Preventive Care

Wellness Exams

At VCA Murphy Road Animal Hospital, we consider regular pet wellness exams to be the most important vet service to keep your pet healthy and active for many years. A wellness examination is a routine checkup to assess your pet's overall health, make sure your pet is up to date on all core vaccinations, and address any questions or concerns you may have about your pet's health.

Early detection is THE BEST way to ensure that your pet will love a long, healthy and active life.

Pet Wellness Exams & Vaccinations Keep Your Pet Healthy & Active

Our staff of highly trained veterinarians recommend regular wellness exams for the same reason your physician and dentist recommend them. If you can detect a problem in its early stages, it's more likely to be treated and resolved with less expense, less difficulty and greater success. Vaccinations, heartworm prevention and routine deworming are important components of wellness care. These proactive exams and treatments can prevent diseases that are not only life threatening, but very expensive to treat.

Wellness care from our veterinarians in Nashville is important in every stage of your pet's life. During your puppy or kitten's first year, we recommend wellness exams on a monthly basis. As your pet grows older, annual wellness exams for the average adult are the norm. As your pet enters his or her senior years, semi-annual exams every six months are important for keeping a close eye on your pet's health. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

At VCA Murphy Road Animal Hospital, our veterinarians will recommend a wellness program based on your pet's age, lifestyle and overall health. Since some breeds are predisposed to certain health issues, we will also take your pet's breed into account when putting this wellness program together. A dental health exam and a weight check are always important parts of a wellness exam, and may indicate problems that can progress rapidly and have significant impact on your pet's overall health.

Regular pet wellness checkups are a simple and effective way to monitor your pet's health. Wellness examinations do not necessarily mean that your pet is going to be subjected to a barrage of complicated or costly medical tests and treatments. While some animals may need close monitoring of blood work, x-rays or other tests, many pets benefit simply from being physically examined, having their heart and lungs listened to and their general health assessed, preventing a major health issue from developing undetected. This also gives us the opportunity to analyze and record baseline values, such as temperature, body condition, and lab work. We measure these when your pet is healthy. This way, in the event of a medical emergency, our veterinarian in Nashville will have a baseline for comparison.

Early detection and correction of medical problems will help to ensure that your pet will love a long, healthy and active life. Has your pet had a wellness exam in the last six to 12 months? If not, it's time to schedule a check-up! Contact our veterinarians in Nashville today at 615-383-4241.