As a pet parent, it takes more to care for your pet besides feeding them. Given the joy your pet brings to your family, you should make sure that you’re prioritizing your pet’s health and wellbeing. This means not waiting until your cat or dog is visibly ill to seek veterinary services. It also means asking yourself if you know the pet tips that animal vets recommend. If you aren’t sure what you should know, here’s what your veterinarian wishes you knew.

Pet Hospitals Are Not Only for Veterinary Emergency

At least once or twice a year, you should take your pet to see a veterinarian. When your pet is younger, you may have to seek animal health services more as per the vaccination schedule. As a rule of thumb, you should take your kitten or puppy to an animal hospital for vaccines every 3 to 4 weeks until it’s 16 weeks old. For dogs, vaccinations help prevent diseases such as distemper, rabies, and Lyme disease. For cats, vaccines help prevent rabies, feline leukemia, and feline herpes virus. After completing the vaccination schedule, most pet owners may never take their cat or dog to an animal medical center until there is an emergency like pet poison. This is a common mistake that most pet parents are guilty of. As your veterinarian will tell you, your cat or dog needs to be checked regularly to keep your pet healthy.

Have Pet Insurance

Veterinary visits aren’t cheap, and it is probably the reason some pet owners avoid animal hospitals. As a pet owner, it may be costly to pay for veterinary services if you don’t have pet insurance. Getting pet insurance should be on your priority list. When you have pet insurance, you will not be deterred by hospital costs to seek veterinary services. Your pet will need constant wellness exams, flea and tick prevention, and professional dental cleaning. Additionally, you’ll not have to pay through your nose for emergency vet services and specialty veterinarian services. This will help keep your pet in optimum health minus the high bills from pet hospitals.

Ask Your Veterinary Questions

While you will find many pet tips from your online search, they are not always 100% right. Not all pet tips will work on your dog or cat. That is why you should not hold back when consulting your veterinarian. Animal vets want you to ask them even the most embarrassing questions. For instance, if your dog sometimes feeds on its poop, you should not shy from popping the question to your veterinary. It may be as a result of enzyme deficiency, exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, or parasites. You should not only rely on online resources. Instead, seek a professional opinion from animal vets or ask your veterinarian to recommend authoritative online resources.

Feed Your Pet Healthy Food

Sadly, pet obesity is affecting millions of cats and dogs in North America. Depending on what you feed your pet, you will either have a healthy cat and dog or an obese one. An overweight pet is exposed to many chronic diseases such as arthritis and diabetes. Veterinarians recommend healthy pet food that has a good balance of fats, protein, and carbs. Besides feeding your pet healthy food, you should have a feeding schedule that complements your pet’s age, appetite, activity level, and health conditions. Your veterinarian will advise you on the best pet food and feeding schedule. When you feed your pet with healthy food and fresh water every day, you will have a healthy and happy pet.

After closely examining your pet, an animal vet is best suited to give you the best pet care tips. Veterinarians are committed to ensuring that your cat or dog is in good health. Therefore, you should take your pet to an animal hospital for regular wellness exams to keep your cat or dog in great health. The above pet tips are a few of the pet care tips that your veterinarians recommend. As a pet parent, these tips will help you take better care of your cat and dog.

At Southern Arizona Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Center we are happy to provide a wide range of veterinary specialty and emergency services. It is important to have a “primary care” veterinarian to keep your new family member healthy and happy with routine vaccinations and health checks. But if you find yourself in the midst of a veterinary emergency, our team of experienced veterinarians is here to help. When it comes to visiting animal hospitals, we understand that the experience can be full of stress and worry, so we aim to make things as simple as possible. For more information, get in touch with one of our experts today.