Last week it was that time of year again at our house, meaning time for our annual vet visit. Mom packs up all three of us dogs and two cats and we head off to the vet once a year together for our annual exams.
Yearly vet visits are vital for healthy and happy lives. According to Dr. Ashley Gallagher, vet at the Friendship Hospital for Animals in Washington, D.C., because pets age faster, missing just one year is the equivalent of missing five years? A recent petMD poll, nearly 2 in 10 pet owners hadn’t visited their vet for a routine checkup in the past year. Yikes!
We all go together once a year for three reasons:
- We are comforted having all of us together, and when we get back home we all have that funny vet smell, so no one pet stands out.
- Mom only has to remember to bring us to the vet for exams once a year. We dogs go at least one other time in the spring, but it is still easier than remembering five different appointments during the year.
- Many vets have multiple pet discounts if you bring in 2-3 or more pets at one appointment.
It is a real chore for Mom getting us loaded in the car, into the vet, reloaded into the car, and then back into the house, but once a year it is worth doing.
Annual vet visits help your vet stay familiar with your pet, and help them find problems in the early stages. Did you know 26% of dog owners and 17% of cat owners only take their pet to the vet when they are sick? Annual vet visits and preventative care are so important for healthy pets!
Another reason for an annual vet visit is to make sure your pets stay up to date on their vaccinations. Having the correct vaccinations will prevent your pet from contracting certain diseases.
Maintaining a healthy weight and eating a healthy diet is also key for healthy pets. Did you know there is even a food for dental health? Hill’s® Science Diet® Adult Oral Care can help with plaque, tartar and fresh breath while providing a balanced diet! Each of us weigh in at our annual exam. I’m proud to say I’ve been at 38 lbs (plus or minus a pound) since I was a year old.
Senior pets especially need to keep up on regular exams. Sometimes pet parents don’t notice symptoms of diseases that a vet can easily recognize. By catching problems in the early stages you can save on the potentially more expensive illness visits.
I’m not going to lie to you. I don’t enjoy going to the vet but I understand it is necessary to make sure I live a healthy, happy, and longer life.
Win $100 towards a vet checkup!
To help keep pets healthy, Hill’s Science Diet is giving away $100 toward a vet checkup, every day for 90 days! Simply go to: http://blogp.ws/1w2TSJJ and fill out the short form with your information and you will be entered for a chance to win.
This post is sponsored by Hill’s and the Pet Blogger Network. I am being compensated for helping spread the word about Hill’s Science Diet Perfect Weight Food, but My GBGV Life only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Inc. is not responsible for the content of this article.
Part of being a fit dog means staying healthy. I’m co hosting the FitDog Friday Blog Hop with SlimDoggy, and To Dog With Love! Please join us on Fridays to share your fitness stories with others, find new ways to have fun, and new fitness ideas too! Tell your friends to stop by as well – fit dogs are healthier, happier dogs!
We never miss ours and peeps always says better safe than sorry. Have a fabulous Friday.
Best wishes Molly
That is true. We haven’t had any shocking visits yet, those have only been in between regular visits when something has been wrong, but it still helps to have the regular exams.
What a great visit, that is a handful to take all at once but your right, then it’s done and over with and everyone is on the same schedule. Only down fall is the big bill. Glad all is well. Have a great weekend.
The bill is big, but if you plan ahead for it, what is the difference if it is all at once or here and there.
CONGRATULATIONS fur the SUPER Check up.
We go fur OUR annual Dogtor Visit in Late March or Early April every year.
My sisters and I go in March as well, we are on the twice a year plan.
You look pretty calm in that picture Emma. Great prize being given though, vet visits can be scary, but they sure are important.
Nice people, those vets, but I don’t like the way they mess around with me. It has to be done,though.
EEKS!!! All 5 of you at one time! The mom is impressed. She would not dream of taking the 4 of us at one time. Stay well, my friends. XOXO Sparkle the PBGV
She does kind of dread it, but is always happy to do it all at once and be done for a year.
I think it’s a great idea to take you all at once. Hard on the mom, but better for you guys.
Yep, we feel better all being stuck in the same predicament!
You guys are a traveling circus! Quite impressed at how you manage to do it all at once. I guess you must have the run of the place since you have five appointments in a row.
We get the big exam room and just settle in for 90 mins or so. It works really well, actually. When we get home we all need a nap, though, including mom 🙂
You pups are so well behaved! It is so super impawtant to have regular check ups, and not to ignore little things that could potentially turn into health risks.
Great post.
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
I did cause some trouble on our visit, but we got through it. Now we are done with the big stuff for another year, but we dogs go back in the spring for a quick check.
for some reason Mom has always scheduled our checkups on our birthdays – she says that way she never forgets 🙂
Oh, I would not like that, it would ruin one of my favorite days.
LOVE the scale at your vet office. For sure your car ride to the vet was FUN! Golden Woofs
Let’s just say, I wanted to sit on the cats as they are real loud!
I’m impressed that your mom can get all of you into the car and into the vet’s office! I have a hard enough time getting one of the pets in at a time–Barley likes to hide between the seats when we pull into the parking lot.
She takes us in a few at a time, and often she has to carry me in because I refuse to walk into the vet office on my own power!
Your mom is a super mom! Our mommy struggles with taking 3 of us to the vet. She can’t imagine taking 5 at one time!
Once we get those two felines in their carrier, the are pretty simple. It is just all the meowing that gets on our nerves.
We are sure glad all is okay…but y’all didn’t look too happy!
We were at the vet, that should explain that.
We get a discount when all four of our furry pets to together too (Leo has his own, avian specialist vet.) And it is a chore. We all really liked the home vet visit we had and I may be tempted to splurge (it’s 2x more money!) on that for our annual check-ups next year. It was SO much more relaxing to not have to hauls everyone to the vet at once and just have him examine everyone on the couch.
That is true, but we like having their scale and lab there so they can do everything that needs to be done. Who knows if we could even locate the cats when they would show up. It is a hassle, but once a year we just survive it.
You are right, regular vet visits are so important. Thanks for sharing. Our lovely vet at Laird Eglinton gives a multi pet discount too. I often took Cookie and Isabelle together but Nala and Kilo are tough enough alone.
Kilo has been to the vet twice in the last 6 weeks- not a happy experience either time. The first he got neutered, vaccinated and chipped. The second he had stolen my husband’s chocolate brownies, so better safe than sorry. He had to have a shot and be sick then eat black goop (the only time I haven’t seen him finish a bowl in seconds- poor thing).
Nala, my cat, also hates the vet. She is nearly 18 and has kidney disease, jaw issues and arthritis. She had to go twice recently and was not happy- she complained loudly too. Although she does love the new soft seniors food they gave her.
Bert and Bailie love the vet, we could actually just leave them there, but we don’t. Sometimes we have those phases where something is always happening and we end up there a lot too for things other than routine exams. 18 is an old kitty. Mom’s first kitty made it to 19, but she was almost blind, couldn’t make the litter box, etc and they had to put her down.
I agree with you, annaul vet visits are important. and I’m glad you got good news and you all are ok. And thanks for the tip, to get a discount at the vet is another reason to get a fur sibling, right?
I can send you one of mine if you like…preferably cat bro Bert???
Great job at the vets! We love ours!
I just wonder why such nice people do such weird things to us pets and Mom actually allows it!
Those visits are very very important
Lily & Edward
They sure are. Hope you are doing okay, Lily!
All of our animals go for yearly visits, but we don’t take them all at once (usually 2 at a time). Your Mom is ambitious to do so, but it makes perfect sense why she does. It’s always a project loading everyone up, so why not get it over with all at once?
As long as everyone gets their exams it doesn’t matter what system the human uses. Mom just started taking them all when she lived in Germany and kept doing it year after year. I think at first she only had one dog and a couple cats.
I hate to say it, but our dog usually make it to the vets two or more times a year. Usually it is some injury or another. 🙂 We also don’t stack all the vaccines so on years that they have a lot due, we spread them. We usually separate at least the Lepto and Bordetella each year.
We dogs go twice a year for checkups, and usually once or twice for something that “comes up”. Our vaccines are pretty much all over the place as to what year, so we never get them all at once.
Our vet had the parking lot redone recently. I think we contributed…lol.
That’s nothing! Ours totally remodeled the entire building LOL!
We usually take Bentley & Pierre at the same time for those reasons. We never miss an exam or let an immunization booster pass us. It is too important. ☺
Good! I don’t want anything to happen to my Bentley 🙂
I can’t imagine taking all of you! Mr. N hates the vet, he trembles almost the entire time and he wants me to hold him for most of it. He’s very tolerant of shots, getting his teeth checked, and taking his temperature though.
Katie and I “vibrate” the entire visit, but we still all go together. I often won’t walk in on my own, so I’m the last to go in and need to be carried. We let the vet do everything, we just shake a lot.
That is a lot of dogs and cats to the vet at once! I admire your ability to make that happen. Ava and Veruca see our vet often, they both have special issues that make regular visits a priority. It is helpful when little things come up too.
We dogs go in twice a year for exams, but often another time or two for things that come up.
Yay for vet visits, they are very important. Boomer and Dottie go twice a year themselves because they are seniors!
Katie and I go twice a year for a check up, but we also seem to end up there at least 1-2 times for something that just comes up.
Kudos to your mom for packing you up and taking you all at once! That tires me out just thinking about it!
We all need a nap, including Mom, after we get back home. The vet may need a nap too, LOL!
When we go together we usually talk a lot to each other, the other dogs, the cats in the waiting room. It’s pretty noisy, but mom is like your mom, she likes getting it all done at once! your doodle friend, Dash
It is a pain, but easier to just do it all at once, but we get it that some people aren’t up for such chaos 😉
I bet it is a challenge getting everyone to the vet, especially when there are five of you! I generally take Maya and Pierson together, even if the appointment is just for one of them because Pierson hates the vet. I think Maya helps him deal with it better because she is so happy about the vet.
Bailie is happy to see the vet too…not sure what is wrong with dogs like that 😉
Donna gets annual checkups… looking forward to discussing with the vet if annual vacinnations are actually necessary for her. Human is not sure. Donna doesn’t really like to see the vet though… too bad for her 😛
Some vaccinations are necessary, but many vets just go ahead and give others. Our vet always discusses it with us first.