Preventative Medicine

PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE/WELLNESS CARE

At Coral Breeze Animal Hospital, we focus on preventative medicine. Routine wellness visits, dental care, parasite control, balanced nutrition, laboratory testing, and vaccinations are important for good health care.

We focus on preventative medicine

Physical Examination. This is the most important aspect of the wellness visit. The doctor will completely examine your pet from nose to tail. A routine physical examination can reveal medical conditions, such as ear infections, skin infections, heart murmurs and arrhythmias, external parasites (fleas, ticks, lice, mange), dental disease, obesity, arthritis, and various growths. Dogs and cats age much faster than humans, so many changes can occur in 6 months. We recommend twice yearly wellness examinations to make sure your pet stays healthy and to address medical problems early.

General Health Profile. Early detection and prevention of disease is the key to a healthy pet. If diagnosed early, many conditions can be completely reversed or controlled for long periods of time. Routine bloodwork and urinalysis helps your veterinarian diagnose blood disorders, diabetes, infection, cancer, thyroid disease and other hormonal problems, and liver, kidney and pancreas diseases.

Fecal Tests. Checking periodically for internal parasites (Giardia, roundworms, hookworks, whipworms, coccidia) is important, even if stools are consistently normal. Parasites can cause significant intestinal problems in both animals and humans (since some parasites can be transmitted from animals to humans.)

ideal climate for parasites

Parasite Control. South Florida has an ideal climate for parasites such as fleas, ticks and mosquitoes to thrive. Some of these insects can transmit diseases such as heartworms and Lyme disease or cause a severe anemia. We recommend that every pet be on monthly heartworm prevention and flea and/or tick control to help prevent some of these diseases.

Vaccinations. For cats, we recommend annual vaccination against rabies, upper respiratory infections, and feline leukemia (if at risk). For dogs, we recommend routine vaccinations against rabies, distemper, parvovirus, bordetella, Lyme (if at risk) and leptospirosis (if at risk).