Do you think every pet is offered the same level of preventive care? Think again. There is a huge spectrum of preventive care offerings made at veterinary hospitals in Tucson. The best way to find out the level of care your pet is being offered is to pay attention to the questions the veterinary staff ask you.
During a healthy pet visit (emergency and visits associated with illness do not count, and should be focused on dealing with the problem at hand with very little weight given to preventive care.) the veterinary staff is trained to ask you a series of questions about your pet care practices. These questions are indicitive of what the staff feels about certain preventive care practices.
At a minimalist veterinary center they may ask about vaccinations, and maybe heartworm prevention (minimalist hospitals in places other than Tucson, where heart worm prevelance is higher will likely still emphasize prevention.) If you say that your dog is not on prevention they may simply write down the answer, and not thake the time to teach you about why your pets should be on prevention.
Hospials that practice this level of medicine will often not discuss food choices, neccessity for bordetella vaccinations for certain demographics, or even recommend dental care until the situation is dire.
Often these hospitals are located in rural areas and the poorer parts of town, where perhaps simply getting rabies vaccinations and pets spayed and neutered takes everyone's energy.
People who want little care beyond annual vaccinations will self select these hospitals, which are often less expenive because they have little to no modern equipment to pay for, they spend no money on staff training, and their staff is underpaid.
Conversely, hospitals on the forefront of veterinary medicine will ask you myriad questions about your pet, what it eats, heartworm preventive status, if anything about your pet's behavior has changed, if you travel with your pet, maybe even microchip information.
And, more importantly, they will bury you in information, you will leave knowing you feed a great food, or knowing now why you should change, you will leave knowing the importance of heartworm prevention, you will have been shown the status of your dog or cat's teeth and gums, and information on what to look out for, or when a dental is neccessary.
And you will feel empowered with the knowledge to make good decisions for your pet. The staff may tell you that you've been over vaccinating, your dog, now that it lives in Southern Arizona, no longer needs a lyme vaccine, and you will now know the signs of valley fever.
These hospitals will cost more, because behind the scenes they probably have more and newer equipment, their entire staff may have paid continuing education, not just the doctors, and new techniques and ideas will constantly be implemented.
If you arrive late and impatient, demand vaccinations only, have a history of declining everything you will miss out on this education. If your pet is unruly, bouncing all over or barking throughout the entire visit, you may miss out on some of this education, lastly if your children are loud, obnoxious or distracting, you will not receive this information.
The staff is busy, they have to repeat the same information all day long, and even if they truly believe in it and and are enthusiastic about sharing it, they will not struggle against someone who is making the education process impossible.
High quality preventive care is arrived at through education and owner buy-in. There are several people neccessary for this to succeed, and every party must be willing to put forth effort to provide the highest quality pet care.
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