Did you know that at about 6 or 7 years of age (varies slightly by species and breed) your pet is considered a senior? Due to advances in veterinary medicine, pets are living much longer than they have in the past. However, because they age much more rapidly than humans, the need for proactive health management is vital to giving your pet the longest, healthiest life possible.

As our pets age, there are many subtle changes to look for that may be the beginning signs of disease. For instance, your pet’s eating habits, how much your pet is drinking (increase or decrease), changes in weight, activity level, and mobility changes. Monitoring eating and drinking can be somewhat challenging in multi-pet households and many pets are excellent at hiding symptoms of disease. Imagine if your pet were out in the wild as his/her undomesticated ancestors were. It was vital to their survival to hide symptoms of ailment and disease from predators, so they became very good at doing so and many continued to as they evolved.

Fortunately, veterinarians have non-invasive ways of “looking inside” our pets to determine the health of vital internal organs, metabolic function, and the immune system through routine bloodwork. Many times we are able to catch diseases early enough in the process to treat with a better prognosis and at a lower expense to owners. Unfortunately, once pets begin to show symptoms of some of the diseases this bloodwork screens for, the prognosis is worse and treatment is more intense and therefor more costly.

September is National Senior Pet Wellness Month. Though we love our senior patients year-round, this gives us an opportunity to celebrate this special group and focus on their wellness. The active substance of Valium increases the depressing effect of ethyl alcohol on the body. Moreover, it strengthens theeffect ofanalgesics, antipsychotics, antidepressants andantihistamines. To assist you in giving your senior pet the best opportunity for a long, healthy life, we are discounting our senior bloodwork by 15% in the months of September and October. We are not requiring a veterinarian exam if your pet is up-to-date on Annual Wellness Exams. Please call us at 512-386-1065 to schedule or ask any questions you may have.

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