September is Senior Pet Month

At Arroyo Veterinary Clinic, we are focusing on senior pets this September! We are providing clients with 3 options for their senior pets this September.

1. Comprehensive Senior Wellness Test

2. Senior Wellness Visit

**Both the above options include discount packaged office visit, lab work and in-house testing  at a discounted price.

3. For reluctant clients, we are still offering FREE office visit as a YELP.com Check-In Offer.

We offer senior pet health care to help your pet live a long, healthy life. We recommend senior pets to come in for wellness exam every six months, due to changes that come with age.

These six-month wellness visits can be offered as first visit for vaccines, parasite screening and prevention. We will evaluate risk for infectious diseases and either increase interval between vaccines  or discontinue some vaccines based on risk assessment. The second visit is recommended 6 months after first visit.

The focus during senior pet visits is to address old age concerns like arthritis, kidney disease, hyperthyroidism, cancer, glaucoma, hypertension etc. The lab work is recommended to provide us with baseline when the pet is well. Also in some cases it may help us identify certain conditions before disease signs are seen. With kidney disease, for example, by the time you see changes in the blood chemistries, 75 percent to 85 percent of the pet's kidneys could be gone, and, like people, pets need at least 50 percent to function. Now, if annual urinalysis is performed we can catch kidney disease at 65 percent and place the pet on a special diet or supplements to curb the problem.

Dog Age (years)	Wt:0-20 lb.	Wt:20-50 lb.	Wt:50-90 lb.	Wt.>90 lb.
6	40	42	45	49
7	44	47	50	56
8	48	51	55	64
9	52	56	61	71
10	56	60	66	78
11	60	65	72	86
12	64	69	77	93
13	68	74	82	101
14	72	78	88	108
15	76	83	93	115
16	80	87	99	123
17	84	92	104	131
18	88	96	109	139
19	92	101	115	-
20	96	105	120	-

Use this table to determine the “true” age of a dog or cat:

(Senior years are highlighted in red font.)

Cat Age (years)	Weight: 0-20 lb.
8	48
9	52
10	56
11	60
12	64
13	68
14	72
15	76
16	80
17	84
18	88
19	92
20	96