What to expect from a comprehensive exam

At Banfield, we believe preventive care is an important part of a pet’s overall health. That’s why we recommend comprehensive exams for all of our furry patients. What’s a comprehensive exam, you ask? Good question!

What’s a comprehensive exam?

These twice-yearly drop-off wellness exams allow us to spot any changes in your pet’s health and screen for disease. Often called a “nose-to-tail” exam, these help your veterinary team catch health issues early and establish a baseline of your dog’s or cat’s health.

What areas of the body does a comprehensive exam check?

These are the checks included in a comprehensive exam of your pet’s body:

Coat and skin
Ophthalmic (eyes)
Otoscopic (ears)
Oral and nasal
Respiratory
Cardiovascular
Abdominal palpation (feeling the abdomen for masses or tenderness)
Urogenital (urinary and genitals)
Rectal
Musculoskeletal (bones, muscles, joints, and connective tissues)

Why are comprehensive exams important?

Though comprehensive exams aren’t mandatory, we highly recommend that pet owners schedule these twice-yearly exams. Here are three reasons why comprehensive exams are essential:

Successful disease screening allows for earlier intervention and a potentially better prognosis for your pet.
Many breeds are predisposed to common diseases and comprehensive examinations can help catch these problems early, when they’re easier to treat.
Prescreening for certain diseases gives your veterinarian a baseline of your pet’s current health status to work from as your pet ages.

What are the benefits of comprehensive exams?

There are several benefits of our comprehensive exams:

It helps us assess and collect exam findings of your pet throughout their lifetime.
It enables us to track conditions such as obesity, ear infections, and dental disease, which can be better managed with routine exams.
It enables us to track conditions that are more common in certain breeds.
It helps us screen for disease, which allows for earlier intervention and gives us a baseline of your pet’s current health status to work from as they age.

How do comprehensive exams work?

Comprehensive exams are best when your pet stays with us for a few hours — we like to take our time giving your pet a thorough exam. Because of this, we’ve made it super easy for you, the pet owner, to drop your pet off so you have time to go about your day. All we ask is that you have your phone handy — we will contact you to authorize any treatment and, of course, call when your furry pal is ready to be picked up.

What are the other types of appointments at Banfield?

Drop-offs aren’t our only type of appointment though.

We also offer:

In-room appointments:
Typically for first-time visits and other visits where it’s important for you to be in the room with your pet, these appointments are a great opportunity for you to meet your pet’s care team and for us to get to know you and your pet.

24/7 Pet Chat™:
Our 24/7 Pet Chat allows owners to get pet health advice from a veterinary professional on their phone or computer, whether it’s 3 a.m. or 3 p.m. This feature comes with every Optimum Wellness Plan, with no extra charges or fees. All OWP plan owners need to do is log in to their Banfield account and start chatting. Learn more about Pet Chat here. (Pet Chat is not available in all states.)

Virtual Visits:
Our Optimum Wellness Plans also include two yearly Virtual Visits, which allow pet owners to virtually meet with their Banfield veterinary team to go over lab test results and X-rays, new puppy or kitten behavior, nutrition, chronic disease treatment, or tips on how to give your pet medicine. Of course, these are just a few of the topics you can discuss over our Virtual Visits. To learn more, please visit our Virtual Petcare page.

The bottom line

Comprehensive exams are an excellent way to help stay on top of your dog’s or cat’s health. Think of these exams as investing in your pet’s health. Catching issues early is the best chance to keep them from becoming more serious. Twice-yearly comprehensive exams are included in all of our preventive care packages. Learn more here.