Establish a baseline for ongoing preventive care measures

What percentage of clients in your practice only schedule appointments when their pets are sick or injured? Identifying this group can provide an opportunity to offer a special yearly preventive care health plan. Remind clients that in addition to testing for heartworms, blood samples can also be screened for other conditions to monitor a pet’s overall health from year to year without causing additional stress to their animal.

Human physicians recommend yearly screenings and blood panels to review overall health. Why shouldn’t clients do the same for their pets, rather than simply bringing them to the veterinarian when they show signs of illness? Establishing a baseline for each animal is the key to preventive care, allowing veterinary staff to see any issues that may arise over time.

Offer blood and urine testing every six months, or at a minimum every 12 months, as part of an ongoing preventive care and early detection program

Preventive care encompasses much more than wellness visits for routine vaccines and parasite control. Preventive care provides an opportunity to gather trended test results on a regular basis for ongoing care management. While it’s not a crystal ball into a pet’s health future, gathering this data can present a more complete picture of an animal’s health now, while offering the opportunity to anticipate future health needs.

Continue to encourage preventive care measures within your practice, showing clients that not only does preventive care cost less in the long-run, but increases the likelihood of success when treating illness that can be caught, and treated, in earlier stages. But even if a client hasn’t started this practice from their pet’s earliest visit with you, it’s not too late to start.

A survey found that 58% of pet owners would take their pet to the veterinarian more often if they knew they could prevent problems and expensive treatments as well as improve their pet’s overall quality of life. So no matter the age of the pet, it isn’t too late to establish a baseline through a complete blood count, blood chemistry profile and urinalysis. The importance of baseline testing can be emphasized among new pet owners, rescue parents and even senior pet parents to ensure ongoing health maintenance and to remain vigilant for changes that could lead to earlier detection of conditions including:

• Allergies
• Arthritis
• Cancer
• Diabetes
• Heart disease
• Kidney function
• Liver function
• Parasites
• Thyroid levels

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer resources that may be helpful to your clients, including links about zoonotic parasites as well as animal-specific health pages for companion animals, farm animals and even exotic pets.

Take a closer look at preventive care strategies with AXIS-Q™ LENS™

Once you’ve convinced clients to commit to an ongoing preventive care plan, explain the blood and urine panel results from each visit, as well as any notable changes from previous appointments. Make sure they are aware of any signs or symptoms to watch for, and to document any changes in their pet’s behavior or routine between visits.

Within your practice, there are new tools to help you and your staff easily access annual results. In June 2018, Covetrus will roll out AXIS-Q™ LENS™, a new and powerful tool for veterinarians to deliver a lifetime of preventive care. AXIS-Q™ LENS™ provides a clear picture of each patient’s diagnostic trends over their lifetime, offering new insights to make evidence-based decisions and effectively manage the pet’s health throughout the years. With this powerful tool, practices can efficiently manage pet health, strengthen client relationships and boost revenues through a lifetime of preventive care.

In addition to identifying any outliers, this comprehensive snapshot of a pet’s health presents an efficient method for ongoing care management. Designed as an open system, AXIS-Q™ LENS™ gathers trended diagnostic results from multiple point-of-care instruments or reference laboratories that are connected through Covetrus' practice management software systems. This open architecture gives practices the freedom to choose the diagnostic instruments and reference laboratory that’s right for them, and the ability to change equipment without losing their patients’ diagnostic histories.

If your practice already utilizes a current version of AVImark or ImproMed, AXIS-Q™ LENS™ will be available for no additional charge.

To learn more, contact your Covetrus representative at 855.1724.3461.

Sources:

https://www.aaha.org/graphics/original/professional/resources/other%20resources/

Source: Preventive Healthcare Plans: An Effective Tool for Improving the Health of America’s Pets, 2012, 2013, partnersforhealthypets.org

http://abcvet.com/blog/view/1538/importance-of-annual-blood-tests-for-pets

http://www.cartersvillewestsideanimalhospital.com/pet-health/

www.cdc.gov/parasites/animals.html

https://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/pets/index.html

https://avimark.net/

https://www.impromed.com/