lens stiffness, scratches or ocular infections.
4. Examine Ears – Ear disease is common among many types of pets. With an ear cytology, we can determine if there is a bacterial infection in your pet’s ears and administer the appropriate medication to resolve the problem. Untreated ear disease can lead to uncontrollable head shaking which sometimes leads to ear hematomas (When blood vessels rupture inside the ear flap and cause it to fill with blood and fluid)
5. Palpate the lymph nodes, abdomen and skin– We are looking for unusual lumps, swellings, lesions, skin discoloration, hair loss, fleas and ticks, abscesses, stiff abdomen and lacerations.
6. Palpate joints and muscles – We observe your pet’s gait for developmental issues, swollen joints, decreased muscle tone, hip/elbow difficulties, or early signs of arthritis.
7. Lab Work – Our recommended tests include a heartworm test, fecal flotation test for intestinal parasites, a complete blood cell count, urinalysis and a blood chemistry profile in order to create a baseline of systematic health.
Preventative Vaccinations
Our vaccinations are not only safe and effective; they are a fundamental piece of your pet’s preventative health care plan. We treat the patient as an individual, which is why we try not to generalize what vaccinations all dogs or cats should have.
Home Again Microchip Implantation
We hope you never have to go through the scary experience of losing a pet. Unfortunately it happens more often than people think and many of those lost pets never return home. Home Again Microchips are designed to last your pet’s entire lifetime and they are linked to an online database that contains all of your information should your pet become lost.
When people find a lost pet they automatically go to animal hospitals or shelters to get them scanned for a microchip. Often owners will implant a microchip, but never register their information with the Home Again Company. At Severn River Animal Hospital we not only safely implant the microchip, but we also take the steps necessary to register your pet with your contact information.