Wellness Tips For Your New Pet
Bringing home a new pet is exciting, but it also means an increase in your responsibilities. Ensuring your pet's health and wellness is hands down the most important of these responsibilities. The following guide can help you better understand what you need to monitor to ensure your new pet remains healthy and has a great quality of life.
Follow the Vaccination and Check-up Schedule
One of the first things you need to do is visit a vet to begin planning out the optimum pet wellness schedule. If you adopted a kitten or puppy, you will have a young animal schedule to follow for the first year. This is when they will get the bulk of their immunizations, as well as regular check-ups to monitor their health and growth until maturity. Mature pets may only require one wellness visit a year for routine tests, health checks, and annual immunizations. Every animal has different health needs, so your vet is the best place to get an accurate wellness visit schedule.
Prioritize Exercise
Exercise is vital for pets of all ages. Dogs need to have regular walks as well as playtime to get sufficient exercise. While most cats don't go on walks, stimulation and exercise is important. Self play can take the place of some human interactions, but you should still take time everyday to play with your pet yourself. Examples of self play include treat puzzle toys, scratching posts, and chase toys or doorknob danglers for cats. Exercise combined with a healthy diet can do much for your pet's overall wellness.
Utilize Preventative Techniques
There are many preventative treatments, beyond standard vaccinations, that are vital to your pet's health. The most obvious are things like worm or parasite prevention medications and flea and tick prevention. These treatments may seem unnecessary, particularly for indoor pets, but infection is always possible. A pet can be exposed to parasites, fleas, or ticks if they are brought into the home inadvertently on your clothing or shoes, or if they get out of the house by accident. Your vet can help you decide which preventative treatments your pet should have.
Microchip and Register Your Pet
Finally, microchip and register your pet. If something were to occur that separated you from your pet, this could be the only hope they have coming home. Microchipping is minimally invasive and the benefits far outweigh any perceived discomfort from the initial placement. Registering a pet is often required by local laws, and it will also help in ensuring your pet is returned if they are lost. In areas with high amounts of strays, microchipping and registering could be the only thing between them and euthanasia.
As you can see, being proactive is the best way to ensure the wellness and continued health of your new pet. For more information, reach out to a clinic like Douglas Animal Hospital.