Some are public health concerns. Rabies. I know that your cat is only going to get rabies by being exposed to a rabid animal. It's probably not going to happen indoors, but what happens if your window pops open, or your window is open and the screen pops out and your cat wants to take off? You can't afford to risk those types of things. A disease like rabies, for example, is a human threat. If, by some chance, your cat gets out, gets bitten by a rabid animal, and comes back home, they will likely act fine for quite a while. But then on about day 9 or 10, your cat is not acting quite so fine. You see where I'm going with that? There's no point in allowing that to even be a possibility.

So for certain public health concerns, there's that. And again, even other viruses that I didn't mention in that scenario could involve the same exact thing happening. Say your cat's indoors and you think to yourself, "Oh, I don't want to do feline leukemia." What happens if he gets out? What happens if it's a pretty fall day and there's another cat that comes nose to nose with him at the screen. They didn't even come into direct contact, but can it be transmitted that way? You bet it can. So that's the reason why it's still important.

Core vaccines are the essential, don't-pass-on-these vaccines. And they include things such as rhinotracheitis, which is a herpes virus. There's calicivirus, feline leukemia is actually now considered a core vaccine, and rabies. So those are the big ones that, regardless of your cat's lifestyle such as whether they live indoors or outdoors.

Broken teeth. Not any broken tooth, but if the break has extended into the pulp of the tooth, that may need to be extracted to alleviate pain or prevent the future formation of an abscess. Severe periodontal disease is arguably the most common thing we see. If you have a tooth that's diseased to that point, it's often much more effective and healthy for the dog to just take that tooth out and not allow it to continue to be a source of chronic infection.

Most of the time a follow-up appointment would be required. It depends on what the issue is. If it's simple gingivitis, maybe a brief round of anti-inflammatories or antibiotics can be given on that visit and that takes care of the issue. But if there's enough disease there or tartar there that requires treatment or dental cleaning, then, of course, they would have to return at a later date for the process to be done.

X-rays are usually done during the course of routine dental cleaning, and that is to help us see under the gum line. I used to not have an X-ray, and I missed so many teeth that I didn't even know were affected or diseased under the gums. Sometimes you will have issues along the root where you have bone loss along the root of the teeth. There's no way to see that by looking at the crown. So X-rays allow us to look under the surface so we can get a better idea of the health of that tooth.