Wellness
Wellness exams and vaccinations for dogs and cats
Yearly wellness examinations, lifestyle appropriate vaccinations, dental care and good nutrition, so your pet enjoys a happy, healthy life.
Chapter 01
What a yearly exam covers, nose to tail
The clinic's own words are plain: preventative health care and client education are extremely important, and yearly wellness examinations are where both start. At The Little Animal Hospital, 2590 Highway 32 in Port Washington, that means Dr. Rollmann or one of the doctors puts hands on your dog or cat from nose to tail while you stand right there.
A nose-to-tail exam is a methodical check, and the order matters less than the habit of doing all of it. Eyes and ears, mouth and teeth, heart and lungs, belly, skin and coat, joints and gait, and the number that comes up when your pet steps on the scale. Each one can show a small change long before you would see a sick animal at home.
That is why the exam is worth doing while your pet seems fine. Animals hide discomfort well, and a lump the size of a pea, a heart murmur or a tender tooth is far easier to deal with when it is found at a routine visit than when it has grown into the reason you made an urgent call.
Exam room with a wall-mounted pet scale and green chairs
Vaccines, food and behavior, talked through in the room
The practice offers lifestyle appropriate vaccinations, and the word that matters there is lifestyle. A dog that goes to the groomer, a boarding kennel or the dog park has different exposures than a cat that never leaves the living room, so the conversation starts with how your pet actually lives, not with a one-size list.
Good nutrition is named in their copy as one of the essentials, and the exam room is where you can put real questions about it. Bring the food bag or a photo of the label, tell the staff what the treats and table scraps look like on a normal week, and ask what the scale and the coat are telling them.
The staff say they are more than happy to discuss any aspect of your pet's health, including diet and behavior, so nothing is too small to raise. Chewing, accidents in the house, a cat who has gone off the litter box: say it out loud and it becomes part of the plan. To book a visit, call (262) 284-0400 and the front desk will set it up.
Chapter 03
Dental care and senior bloodwork belong in the yearly plan
Dental care sits in the same sentence as vaccinations and nutrition in the clinic's description of what keeps a pet healthy, and for good reason. Pets cannot tell us when their teeth hurt, so the yearly exam is the first time a doctor looks at the gums, the tartar line and the back teeth that you rarely see at home.
As a pet gets older, the yearly visit can grow to include blood work. A set of numbers taken while your pet feels well gives the doctors something to compare against later, which makes it much easier to spot a kidney, liver or thyroid change early. The board in the waiting room asking whether your pet is a senior is there to start exactly that conversation.
Your pet's own plan is built at the visit, with you. Yearly is the clinic's word, and for a young healthy pet it is a sensible rhythm to keep. If the doctors want to see an older or newly diagnosed pet more often, they will tell you why.
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Where a wellness visit leads next
If the exam turns up a sore tooth, the next stop is dentistry, with cleaning and polishing done under anesthesia. If the doctors want a closer look inside, blood work, x-ray and ultrasound are covered on the diagnostics and medicine page.