#GetHealthyHappy with Annual Vet Visits

I am so excited to be partnering with Hill’s® Science Diet® on their "Healthier Pets. Happier Lives." campaign. Over the next several weeks I'm going to be sharing information with you on the importance of preventative care and how, together, we can make pets healthier and happier to help everyone love their pets longer.

This is sort of a personal question, but do you visit your doctor for a yearly checkup? Do you think it would ever be wise to wait 5 years in between checkups? (I'm going to plead the 5th here...I freely admit that I take better care of my pets than I do myself.)

Now, do you take your pet to the veterinarian for a yearly checkup? Did you know that since pets age faster, missing one annual vet visit would be like a human going 5 years between checkups?

When our pets are young and healthy, visiting the vet might not be something we put at the top of our "To Do" list. I think for cat owners especially it's particularly easy to put on the back burner because it's such a hassle to get our little furry homebodies into the car and then brace ourselves as they sing the song of their people (loudly) all the way to the vet's office. (Click here for some helpful tips on taking your cat to the veterinarian.) Still, consistent vet checkups are vital for your pets to keep them healthy and happy for life.

Here are 3 reasons why:

1) Annual vet visits can help vets head off many conditions before they start and ensure your pets have received all the vaccinations and treatments they need.

2) Checkups also allow your vet to get to know your pets, making it easier to detect any changes in their health and behavior. Cats are notorious for masking signs of illness, so a vet's trained eye is needed.

3) Early detection of health issues means more effective and potentially less costly treatments. But many pet parents wait until their pet is sick before going to the vet, which means more expensive and complicated procedures compared to routine visits.

The American Pet Products Association’s National Pet Owner Survey for 2013-14 found that emergency and illness vet visits can be $50-$200 more expensive than a routine visit. Even so, 26 percent of dog owners and 17 percent of cat owners reported they only took their pets to the vet when the pets were sick. In fact, 28 percent of cat owners hadn’t taken their pets to the vet in the past 12 months.

I know from personal experience with Tara, who had both routine care and many emergency visits, that the price difference is astronomical!






Dr. Ashley Gallagher, vet at the Friendship Hospital for Animals in Washington D.C., explains more easy ways to keep your pet healthy and happy in the following video, and on her blog:



We all want to have as much time with our furry best friends as possible. I'm always telling Truffles that we are going to celebrate my 50th birthday together...in 13 years! With proper nutrition and preventative care, I am very confident that we will have many wonderful years together.

To help everyone enjoy the benefits of annual checkups, Hill’s Science Diet will be giving away a $100 toward a vet checkup, every day for 90 days! Simply go to http://blogp.ws/1w2TSJJ and fill out the short form with your information and you will be entered for a chance to win.

This post is sponsored by Hill’s. I am being compensated for helping spread the word about Hill’s® Science Diet® Healthier Pets. Happier Lives.™, but Mochas, Mysteries and Meows only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Inc. is not responsible for the content of this article.