Senior Pet Health Check

It all starts with an initial consultation in the morning with a registered veterinary nurse where we go through a questionnaire and try to pick up on any changes to your pets behaviour/ routine. The senior pet health check is a great way of picking up on early subtle changes in your pets health so that we can act to prevent further changes. We then head through to the prep room to get weighed.

It’s then off to our cat only ward, specifically designed to keep stress to a minimum during your cats stay. (We have a separate ward for dogs too). With spacious kennels there is plenty of space to stretch out and relax. We also use pet remedy in all our wards to help keep stress levels down.

As part of your pets health check we collect a urine sample and test it. This can help to give us an indication of how concentrated the urine is (it’s Ph) and can also flag up anything that shouldn’t be in there – like blood or protein! With dogs it is usually as straightforward as collecting a free-flow sample out in the garden but with cats we use special beading in place of cat litter that does not absorb any urine.

The most valuable part of the senior pet check is the in depth physical examination by one of our experienced veterinary surgeons. This includes a full head to tail examination including an oral exam.

Our vets will also listen to your pets heart. If we should pick up on anything of concern we have in house ultrasound scanning, an electrocardiogram (ECG) machine and xray facilities that we can use to explore any concerns further, after discussing with you first.

Blood pressure testing is also included and is a further way for us to fully assess your pets health. We are lucky to have the choice of using a smaller Doppler machine which is especially accurate in cats. This can be seen in the bottom right of this picture.

We also have the choice of using our multiparameter machine to assess your pets blood pressure. The benefits of doing it this way is it allows our patients to be left alone to relax in the comfort in their kennel while the readings are being taken.

We take a blood sample from your pet. This is extremely useful as it gives us an indication of the health of your pets kidneys, liver and their immune system, amongst other things. This requires clipping a small area of fur from the neck to expose the jugular vein, and our skilful nurses will hold your pet for the vet while they take the sample. Missie was a star patient and sat really well for her sample so the entire process took less than a minute!

Once collected the sample is taken upstairs to our in-house laboratory. The sample is run through our state of the art blood machines and gives us same day results.

There is always plenty of time for cuddles with our patients, we work at a pace that makes them feel safe and secure- one of the reasons we were credited as a cat friendly practice by the International Society for Feline Medicine!

Feedback is given on the same day as coming in, in the form of a consult with the vet or a phone call. We hope this album has given you more of an understanding of what is involved in our senior pet health check, please do not hesitate to contact us if you are interested in booking your pet in.