Keeping our pets healthy is on top of our minds as veterinarians. Pet health is very much akin to human health and requires a healthy diet, good body weight, and regular exercise. It sounds simple but a massive 40% of pets are considered over weight in Australia alone!

Health care requires looking after pets general health—including teeth (this is very often overlooked), with regular dental care essential for overall health.

Pets should have at least an annual health examination (usually done with vaccination) and regular worming treatments.

Healthy Pets

Tick-List for Pet Health

 

þ Good Quality Pet Diet

þ Regular exercise

þ Maintain a healthy weight

þ Dental care (at home and at the vets)

þ Regular worming (including heartworm for dogs)

þ Regular health examinations

þ Regular vaccinations
Text Box: Quality Pet Diet A Good quality pet diet is complete and balanced, and provides proper nutrition for your dog or cat. Good quality pet diets are comprised of high quality ingredients, generally lower salt and often lower fat than lower quality foods. We recommend the Hills Science range of pet foods—which are a super premium food, and provide all the nutritional needs for our pets. Pets with special nutritional requirements will benefit from prescription diets—these are available for many medical conditions including arthritis, diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease, vomiting/diarrhea. Ask us for details on prescription diets.

Regular Exercise

Regular exercise is vital for pets health, just as it is for ours. Dogs should have daily exercise—ranging from running around the backyard, chasing balls or toys, through to walking or running in an off lead area.

Cats don’t do a lot of exercise generally but can be encouraged to play with toys, chase soft balls or laser pointers or many other play things.

 

 

 

 

Maintaining a Healthy Weight

To maintain a healthy weight requires a combination of good quality pet food and regular exercise. Many pets are overweight—but much can be done!

 

By giving your pets a regulated amount of low calorie food they can be helped into maintaining an ideal weight. Pets who are not overweight are more lively, more confident and live healthier lives.

 

Ask us about Hills Restricted Calorie Diet (r/d), Hills weight diet (w/d) and Hills Science Light dog food.
Text Box: Dental Care Dental care is often overlooked as a part of maintaining pet health. This includes At home regular care Routine scale and polish Dental friendly diets At home care includes regular cleaning of teeth—this can be achieved with brushing (the most effective method), dental chews like Greenies or meaty bones. Text Box: A routine scale and polish will remove the calculus (tartar) and plaque that brushing or chewing alone will not. Many pets require a dental scale and polish every year or so, especially as they get older. If in doubt—lift up your pets lips and have a look at their teeth—especially their back teeth. Pets teeth should look like ours. They should be clean and white, with normal pink gums. Pets with red gums or tartar/calculus need veterinary attention. Most pets don’t chew their food. They tend to swallow—even dry kibble. Dental friendly diets like Hills Prescription T/D and Hills Oralcare have a larger kibble that will clean teeth as it is chewed. Feeding pets on these diets will clean teeth as they eat. Text Box: Health Examinations and Vaccinations Pets require and annual health examination and (usually) vaccination. Our pets can’t always tell us if there is something wrong. Many pets with dental disease and arthritis aren’t noticed until an examination reveals bad teeth or hip pain… Older pets should have a routine blood test to diagnose early kidney disease, liver disease or diabetes—these conditions can often be treated or managed if caught early. Routine vaccinations for pets help prevent contagious diseases, and should be kept up to date. To see if your pet if up to date—please give us a call on 9413-3888

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Text Box: Regular Worming Adult dogs and cats should be wormed every three months with an intestinal allwormer. There are many products to worm pets—with some more effective than others. If in doubt, go for a well respected brand name like Drontal or Milbemax. Cats who are difficult to give tablets now have available a topical allwormer, which is applied to the back of the next as a liquid (like many flea control products). When you purchase a wormer from us, we can put it on your pets record to then remind you when the next dose is due. Text Box: Dogs should also be protected against heartworm disease – this is most conveniently available in a once-a-year injection, or through monthly tablets.