Pet Preventive Care in Danville, VA

An ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure. Visiting your veterinarian for a check-up every 6 months is the best way to keep your pet healthy and to ensure that he or she lives a good long life. If you consider that in one year’s time, your pet ages about 7 years, a visit every 6 months to the vet is equivalent to us seeing our doctor about every 3 ½ years.  Many things can happen in 3 ½ years!

At each visit to Danville’s Family Vet Animal Clinic, we enjoy taking the necessary time to answer all of you questions and fill you in on all of the relevant details of your pet’s health. Each of our pets is unique and needs personalized attention.

It is amazing what we have in common with our pets. Dogs and cats can suffer from obesity, diabetes, heart disease, thyroid problems, arthritis, cataracts, glaucoma, urinary incontinence, dementia, and anxiety. The tricky thing is:  our pets will instinctually hide their sicknesses. A complete physical exam and laboratory testing can identify a potential problem before it starts to cause discomfort. For example: when a person first becomes diabetic, they complain of feeling a little dizzy or nauseous at times, but our pets are unable to speak about these feelings and many pet owners do not notice that their pet is diabetic until the disease is severe enough to cause liver problems and brain swelling.

The video below can help you understand your pet’s early detection labwork.

By working closely with you on an effective preventive care strategy for each pet, we are able to prevent diseases before they become serious, thereby avoiding suffering and saving money.  The two most prominent diseases we see in our pets are totally preventable. These insidious diseases are obesity and dental disease. Yes, dental disease is completely preventable and with regular dental cleanings, we can add years to our pets’ lives and prevent other related diseases such as kidney failure and endocarditis. Starting a preventive dental program early will add quality time to your pet’s life and save you money. Brushing your pet’s teeth is best, but there are many easy options available to help prevent dental disease.

Believe it our not, the most prevalent nutritional disorder in American pets is obesity and overweightness! Yep, our pets are just like us, but it is not only the their weight that is the problem; it is the nutritional imbalances.

Suppose a person needs 1800 calories a day to maintain a healthy weight; if that person gets all those calories from cheeseburgers ……. Will they truly be healthy? The pet food industry is so loosely regulated that manufacturers can claim almost anything on their packaging and the guaranteed analysis on the bag tells you very little.

Did you know that a pet food manufacturer could change the ingredients in a food for up to 6 months before they are required to change the labeling?

Did you know that pet food companies secretly run many of the pet food rating web sites?

Did you know that if the first ingredient in pet food is “chicken” — that is determined by the weight of the “chicken” (chicken, bones and water) but it does not say anything about the quality of the chicken used?

How are we to know which pet food is the best?

It comes down to trust in reputable companies with a proven track record. At our animal hospital in Danville, Virginia, we feed only the highest quality pet foods to our patients and hotel guests. We only support pet food companies with the highest quality ingredients and a reputation for nutritional integrity. It sure is difficult for us to eat a well-balanced high quality nutritious diet, but we can easily do it for our pets by buying the highest quality food and portioning it appropriately.  

Whether you buy it from us or from a pet store we are here to help you find a food that will add years to your pets’ lives. Our veterinarians feed the pet foods we sell to their own pets and we offer an unconditional money back guarantee on every food and treat we sell. To speak to our knowledgeable staff call anytime and we can help you sort through the pet food quagmire. We also offer dog boarding and make sure your pet stays safe with us!