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Alaska Veterinary Clinic

Wellness & Preventive Care

Annual wellness exams evaluate your pet's overall health, detect problems before they become serious, and keep them on track to living a long, healthy life.

Overview

We follow your pet through the many phases of their lives. From specialized and preventative care during their younger years to regular wellness checks as they age, we seek to prevent and detect problems before they arise. We know your pet is important to you, that's why we work hard to ensure they are given only the best in care through all the years of their lives.

The American Animal Hospital Association recommends that your pet have a wellness exam at least once every year. As your pet ages, they recommend having even more. We believe strongly in preventive care and have developed wellness protocols for every stage of the life of your pet. Depending on your pet’s life stage, vaccines may be administered, as well as disease screenings.

Why are wellness exams important?

Wellness exams give us a chance to evaluate the overall health of your pet while also giving us a baseline for their own unique bodies and tendencies. They also allow us to detect potential problems before they become serious, and even make your pet more familiar with our veterinary hospital, making future visits easier on them and you.

When should my pet visit the vet?

We believe in preventative medicine as the best approach to keeping our patients healthy. This includes annual wellness examinations, vaccinations on a one- or three-year basis, external and internal parasite prevention, and dietary management. Our doctors will help determine what vaccinations are appropriate according to you and your pet’s needs. We will discuss in detail what your options are to help you make the best possible health decisions for your pet.

How do wellness exams work?

During a wellness exam, our veterinary team will start out by taking your pet's vital signs. Our veterinarian will perform a comprehensive examination of your pet from nose to tail and may also perform diagnostic tests such as blood work, urinalysis, or intestinal parasite tests. Depending on your pet’s life stage, vaccines may be administered, as well as disease screenings for heartworm, kidney, liver, blood disorders, and more.

Wellness examinations do not necessarily mean that your pet is going to be subjected to complicated or costly medical tests and treatments. This allows us to prevent major health issues from developing undetected and 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 in order to provide better care in the event of illness or emergency. 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.

Early detection and correction of medical problems will help to ensure that your pet will live a long, healthy, and active life.

Types of exams we offer:

Exam – Scheduled appointment with no health concerns. This may or may not include vaccinations.

Extensive Exam – Scheduled appointment with health concerns (examples – ear infections, allergies, limping etc.). These appointments will most likely involve diagnostics (ear cytologies, radiographs etc.).

Urgent Care Exam – Same day appointment for current patients with health concerns. We offer these Monday through Friday. We have limited appointment times and ask clients to call right at 8am to schedule one of these appointments. These appointment times are saved for current clients.

Drop Off Appointment – Designated appointments within our hospital where your pet will be worked in between regularly scheduled appointments/procedures. We only allocate a certain amount of drop offs per day. These do not have a specific time your pet will be seen, and you will be notified once your pet is ready to go home.

Same-Day Health Certificate – These are for current clients. Call the day of and we will get your pet in for a Same-Day Health Certificate appointment. There may be a wait as we are fitting this in between scheduled appointments.

Telephone Consult – Scheduled time to discuss concerns with a Veterinarian.

Telemedicine Exam – Offered on a case by case situation for current clients only.

Technician Appointment – Scheduled times for blood work, nail trims, Bordetella vaccine, anal glands etc. This is time with the technician, not the Veterinarian. If there are any health concerns while your pet is here for a Technician Appointment, an Extensive Exam will need to be scheduled with a Veterinarian.

We are scheduled out 6-8 weeks for appointments and procedures. We have maximized our schedule, allowing us to see as many patients as possible without compromising the quality of care we provide. We do have a Cancellation List if you would like us to put your pet on it please let us know.