It’s National Pet Wellness Month. Go to the Vet.

In honor of National Pet Wellness month, we’re re-sharing a post that is still incredibly relevant. Here’s why you should take your pets to the vet – and why we really believe that there’s no excuse not to (especially with Calming chews on your side).

The facts: Vets are seeing pets two to three days sicker than in the past.

Progressive diseases, like cancers, are caught less often when pets don’t have regular check-ups.

And Internet pharmacies, high costs and low perceived value of service are driving veterinary practices out of business, in many cases.

This pattern is wrong, and individual pet owners do have the power to ensure that the individual care our companions get at the vet doesn’t go the way of the dinosaurs.

The bottom line is this: preventative care of any sort is more cost efficient and less stressful than the alternative; regular check ups save everyone a scare later. That’s why your pet should see a vet.

Think of it this way: Your cat skipping the vet for two years can be likened to you skipping the doctor for two decades. To vets, that’s clear (hello periodontal disease!)—to the average consumer, the significance is often lost in a sea of inconvenience and expense.

We can’t state this more emphatically. It doesn’t make sense to ignore pet care for any of the following reasons: money, time or effort (“cats hate the vet!”).

All three will be greater the longer you wait to bring your pet to the vet.

Another reason pet owners avoid the vet is because they think it’s unnecessary. With the advent of online medical resources and pharmacies, many owners diagnose their pets at home, and treat them according to the Wikipedia article’s instructions.

The Internet is a wonderful medium for obtaining all relevant information, and that
information should be brought to your vet visit, too—but no one on the Internet knows your cat, or your dog, or you.

The inherent problem with self-diagnoses is that they depend on general, impersonal information to address a specific, personal problem.

Knowing your vet, and giving your vet the opportunity to get to know your pet well enough to treat him or her according to his/her biochemical individuality, is a much more intelligent choice than blindly honing in on a problem based on one or two symptoms.

There are a million excuses for you not to trek to the vet—and none are really valid, because there are a million more reasons for your pet to still see his doc regularly.

This October, celebrate Pet Wellness Month by checking out “Why Your Cat Needs a Yearly Exam,” a brochure you can find here. Then go the extra step and set up an annual checkup appointment!

Have you had a personal battle over whether or not to take your pet to the vet? What won out and why? Share your reasons and how you dealt on our Facebook page!