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Wellness Care and Exams

Wellness exams to keep your pet healthy with routine checkups, early detection, and preventive care.

Wellness Exams and Preventive Care

Routine wellness exams are an important part of keeping your pet healthy. We provide wellness exams and preventive care to monitor your pet’s health, catch issues early, and keep vaccines and preventatives up to date.

Even if your pet seems healthy, regular checkups help identify changes before they become more serious problems.

Why Wellness Exams Matter?

Pets age faster than people, and health changes can happen quickly without obvious signs. Regular exams allow us to:

  • Track your pet’s health over time

  • Identify issues like dental disease, arthritis, or weight changes early

  • Stay ahead of parasites and preventable illnesses

  • Provide guidance on nutrition, behavior, and daily care

These visits also help your pet stay comfortable with routine handling and exams.

What’s Included in a Wellness Visit?

Each visit is based on your pet’s age and needs, but typically includes:

  • Full physical exam (eyes, ears, teeth, skin, heart, lungs, and joints)

  • Weight and body condition evaluation

  • Vaccination review and updates

  • Parasite and heartworm screening as needed

  • Dental health assessment

  • Discussion of diet, activity, and behavior

  • Bloodwork or diagnostics when appropriate

How Often Should Pets Be Seen?

  • Puppies and kittens: multiple visits during the first year

  • Adult pets (1–7 years): every 6–12 months

  • Senior pets (7+ years): every 6 months

We’ll recommend a schedule based on your pet’s age, health, and lifestyle.

Regular wellness care helps prevent problems and keeps your pet on track as they age. If you’re due for a checkup or have questions about your pet’s health, we’re here to help.

FAQs

We have provided some answers to our most common questions.

The Josh Client Assistnace Fund is a reserve of donations established in honor of Whole Pet Veterinary Center's former clinic cat, Josh. While Josh now lives with a graduate of our veterinary intern program, he originally came to us with multiple chronic and life-threatening illnesses that were too costly for his family to manage. We hope that with the creation of the Josh Fund, we can provide financial assistance to a small number of pet parents in need of unanticipated critical vet care. Funds will be used at the discretion of the veterinarian overseeing individual cases, along with that of the practice manager.

At Whole Pet Veterinary Center We accept cash, checks, all major credit cards, and CareCredit.

At Whole Pet Veterinary Center, we are an outpatient clinic. While we do keep patients during the day to perform tests and administer treatments, we do not have overnight/24 hr staff and do not keep pets here unattended. Patients not well enough to return home will be recommended to be transferred to the local Emergency hospital/ICU.

Fear-free vet visits use trained professionals and specialized techniques to reduce stress in pets during veterinary appointments. These visits involve gentle handling, a calm environment with soothing scents and lighting, and the use of positive reinforcement like treats and toys to build positive associations with the clinic. For some animals, a vet may also prescribe anti-anxiety medication or suggest bringing a hungry, food-motivated pet to an appointment for better rewards.

Yes, often. However, we are not an emergency or walk-in clinic, so please call. We save specific time slots in each day for pets needing care more urgently. These do tend to fill up fairly quickly in the morning. If we have reached our capacity for patients for the day, we will need to refer you to the local urgent care or emergency walk-in clinics. While we wish we could serve every patient in need, we also need to make sure that the patients we have for the day have enough staff to adequately care for them.

No, at Whole Pet Veterinary Center, all patient visits are by appointment only.