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Medical Information for Pet Owners - Choosing a Family Veterinarian Veterinary practices that provide services for pets adopted from HSSV Choosing a Veterinarian Veterinarians will often have listings or ads in the yellow pages or on-line. HSSV also provides a referral list of veterinarians who support the care of animals adopted from us. Alternatively or additionally, you can ask family, friends, or neighbors whose opinion you trust to recommend their favorite veterinarian. Determine the important characteristics that you want in your family veterinarian. Is it location/proximity to where you live or work, the size of the practice, the warmth or professionalism of the clinic staff, the number of years the vet has been in practice, or just the vibe you or your pet gets from the vet? There are a number of factors that go into choosing a veterinarian that you can feel comfortable with and trust. Use your pet’s first visit to the vet as an opportunity to determine if that vet meets your pet and your needs. If you do this while your pet is healthy, you won’t feel pressured to go back to that vet if you or your pet doesn’t feel comfortable. You should keep in mind that some pets never feel comfortable at the vet’s office no matter how great the vet or his/her staff is. This is an issue with your pet’s comfort with strangers and new environments and odors. In those instances, you should use your best judgment to determine how comfortable you are even if our pet isn’t. Regular visits to your family veterinarian, especially when no painful or uncomfortable procedures must be performed, such as for annual exams, will allow your pet to become more familiar with your family vet. Once you find a veterinarian that you and your pet can feel comfortable with and trust, he/she can meet most of your pet’s basic health needs throughout and to the end of your pet’s life. The Importance of Having a Family Veterinarian As soon as you acquire a pet, you should develop a relationship with a veterinarian so that you have a “family vet”. Even though pets adopted from HSSV may be fully vaccinated and checked by our staff veterinarians, you should have your vet examine your pet within 1-2 weeks of bringing your pet home. This allows your vet to be introduced to your new family member and to establish a baseline by which to compare should your pet develop any problems. You vet can also serve as a resource to provide advice about feeding, grooming, training, etc. It’s also advisable to have a relationship with a veterinarian that you trust before a problem develops and you find you must go to the first veterinarian you can get in to see. Your pets should have an annual exam with your family vet, while geriatric pets may require more visits, even if you don’t sense any problems or health issues. By seeing your pet at least annually, your family vet may be able to detect problems in the very early stages providing a diagnosis and treatment that may be minor versus waiting until a problem is so advanced that the cost for diagnosis and treatment becomes a burden. Animals’ needs for nutrition, activity, disease prevention, etc. changes with age, your veterinarian can advise you on how best to meet these changes if they can see how your pet is aging on a regular basis. How to choose a veterinarian?
Why should you have a family vet?
The following are some veterinary practices that provide services for pets adopted
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