Can we safely say our pets are reaching their senior years?
As much as we hate to say it, our babies will one day get old and cross the rainbow bridge. But what if we could extend their life span by just a couple of years? That sounds like something I would definitely invest in.
We've probably been seeing your babies for years now. If you're like most of our clients we are probably doing annual vaccines, heart-worm checks, routine preventatives, etc. It may be that after years of doing annuals it may be time that we now have to do extra blood-work on "Fido". But why invest in doing extra blood-work when my baby looks and acts like a 6 month old puppy even though they may be hitting the 10-year age mark.
We may not react to it but even though our pet's may seem like theirs nothing wrong on the outside; it may a different story on the inside. Older pets are predisposed for many diseases, and may be at risk. Whether you have a chihuahua or a maine coon; their is a difference of when to properly call them "Senior's". Canines usually have different categories depending on their size and breed. A small breed dog would be considered a senior over the age of 10, a medium breed dog is a senior over the age of 8, and lastly a large breed is considered a senior after 6 years of age. A feline on the other hand, is considered a Senior over the age of 11.
Running a Senior Panel on all of our babies will help us find out if they may have trouble with a metabolic or organ disease. By diagnosing these diseases early, we can possibly help prolong your pet's life. Some diseases may only be manageable, but it does give us the opportunity to give them and us a more comfortable quality of life. The earlier we can attack certain diseases the better prognosis they may have.
With a thorough physical exam and blood-work analysis, our veterinarians can get a better picture of your pet's health. Our veterinarians here recommend to run a full chemistry panel, a CBC, check thyroid function, and lastly do a urinalysis to check for any abnormalities. If this is something you are interested in, please call our office to set up an appointment to check out your pet's overall health, we would gladly set up an appointment for you. Also, we offer a discount on healthy patients that would like to receive a full Senior Panel. Call us today at 281-487-1101.
