Preventative Medicine

Comprehensive Exam - Examinations are the most important part of your pet's visit. They allow the doctors to get a hands-on assessment for your pet's current state of health.

Our doctors will check your pet from nose to tail, assessing a variety of categories, including:

• A complete assessment of all body systems including; ears, eyes, nose, throat, heart, lungs and dental health too!
• Checking skin and hair coat
• Performing an assessment of joint mobility
• Palpating internal organs to check for normal size or irregularities
• And more!

Annual physical exams allow the doctor to gain an overall picture of your pet's health which can be compared year to year as your pet ages. The annual exam is also a great time to discuss overall life categories, including:

• Diet
• Weight and body condition score as it relates to nutrition and exercise
• Parasite prevention
• Preventative options for aging changes, like joints, kidneys, heart health, and more.

Preventative Labwork - We offer a wide variety of laboratory services, both in-house and sent to our outside reference laboratory. In addition to general bloodwork testing, we also recommend routine parasite testing, including routine fecal and heartworm testing. Labwork is often time helpful, as many diseases can go unnoticed in daily behavior.

Some of our in-house laboratory services we offer include:

• Heartworm and tick disease testing
• Giardia testing
• FeLV/FIV testing
• Pre-surgical bloodwork
• Bloodwork for routine medication monitoring
• Ear swab microscopic analysis to diagnose ear infections
• Aspirates of lumps for basic microscope interpretation

Our outside services through IDEXX Laboratories include a wide array of individual tests and full panels to monitor everything from basic chemistry panels and complete blood counts, and more. Our doctors can choose to best test available to assess your pet's unique needs.

Parasite Prevention - We recommend year around protection against fleas, ticks, heartworms, and intestinal worms (roundworms, hookworms, and whipworms).

Fleas: Fleas are a common parasite in Washington State and can cause mild to severe skin irritation to animals, transmit infectious diseases, and if consumed, can transmit tapeworms. Your pet can also be allergic to fleas, and even just one flea bite can cause an intense allergic reaction, resulting in a severely painful skin infection. Flea populations do diminish in the colder months, but fleas can survive in warmer areas, like bed houses, bedding, and even inside homes during the winter months.

Ticks: Ticks can cause serious disease to animals and humans. Washington State is seeing an increased prevalence in tick-borne diseases: Lyme, anaplasmosis, and Ehrlichosis.

Heartworms: Heartworms are a parasite transmitted by mosquitoes. It primarily causes disease in dogs, but cats have a susceptibility to it as well. Heartworm disease rarely occurs in humans, but can be fatal to pets if it is not caught and treated early. While heartworm disease is not as common in Washington State versus other states, the incidents in our state are rising, and travelling outside the state increases the risk of contracting this disease.

Roundworms, hookworms, and whipworms: These are the most common intestinal worms in companion animals, and can be found throughout the natural environment, transmitted by wildlife. Infections with these parasites can occur throughout the year in any climate in any season. In addition, round and hookworms are a significant cause of zoonotic disease, which means that they can spread from pets to their owners and families. These parasites can result in medical conditions in humans. Children and immunocompromised people are the most at risk for picking up zoonotic infections.