Yearly Vet Visits

[2China2009]

If you own a pet do you take them in yearly for a check up? Do u also give heartworm pills?

 

[Immadismom]

Yes and yes.

 

[undertheradar]

Yes for visits. Also yearly dental cleaning.
No on the added meds, we feed better food.

 

[WDWEPCOT]

Kind of Yes and yes
I had a dog that could not tolerate any kind of heart worm preventive - all made him sick so I didn’t give him the medicine
My vet thinks even strictly indoor cats should receive it - I don’t agree so my cats who never go outside don’t receive it
If they receive 3 year rabies shot then they may not go back for three years unless something is wrong

 

[GreatLakes]

We take ours more often and we 100% give our dogs heartworm treatment year round.

We rescued a dog that has tested heartworm negative at the rescue, we immediately started in treatment when he was ours, but he still tested positive. Our vet thinks they contracted it close to ending up at the rescue so too early for it to be detected.

Our starting right away with treatment made his case very mild and he was treated and recovered.

Our experience changed the mind of many of our friends that only treated in the summer because heartworm is less prevelant in the winter. Our guy contracted it in February when it was freezing and snow covered.

 

[fly girl]

Yes, to vet. Need to keep shots updated.

No heart worm pills, indoor cat. (Unlike @WDWEPCOT, our vet never even suggested it.)

 

[WDWEPCOT]

I thought they were kidding but nope dead serious they strongly think cats should be on it - I’ve never heard of a cat that had heart worms
I get my cats and dogs for that matter shots that they should have or may need but that one was like ah no

 

[mjkacmom]

Yes and year round heart worm.

 

[spiders]

Yes to annual visits. No to heartworm. We have three indoor cats.

Our old man cat is 17 and goes more frequently these days. Our other two are 2 & less than 1 so annuals are more than enough.

 

[mumto3girls]

Yes and yes.

 

[loves to dive]

I wish it was only once a year. Our yorkie goes to the vet about every 6 or 7 weeks for grooming and about every other visit there is some shot due. We do the treatment on the neck for heartworm, she won't take pills.

 

[nw6675]

Yes, but twice a year for our Shih Tzu. I think she gets her kennel cough vaccine twice each year. Definitely yes on heartworm medicine.

And as pp said, every 6-7 weeks for grooming. We pay more for her cuts than our own!!

 

[Christine]

Yes and yes.

 

[monsterkitty]

Yes for yearly visits.

Yes to heartworm.

Yes for visits. Also yearly dental cleaning.
No on the added meds, we feed better food.

Heartworms don't care what kind of food you feed the pets. The worms are spread through the bite of a mosquito. We feed our pets high quality food but still give them heartworm pills every month.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Yes, and thanks for the reminder, I have to make the yearly spring appt.

We do give our dog heartworm preventative year round. I don’t want to show up with this when it’s preventable:

 

[jen7233]

No, only go to the vet as needed and for vaccinations. The heartworm preventative currently on is an annual vaccination.

 

[undertheradar]

That would be why our lawn is treated multiple times throughout the year for insects.

 

[bakerworld]

Our dogs have bad teeth so I wait until their breath is awful. This occurs about every 20 months. Makes me wonder what we'll do when they run out of teeth. We acquired them when our son moved home and he would take them every 2 or 3 years due to ear infections. Now it's teeth. They are basically indoor animals - never boarded - they go outside to potty (mostly). When vet visits became our responsibility I cut out the Heartworm testing/medicine as they were about 6 and 8 years old and never had a problem plus half the time he'd forget to give them medicine.

 

[tvguy]

At least once a year, but we had cats. We had bad luck with cats so usually there were visits in between.
Last cat had IBS then got cancer.
Cat before was diabetic and needed daily insulin shots
Cat before that got Feline Leukemia a few months before a vaccine because available.
No heart worm medicine. As we hope to travel, we made a decision when we lost our last cat that we don't have any more pets. Just ties you down too much, and they don't seem to agree that spending a week at the Pet Resort is fun.

 

[MrsPete]

Maybe to yearly visits.

Yes to heartworm pills. Heartworms will kill a dog. They're difficult and expensive to treat, and you have to keep the dog still /not excited for the months they're on the treatment. And after all that, the treatment may or may not work. Prevention is so much easier.

Heartworms are also super-easy to get. We just adopted our new puppy in November, and essentially ALL the adult dogs at the rescue had heartworms. Having just lost a dog who had significant special needs /needed much medical treatment, I just wasn't willing to take on a new dog with heartworms.