How often should I take my dog to the vet?
It is essential to take your dog to the veterinarian regularly for routine visits, in addition to emergency visits in case of problems of course. This medical surveillance is absolutely essential to prevent many diseases.
Let’s see how to organize the veterinary follow-up of your dog at any age in order to protect his health throughout his life, as recommended by the practitioners.
Schedule of veterinary visits for your dog
As a general rule, veterinarians strongly recommend regular check-ups. The frequency varies for puppies, adult dogs and senior dogs.
Frequency of visits for the puppy
For puppies up to 6 months of age, the veterinarian must be able to check the young animal once every 8 weeks.
From 6 months to 1 year of age, the veterinarian recommends check-ups because their frequency varies according to the breed of the animal, its state of health, the vaccines received or to be received and therefore the possible second injections or booster shots that are necessary.
Frequency of consultations for the adult dog
Vaccination of the dog is not mandatory, except in special cases, but it is strongly recommended. Every year, the animal must receive booster shots to be protected against many diseases and to avoid their transmission to other dogs or even to humans. At the same time, a dog must be dewormed, at least once a year.
During this annual consultation for vaccination and deworming, the owner should ask the veterinarian to do a check-up, a kind of check-up strongly recommended by these professionals.
Frequency of consultations for the senior dog
Dogs enter the senior category at different ages depending on the breed to which they belong, namely :
From 9 years old for small breed dogs,
At 8 years for medium breed dogs,
At 7 years for large breed dogs,
From 6 years old for giant breed dogs
The signs of aging appear at different ages.
The senior dog must be able to benefit from a specific follow-up to live his old age as well as possible because it is at this period of life that he starts to be more exposed to the risks of obesity, diabetes, cataract, liver failure, kidney failure or heart problems for example, and even cancer. His joints become painful, his visual and auditory acuity can decrease, skin problems multiply. It is also at this age that old dogs suffer more than others from dental problems, so it is essential to have the health of their teeth checked.
So remember that a healthy senior dog should be seen by the veterinarian every six months. But the senior dog with a chronic pathology should of course be checked more frequently, every three months or even more frequently if necessary.
The veterinarian knows perfectly well the health condition of his little patient and his needs in terms of monitoring. Therefore, it is better that the dog’s owner relies on the consultation calendar indicated by the practitioner and follows the recommendations of this professional.
Interest of the annual check-up for the dog
A check-up is not only for sick or old dogs. It is also very useful for dogs in excellent health even if they are still young. Let’s not forget that some diseases are insidious, regardless of age, and are initially asymptomatic.
An early diagnosis allows to treat the animal as soon as possible and to multiply the chances of recovery. This diagnosis is only possible if the owner takes his dog to the vet. This is part of the responsibilities of a dog owner who commits, from the moment of adoption of the animal, to take care of its health.
It is important for a dog to have a check-up at least every twelve months. This annual check-up is a kind of complete review of the animal’s health. It can be done more frequently for dogs with fragile health, regardless of their age, or for senior dogs. The veterinarian reviews:
Body temperature,
Blood pressure,
Eyes,
The ears,
Teeth,
Weight,
Skin,
The lungs,
The heart,
The reproductive system,
The abdomen,
The joints…
To establish the health check-up, the veterinarian carries out various examinations as well as blood and urine tests. In view of the results obtained, he can set up a care protocol if necessary.
Of course, the check-up is expensive, but pet health insurance companies offer packages that include preventive procedures, which allows the pet owner to be partially or totally reimbursed for the expenses incurred for a health check-up.
