Wellness Care

Wellness Care In St. Louis, MO

At Hillside Animal Hospital, we believe annual wellness care is imperative to keeping your pet happy and healthy! Your pet’s health is important and preventive care is necessary. We recommend wellness exams, keeping your pets on a vaccination schedule, and working with us on all facets of wellness care.

During your annual physical exam, your veterinarian fully examines your pet and discusses vaccinations and ongoing wellness. Just like you do wellness visits with your doctor, it’s important that your pet does the same. During these visits, our team will spend time examining your pet from nose to tail.

At Hillside Animal Hospital, we believe that it is much easier to prevent diseases than it is to treat them. We also believe that every patient is an individual and has a unique set of circumstances that may inform us in what their specific preventative care needs might be. Factors that we may consider include breed, age, lifestyle, health status, diet, reproductive status, and even the accompanying human preference. We believe that medicine is not a “one size fits all” practice. As such, each patient will receive a tailored approach to best meet his or her preventative care needs.

We take a team-oriented approach, aiming to educate and empower you, our clients, to make the most educated decisions regarding your pets’ care based on a variety of factors.

PET NUTRITIONAL COUNSELING
Nutrition plays a critical role in the overall health and well-being of your pet. Your pet’s nutritional needs change with age and activity level. Specially formulated diets can assist in the management of various medical conditions like kidney disease, diabetes, heart disease. Work closely with your veterinarian to find the right food and the right intake amount for your pet. Our hospital is stocked with a variety of foods that fit the needs of all pets.

PET ALLERGIES
Though many of us associate allergies with the change of seasons, they’re actually a prevalent issue all year round.

Allergy Symptoms:

• Excessive licking, biting, chewing or scratching at certain areas of the body or all over
• Excessive rolling or scooting
• Hair loss on certain spots of the body or thinning hair all over
• Reoccurring ear infections
• Sores/scabs on the skin
• Poor coat condition
• Redness to areas on the skin
• Odor

VACCINATIONS
No single vaccine program will be ideal for every pet in every situation, and that’s why we will work on an individualized basis with you and your pet to make sure they are getting just what they need to remain healthy. Our team of doctors and staff are highly educated about veterinary vaccines, and we can offer you the best advice to help your pet live longer.

Our pets are faced with many deadly infectious diseases, and vaccines can help protect them. Over the years, vaccines against dangerous diseases have saved millions of pets and virtually eliminated some fatal diseases that were once common.

PARASITE PREVENTION
You may not always be able to tell if your pet has parasites. Fleas can hide under your pet’s fur, and some ticks are very tiny (only the size of a pinhead), so they are very difficult to find. Intestinal parasites like roundworms can cause diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, and other problems, but some infected pets don’t show any signs at all.

Veterinary examinations and parasite testing are important ways to protect your pet’s health. Let our knowledgeable staff provide you with a comprehensive parasite control program. We can recommend a schedule for parasite testing, discuss what signs of parasites you can look for at home, review ways to control parasites in and around your home, discuss treatment options if your pet has parasites, and recommend ways to control and prevent parasites in the future.