Adult Wellness Care
Blue Springs Animal Hospital provides comprehensive wellness services, including vaccinations (shots) and prevention of parasites like worms and fleas, for dogs and cats in Blue Springs and surrounding Kansas City areas.

As partners in your pet's life-long healthcare, we take a proactive approach to wellness recommendations. Our goal is a long and healthy life for your pet, and we believe strongly that preventative wellness care is the primary way to achieve that objective.

Comprehensive Physical Examinations are the most important part of our wellness program:

We recommend exams twice yearly on healthy pets because pets age 7 years for every year of our life.
By seeing your pet every 6 months - 3 1/2 pet years - our doctor's can perform a complete and thorough exam from nose to toes to detect problems early when therapy is most effective.

Many medical conditions are detected on physical exam that the owner was unaware were present because pets can not communicate and tend to hide their illnesses. Early detection, recognition, and timely intervention of medical conditions are the key to a long, healthy life.

At Blue Springs Animal Hospital we have followed the research and discussion with the desire to provide the very best care for our patients. Vaccinations are still absolutely critical for pets to protect them against contagious diseases, but vaccination should not be given more frequently than necessary.

New research indicates that some vaccinations provide immunity for more than 1 year. Other vaccinations provide immunity for LESS than 1 year. The time when all vaccinations should be given once yearly is past!

A vaccination protocol will be recommended for your pet based on their exposure and according to the newest knowledge regarding vaccinations. For example, most adult dogs will be vaccinated every 6 months for bordetella, but only every 2 years for Distemper/Parvo. Cats will require some vaccinations yearly and others every other year, but the vaccinations will be split and given with the 6 month exams in order to decrease stress on the immune system.

Intestinal Worms
The Centers For Disease Control (CDC) reports many cases each year of parasitic diseases which are contagious from pets to people. Most of these diseases could have easily been prevented with routine veterinary care.

Puppies/kittens should receive a series of fecal tests and dewormings and adult companion animals should have a health assessment and fecal test every 6 to 12 months. We perform and recommend fecal testing by centrifugation, which has been shown to be much more reliable than the more common fecal floatation.

Please view the Stool Sample guide to learn how to collect a sample from your pet to bring to your wellness care appointment.

Visit our Library page for handouts on the common intestinal parasites infecting cats and dogs. The Companion Animal Parasite Council also has an excellent website with information.

Heartworms
In our area there is also a significant risk in dogs and cats for heartworm infections. Heartworms are not contagious from pets to people, but they are a serious disease in both dogs and cats, causing respiratory and heart damage which may be fatal. Often dogs and cats show no symptoms of the infection until severe damage has already occurred.

• For dogs, we recommend testing once yearly and giving a preventative like Sentinel or Interceptor once monthly year around.
• For cats, we recommend giving a preventative like Revolution once monthly year around.

For more information on heartworms, view the videos to the right, or visit the Heartworm Society website.

External parasite control is important for the comfort of your pet and because fleas and ticks can transmit diseases. Fleas often carry tapeworms, and ticks carry several diseases diagnosed in our area, including Lyme disease, Ehrlickia, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

Choosing a safe and effective product to prevent fleas and ticks can be a confusing decision. Read our article on OTC Flea Products to learn why we do not recommend products from discount stores. Adding to the confusion, some safe and effective products work well in certain circumstances, but not in others. Our veterinarians will help you evaluate your pet's risks, and recommend a product for your pet. For more information:

• Sentinel: an excellent monthly oral product for heartworm and flea prevention in dogs, good choice if your pet has no exposure to ticks and limited exposure to adult fleas
• Comfortis: a fast acting once monthly oral product for adult fleas, recommended for dogs with no exposure to ticks, high exposure to adult fleas, and pets with flea allergies
• Frontline: a topical once monthly product for fleas and ticks
• Revolution: the best product for cats, an all-in-one monthly topical product for heartworm, flea, and tick protection

Wellness Blood Work is like an internal physical examination for your pet.

We recommend a mini-profile on healthy younger pets and a complete blood profile and urinalysis on healthy senior pets once yearly. Pets with chronic illness or on medications may require more frequent checks.

Wellness testing can detect hidden diseases like diabetes, kidney disease, thyroid disease, and anemia which can not be detected based upon symptoms or a physical exam alone. 

Early diagnosis and intervention can significantly affect your pet's response to therapy.

Click on the image to view a sample senior blood profile.