At McClure Veterinary Clinic in Ozark, MO, we believe that regular checkups and annual wellness exams are critical to your pet’s well-being. These wellness exams give us a chance to evaluate the overall health of your pet while also giving us a baseline for their unique bodies and tendencies.
Just as your physician will check your vital signs, weight, and other conditions when you visit the doctor, your veterinarian will also want to check vital signs, perform a physical examination, and obtain basic medical information about your pet. In addition to checking your pet’s weight, looking at their eyes, checking their ears, examining their mouth and teeth, and observing their movements, there are other simple tests that are often performed.
Our veterinarians will use a stethoscope to listen for heart, lung, and digestive system sounds that may indicate whether there are problems with these organs.
Our veterinarians may gently press on your pet’s gums with a finger and then release the pressure to determine how long it takes for the capillaries in the gums to refill. A longer than normal capillary refill time may indicate that your pet’s circulation is poor, which could be a sign that it is going into (or already experiencing) shock. Longer refill times also occur with certain heart diseases. The color of the gums is also an indicator of problems such as jaundice (a sign of liver disease), shock, or anemia.
Our veterinarians use abdominal palpation to check for the size and location of internal organs such as the liver, spleen, kidneys, and bladder. They will also check for enlargement of the lymph nodes located throughout the body.
Not only do these exams keep us up-to-date with your pet’s health, but they also allow us to detect potential problems before they become serious. This thorough nose to tail checkup gives us vital information to help keep your pet healthy!
Regular wellness exams also make your pet more familiar with our veterinary hospital, which makes future visits easier on them and you. Please contact us or request an appointment today if you have any questions or would like to learn more about how we care for your pet.