Wellness Care for Cats
Just like you, we want your cat to live the longest, healthiest life possible. That starts with the basics: quality food, enough exercise, good grooming, and yes, regular check-ups.
Annual exams are your pet’s first line of defense. West Lehigh Veterinary Care’s comprehensive annual exams include checking their overall health by examining skin and coat, lung and cardiac function, internal health, oral hygiene, eyes, ears, and demeanor.
Vaccinations: Keeping your cat up to date on immunizations and booster shots is a highly effective way to prevent many common diseases and infections like panleukopenia, respiratory viruses and rabies. Your pet’s age, lifestyle and likely exposure to certain diseases will be evaluated before we recommend the best vaccine schedule for our feline friend.
Dental Care: Imagine what your teeth would be like if you never cleaned them. Well, the same thing is happening to your cat’s teeth without oral care. We recommend annual comprehensive oral examinations to look for conditions such as periodontal disease and feline tooth resorptive lesions, which are common in cats. Our team can also show you tips for brushing your pet’s teeth, which can reduce the need for extractions and other more serious conditions in the future.
Parasite Control: Fleas, ticks, worms – preventing them in the first place is much easier than getting rid of them after they’ve infested your cat. We recommend monitoring your pet and having them screened for internal parasites regularly. We offer a variety of alternatives for flea, tick, and yes, heartworm prevention. While not as widely known by our feline owners (compared to our canine owners), cats can develop significant respiratory disease from heartworms. The good news is this is easily preventable. Come and chat with us about it!
Proper Nutrition: There’s a lot of choices when it comes to what to feed your feline friend. Cats are true carnivores, and making sure they get proper nutrition is very important to their health. Our veterinarians can help you figure out what is best for your cat and your lifestyle.
Behavioral Evaluation: Changes in mood or behavior, lack of grooming, or litterbox problems can often be a symptom of an underlying medical condition. Swiftly addressing these shifts can help to identify and treat the root cause.
Skin and Coat Care: Cats are great groomers by nature, but felines with long, thick coats and those who live indoors still may need regular brushing, grooming, and nail trims. Proper skin and hair care can prevent things like matting, bacterial skin infections, embedded nails and more.
Exercise: Cats are athletic creatures and getting enough exercise–especially if they live indoors–is extremely important in maintaining cardiovascular health and a healthy weight.
Wellness Labwork: It is very important to not only do lab work when your pet is sick, but also when healthy. These measurements become our baseline values and are helpful when we are trying to uncover diseases early on, so we can intervene and develop the best treatment plan to help our feline friends.
