Pet Wellness Exams & Vaccinations in Oconomowoc, WI
At Oconomowoc Animal Hospital, we take your pet’s health very seriously, and a large part of having a healthy pet is preventive care. We provide yearly wellness exams, vaccinations, and parasite prevention for dogs, cats, and reptiles throughout the Oconomowoc area.
What Preventive Care Includes
A wellness exam is a nose-to-tail assessment. Each year we evaluate your pet’s body condition, weight, heart, lungs, abdomen, skin, joints, mouth, eyes, and ears — and just as importantly, we compare what we find against last year’s visit. Changes that are easy to miss at home often show up clearly when we have a baseline to measure against.
Alongside the exam, we discuss vaccines, diet, year-round heartworm and intestinal parasite prevention, year-round external parasite prevention, behavior, and yearly bloodwork. Not every pet needs the same plan, so we build one around your pet’s age, lifestyle, and history.
Vaccines for Dogs and Cats
Vaccines are important in keeping your pets healthy, and a rabies vaccine for dogs is required by law.
The Bordetella vaccine, which protects your dog from canine infectious tracheobronchitis (kennel cough), is highly recommended for all dogs. Dogs can contract kennel cough through nose-to-nose contact with other dogs. Even if you are not regulars at the dog park, your dog can still pick it up at the grooming parlor, on walks, or when coming into the veterinary clinic.
We also highly recommend a rabies vaccine for your cat, even if they never go outside. Cats can have a tendency to nip and bite. If your cat is up to date on their rabies vaccine, there is much less hassle if a human doctor visit is in order.
Year-Round Parasite Prevention
Heartworm
Heartworm disease is spread by mosquitoes and remains common in Wisconsin’s wild dog population — coyotes, wolves, and foxes. A mosquito bites an infected animal and then bites your dog, spreading the disease. Hundreds of large worms can live in your dog’s heart and blood vessels, causing damage to the heart and lungs, anemia, and, in advanced cases, heart failure. Treatment is expensive and can be dangerous, but prevention costs just a few dollars a month.
Many people do not realize their heartworm prevention pill is also a monthly dewormer. Some of the parasites it protects against are zoonotic, meaning they can be passed to people. Children and people with immune disorders are at higher risk.
Fleas
Both dogs and cats are susceptible, even cats that stay indoors. Many animals are allergic to flea saliva, which causes a severe itch, and heavy infestations can cause anemia. A pet who ingests a flea while scratching or grooming can develop tapeworms — the segments are visible in stool, on the hair around the anus, and on your furniture, and they are itchy and irritating.
Ticks
Ticks are hardy creatures that do not die in the winter; they simply go dormant. If the temperature climbs just a few degrees above freezing — 34°F or warmer — they thaw and look for a warm meal. Lyme disease can cause renal failure, polyarthritis, and flu-like symptoms. Anaplasmosis causes thrombocytopenia, which affects blood clotting time, along with flu-like symptoms. Ehrlichiosis can cause anemia, changes to white blood cells, thrombocytopenia, abnormal bleeding, and uveitis. Many dogs that contract a tick-borne disease never leave their own backyard.
Yearly Bloodwork
Yearly bloodwork helps our veterinarians assess what an exam alone cannot see. A panel may include a heartworm and tick disease test, complete blood count, chemistry panel, and urinalysis, and most of it is run in our in-house laboratory.
A complete blood count tells us about hydration status and white blood cell, red blood cell, and platelet counts. A chemistry panel assesses internal organ function, giving us information about liver and kidney health, and can help rule out hypothyroidism in dogs or hyperthyroidism in cats. An elevated calcium level can occasionally indicate cancer, and blood glucose can reveal diabetes.
A routine urinalysis shows how well the kidneys are concentrating urine. Pets developing early renal disease begin spilling protein into their urine, and we can also check for crystals or bacteria. Some pets walk around for weeks with a urinary tract infection, and their owners never know.
Care at Every Life Stage
Adult pets benefit from an annual diagnostic and wellness checkup that can either reassure you that your dog or cat is healthy or help us detect hidden conditions early. As dogs and cats get older, they need more attention and special care, and our senior wellness program helps them stay fit and comfortable as they age. Contact our team to discuss care for your pet’s life stage.
Not all pets are furry — we like scales too, and we are proud to provide care for reptile patients.
Bring Your Questions
A wellness exam is also a chance to talk about behavior. Maybe your cat is urinating outside the box, or your dog is terrified of thunderstorms. Our veterinarians and technicians can work with you on behavior modification techniques, rule out underlying health issues that may be driving the behavior, and prescribe medication where it helps.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should my pet come in for a wellness exam?
We like to see you and your pet at least annually. If your pet has a chronic illness or a condition we are managing, we will likely see you more often.
My cat never goes outside. Do they still need vaccines and parasite prevention?
Yes. Indoor cats are still susceptible to fleas, and we recommend the rabies vaccine regardless of whether a cat goes outdoors.
Do you run bloodwork in-house?
Most of it, yes. Our in-house laboratory means results usually come back during your visit, so we can talk through them together and start treatment sooner.
Preventive Care That Adds Up Over a Lifetime
Yearly exams are the least dramatic thing we do and often the most valuable. Small changes in weight, joints, or bloodwork rarely announce themselves at home, but tracked year over year they tell a clear story — and catching a problem early usually means a simpler, gentler course of treatment. Pet owners throughout the greater Oconomowoc area have trusted our team with that long view since 1981.