Preventative Care

Ensuring your pets live their best lives.

Preventative Care

Ensuring your pets live their best lives.

Taking Action

Here at Black River Veterinary Hospital, we are firm believers in preventative care to keep your pets healthy. We truly believe in routine examinations. They are simply the best way to keep your pets healthy. It allows our veterinarians to keep an eye on your pets and their overall condition. We also need to make sure your pets maintain a healthy weight throughout their entire lives. In case your pets become ill, it is always nice to have a baseline before that happens. Routine blood work is always useful because it shows us what your pet’s values look like when they are not sick.

Our veterinarians will examine your pets thoroughly, looking for any potential problems. Our hope is that we find problems before they become serious. If left untreated, these conditions can become worse. At that point, determining the problem may take more time, tests, and money. The problem may also be harder to treat. Whenever you come into the office, we get a chance to talk with you about your pets. You might voice some concerns or we might realize we need to look into something further just from talking about your pets and their habits. It is also a good time to make sure your pets are current on vaccinations so they are well protected. Be sure to let us know if you need any heartworm preventative or flea and tick medication. Hopefully, we can save you a trip.

Preventative Care Services Include

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That is our philosophy at Black River Veterinary Hospital. Annual examinations provide your pet with an opportunity to be fully evaluated by one of our veterinarians. As your pet ages our doctors may recommend bi-annual wellness visits to ensure that your pet continues to receive the medical attention necessary to support them as they age. Every annual or bi-annual examination will include a comprehensive physical examination, checking your pet’s vital signs, body condition, orthopedic health, and more. Depending on our veterinarian’s findings and their conversation with you, blood work or other diagnostics may be recommended to aid us in detecting underlying issues – remember what we said about an ounce of prevention? Annual visits to see us will ensure your pet remains as healthy as possible throughout their life. We look forward to seeing you!

Congratulations on your new furbaby! We wish you many happy and healthy years of companionship. Puppies and kittens come with a lot of responsibility and sometimes it’s difficult to know if you’re making the right decisions for them. We are here to help.

It is important that you bring your puppy of kitten in for a full nose-to-tail examination for a number of reasons. Naturally we want to ensure that your new addition is in excellent health, but we also encourage you to build their bond with us early on. We want every visit to be as stress-free and pleasant as possible, for you and your pet. We can achieve this by making these early visits as pleasant and rewarding for them as possible. We love it when pets are happy to see us!

At these early visits for your puppy or kitten our doctors will cover a variety of topics with you including vaccinations, nutrition, behavioral training, socialization, and much more. If you have questions about our practice and how we can care for your new family member, please call us. We are happy to take the time to assist you. We are so happy you have opened your home and heart to a new pet, and we can’t wait to meet them!

As we age our health needs change. The same is true for our pets. At Black River Veterinary Hospital we recommend a minimum of bi-annual visits for senior pets. At these visits our veterinarians can assess your pet’s health and needs. As they complete their physical examination they may notice changes in your pet that are subtle but significant.

Our doctors may recommend lab work, radiographs, or ultrasound in an attempt to detect problems early. In addition, the orthopedic aspect of the physical examination will help the veterinarian detect issues like arthritis, a common ailment for our aging furry friends. We offer a wide variety of services and treatment plans that can help keep pets comfortable and happy in their golden years.

At Black River Veterinary Hospital we believe in providing the best quality medicine for your pet. Vaccinations are an excellent way to protect your pet from some of nature’s most threatening diseases. Our veterinarians are always happy to build an individualized plan for your pet based on their lifestyle, health, and age.

For some pets, our doctors can offer in-house distemper and parvovirus titer blood work. This blood test allows for us to see the level of protection your pet’s immune system has against two highly contagious diseases. Our veterinarians can then base their recommendations for vaccine boosters on those results.

Let’s face it: parasites give us all that creepy-crawly feeling. But worse than that, both internal and external parasites pose serious threats to your pet’s health and well-being. At Black River Veterinary Hospital, we emphasize the importance of parasite prevention.

We carry a variety of parasites preventions to allow us to cater to your pet’s individual needs. Pets that go unprotected often arrive at our office for a sick appointment. The cost of parasite prevention is minimal compared to the cost of treatment. Parasites like heartworm can even prove fatal, so prevention is crucial.