While it's technically optional, it's strongly recommended. Just like with human health, things can change quickly. Preventative medicine can help your cat live a longer, healthier life and allows us to regularly check their organ function and catch problems before they start.

These are usually called annual exams, and it's important to remember that our pets age much faster than us. During these exams, we do lab work to establish a baseline of health for your cat. This way, even if there is a subtle change, we can detect it. It's far better to catch a disease before your cat starts showing symptoms. This can mean the difference between aggressive medical management, which can be expensive, versus outpatient care which is less costly. Preventative medicine is so important because it allows us to catch potential issues early on.

Preventative care is exactly like it is for humans. It involves taking your cat for an annual exam every year, and possibly twice a year when they're older. It includes managing conditions they may already have and paying attention to changes in their behavior. The primary goal of preventative care is to prevent disease or to catch it in the early stages when it's more manageable, treatable, or curable.

Definitely give us a call. We can make sure they don't have any signs of arthritis or pain in their knees and their hips specifically, but we do see some issues in their elbows as well. Sometimes we need to make a food change, but either way, definitely let us know and we'll get them in and help you figure out what's going on.

With training, you always want to use positive reinforcement and you want to try and make it fun. So, whether that is basic training or more advanced, we want to initially train them with food and almost hand commands. Use treats to encourage them to do well and then give lots and lots of praise after they've accomplished those things.

First of all, crate training your dog can be really helpful, or at least keeping them in an enclosed area where they feel safe. Within that area, giving them a food puzzle to do, as long as they have no food allergies, giving them peanut butter that's frozen and a Kong can be really great. Just things to keep them mentally stimulated while you're gone are great.

Same thing, you can still do those nose games indoors. You can have them either sit and watch you where you put those treats, especially when you're first doing these games, or put them out into a different room to make it a little bit more challenging once they're used to that. You can also give them a food puzzle. You can get these on Amazon and put their food inside it and they can work to get it out. Those are some really good things that you can do.

Some really good outdoor dog games to play would be things like nose games. You can get one of their favorite treats and have them sit inside while you go put treats around the various backyard and they can go look for them, which is a really fun thing for them to do. You can also even play hide and seek with your dog, they really like that. Of course, going on walks, hikes, those kinds of things can be great. Overall, just interacting with your dog in general and positive reinforcement with treats is really great as well.

Heart failure in dogs occurs when both the right-sided and left-sided heart disease are present. It typically starts on the left side and progresses to the right. When the entire heart is enlarged, it is considered complete heart failure.

The first step in treating an enlarged heart is getting x-rays, ideally followed by an ultrasound from a cardiologist. There are several medications available that can help the heart not to work so hard, reduce any fluid buildup, and provide general support.