Wellness care is the foundation of modern medicine. Appropriate wellness care throughout your pet's life can potentially add years of quality time.

Pediatric Wellness

Just like people, pets are especially vulnerable and uniquely impressionable during the first months of their life. As a consequence, the first several months of a pet's physical and behavioral development are crucial. During this vital time, our healthcare team will take a number of steps to assist in your pet's development. Vaccines have long been the cornerstone of preventive care. Although we are now much more discerning of the number and type of vaccination administered, they still play a very important role in developing long lasting protection against infectious disease. Based on your pet's breed, age, health status and lifestyle, our team will help you decide which diseases your pet needs to be vaccinated against. Along with vaccinations, our healthcare team will assist you in getting your pet growing in the right direction. Starting down the path of appropriate intestinal parasite prevention and screening, initiating proper heartworm preventive and testing regimens, and guiding you through some of the 'puppy behavior' issues all pets seem to experience.

Adult Wellness

Because pets rarely come to us complaining of their various ailments, we value our yearly examinations as an opportunity to help you evaluate your pet's health. During the annual wellness exam, your pet's physical health will be evaluated along with its diet, lifestyle, physical activity and body condition. Considering your pet's well-being as a whole, our team will then be able to make recommendations regarding vaccinations. The days of across-the-board yearly vaccinations for our pets have thankfully been put behind us. Although vaccines remain a cornerstone of a healthy lifestyle, each individual will have a tailored program developed for their needs. Our team will assist you in developing an appropriate inoculation program for your pet. Advances in medical knowledge and technology have led to longer lives of higher quality for us and our pets. Although our physical examinations allow us to glean valuable insight into your pet's overall health, we are still limited by our inability to actually see what is happening inside the body. Therefore, we often will recommend annual laboratory screening to get that 'peek' into the inner working of your pet's vital organ systems. The extent of these tests will vary based on your pet's overall health, age , breed and other factors. A few tests are recommended annually for all pets. One that many pet owners have been familiar with for years is the stool test for intestinal parasites. Although this is an old, low tech test, it is as valuable as ever. In addition, we recommend yearly testing for heartworm in dogs and yearly testing for feline retroviruses in cats that go outside or have exposure to other cats. We have all heard that 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,' and this has never been more true than it is with heartworm disease and intestinal parasites. Therefore, our team will happily assist you in developing an appropriate plan for preventing these diseases. One last pillar of adult wellness is dental care. Dental disease impacts the entire body, and can lead to devastating diseases such as kidney dysfunction. We will evaluate your pet's dental health and develop an appropriate dental care plan after our examination.

Senior Wellness

Senior pets need much of the same care that adult pets need. Because our animals age far too quickly, annual examinations are too infrequent for many geriatric pets. We strive to detect disease before it becomes evident to you and before if affects your pets quality of life. Unfortunately, disease progresses so quickly in many older pets that semi-annual examinations are needed to allow us the opportunity to intervene before the disease has progressed too far. Although age is not a disease, it does increase your pet's risk of developing some diseases. Since early detection is the key to maintaining wellness, we often recommend more in-depth laboratory evaluations for older pets. As pets enter their senior years, professional dental care becomes even more important. Chronic and severe periodontal disease may increase the risk of some other diseases, including kidney, liver, and heart problems. Weight management is critical in older pets as well, both to ease the strain on aging joints, and to reduce the risk of diabetes and other illnesses.

Although we aim to prevent disease as much as possible, sometimes our pets just get sick. Parkway Animal Hospital is a fully equipped modern veterinary care facility. We pride ourselves in compassionate modern medical care. Through the use of our own laboratory and imaging equipment combined with local reference laboratories and imaging specialists, we are able to offer the highest level of diagnostic testing and patient care.

Anesthesia used to be seen as a risky endeavor that was determined successful if the patient survived the procedure. Today, with the major advancements in vital system monitoring and medicine, the barometer for successful anesthesia is much different. Our goal during an anesthetic procedure is to maintain the body at its healthiest level of function. We can provide this level of care due to our modern equipment and advanced anesthetic training. Each anesthetic patient has an individually tailored anesthetic plan, including safe anesthetic drugs, and monitoring of ECG, pulse oximetry, blood pressure, capnography and temperature. Our anesthetic patients are supplemented with I.V. fluids to maintain normal blood pressure and hydration during anesthesia, and their body temperature is maintained through a heated surgery table and multiple warming systems. Each of our anesthetic patients receives an I.V. catheter to allow for quick administration of medication if the need arises. In addition to maintaining normal physiologic function, we also strive to completely treat any discomfort due to surgical procedures. This is accomplished via pain control before the procedure is started and through continued pain control during and after the procedure. In many cases, this includes medication that is given for a few days after the procedure.

Parkway Animal Clinic is equipped to perform both elective and non-elective soft tissue surgery including:

• spays
• neuters
• mass removals
• gastrointestinal surgeries
• bladder stone removal
• eye and ear surgery
• oral surgery

While some of these procedures are performed many times each week, no surgery should ever be viewed as 'routine,' as each patient is different and every case is unique. Prior to any surgical procedure, your veterinarian or a veterinary healthcare team member will explain the risks and potential complications of the procedure. At the time your pet is discharged from the hospital, homecare instructions will be provided to help you help your pet during the postoperative period. Orthopedic surgeries are referred to a trusted veterinary specialist with the additional experience and equipment to provide necessary care.

Preventative dentistry is a vital component of your pet's overall healthcare plan, and it involves much more than just 'teeth cleaning.' Appropriate periodic assessment of your pet's oral health, combined with dental scaling, subgingival curettage (to remove tartar below the gumline), and polishing can help prevent the kind of dental disease that leads to tooth loss, unnecessary oral pain, and increased risk of other illnesses. Just as we have come to expect of our dentists when we visit them, each of our patients receives a full oral examination and any necessary dental x-rays during the dental care procedure. Although effective dental care requires the use of a general anesthetic, you can rest assured that the same high level of care provided for surgical patients is also extended to patients undergoing dental procedures at Parkway Animal Clinic.

When dental health becomes compromised, pets develop gingivitis and periodontal disease. These conditions can lead to bad breath, oral pain, tooth loss, and weakening of the jaw bones. In addition, they may make pets more susceptible to kidney infections and other illnesses. Parkway Animal Clinic is equipped to treat most dental conditions. When advanced dental therapy is indicated and desired, we will refer your pet to a board certified veterinary dentist

At parkway Animal Clinic, we are concerned with minimizing any discomfort our patients may experience. This includes minimizing or eliminating acute pain from surgical procedures, as well as managing chronic pain from conditions such as arthritis or cancer. Fortunately, we have multiple drugs and supplements at our disposal to treat any pain experienced by your pet. Each pet will have its own unique cause of and response to the pain it is experiencing, and will therefore need its own individual pain control plan.