Comprehensive Canine Wellness Care
Preventive medicine is the key to helping dogs live longer, healthier, and happier lives. At Litchfield Veterinary Hospital, we offer individualized wellness care designed for every stage of your dog’s life — from puppyhood through the senior years. Our focus on disease prevention and early detection allows us to identify issues before they become serious, giving your dog the best chance for a lifetime of good health.
Our Canine Wellness Exam
What Wellness Care Includes
Wellness care for dogs includes a wide range of services, tailored to each pet’s age, lifestyle, and risk factors:
- Comprehensive physical examinations
- Oral health evaluation and dental care
- Tick-borne disease education and prevention
- Heartworm testing and prevention
- Intestinal parasite testing, treatment, and analysis
- Vaccinations and vaccine titer screening
- Early disease detection screenings
- Microchip identification
- Pharmaceuticals and supplements
- Flea prevention and control programs
- Nutritional counseling and weight management
- Behavioral counseling
- Pain management
Physical Examinations
Routine physical exams are the foundation of preventive care. We recommend annual exams for all dogs and biannual exams for senior or high-risk patients. During each visit, our veterinarians perform a full physical exam, evaluate oral health, review medical history, and recommend any additional diagnostics or treatments. Thorough checkups allow us to detect and address health issues early, before they become serious.
Dental & Oral Health Care
Dental disease is the most common health problem in dogs — by age three, most already show signs of gingivitis or periodontal disease. Left untreated, plaque and tartar lead to painful infections, tooth loss, and even systemic illness.
Because pets require anesthesia for complete dental cleanings, our team performs ultrasonic scaling above and below the gumline only while your pet is safely anesthetized. We may also recommend professional cleanings, oral surgery, or extractions for advanced cases. At home, regular brushing and veterinary-recommended products help slow tartar buildup between cleanings.
Healthy teeth and gums are essential for your dog’s comfort and overall well-being.
Tick-Borne Diseases
Tick-related diseases are increasingly common in Connecticut and can pose life-threatening risks to dogs. Infections include Lyme disease, Ehrlichia, Anaplasma, Babesia, and Bartonella, often occurring as co-infections that complicate diagnosis and treatment.
Protecting your dog from tick exposure is the best way to prevent disease. Our healthcare team will recommend the safest and most effective tick prevention strategies based on your dog’s lifestyle and risk.
Heartworm Prevention & Testing
Heartworm disease, spread by mosquitoes, is a growing concern in the region. Once infected, heartworms can cause severe illness and even death. Because prevention is simple and effective, all dogs should receive monthly heartworm prevention year-round.
Dogs must be tested before starting prevention to ensure they are heartworm-negative, as giving preventatives to an infected dog can be dangerous. We recommend routine testing and will guide you in maintaining a prevention schedule tailored to your pet.
Intestinal Parasite Control & Analysis
Parasites such as hookworms, roundworms, whipworms, tapeworms, Giardia, and coccidia can cause serious illness in dogs — and some are transmissible to people. Puppies are especially vulnerable and require early deworming.
We recommend annual stool analysis for all dogs. Because parasites may not be detectable at every life stage, even a negative result doesn’t guarantee a pet is parasite-free. If parasites are detected, we prescribe targeted dewormers to treat and prevent reinfection.
Year-round parasite prevention also helps protect families, since many intestinal parasites are considered zoonotic.
Vaccinations & Vaccine Titers
Vaccines protect against dangerous, potentially fatal diseases. At Litchfield Veterinary Hospital, we follow the latest veterinary research and use high-quality vaccines with three-year protection for certain core vaccines.
Our doctors may recommend vaccine titer testing — a blood test that measures immunity — to avoid unnecessary revaccination in some dogs. Core and non-core vaccines are discussed with each family to determine what is best for your dog’s health and lifestyle.
Early Disease Detection
As dogs age, regular health screenings become increasingly important. Bloodwork, urinalysis, and diagnostic imaging allow us to evaluate kidney, liver, and thyroid function, detect disease early, and begin treatment before symptoms appear. We recommend annual screenings for senior pets as part of their wellness plan.
Permanent Identification
Microchipping is a safe, permanent way to identify your dog and greatly improves the chance of being reunited if lost. A simple injection places the chip just under the skin. Many clients prefer to combine microchipping with another anesthetic procedure, but it can also be performed while your dog is awake.
Pharmaceuticals, Supplements & Online Pharmacy
We carry a full inventory of prescription medications, flea and tick preventives, heartworm preventatives, and prescription diets. For your convenience, our online pharmacy offers direct shipping of guaranteed products, backed by the manufacturers.
Flea Prevention & Control
Fleas are more than an annoyance — they can trigger allergies, spread parasites, and cause skin infections. We develop individualized flea prevention programs for each dog, taking into account lifestyle, environment, and exposure risks. Our team also helps families manage flea control in the home and yard for complete protection.
Nutrition & Weight Management
Proper nutrition is vital to maintaining health and preventing disease. We provide customized diet and weight management plans, addressing the unique nutritional needs of each life stage. Because obesity shortens life expectancy and contributes to arthritis, diabetes, and cancer, we help pet owners keep their dogs at a healthy body weight with the right diet, exercise, and portion guidance.
Behavioral Counseling
Behavioral problems such as excessive barking, chewing, aggression, or house-soiling can disrupt family life and may indicate underlying medical or environmental issues. Our veterinarians provide behavioral counseling and, when needed, work with board-certified behaviorists or local trainers to support long-term improvement.
Pain Management
Dogs experience pain from injuries, surgery, or chronic illnesses such as arthritis, but often hide their discomfort. Our team utilizes the Colorado Pain Scale, a standardized tool used to assess and score a pet’s level of discomfort, during exams and educates owners on how to recognize subtle changes that may indicate pain.
Treatment options range from supplements and medications to physical therapy. Because many human medications are toxic to dogs, pain management should always be overseen by a veterinarian. Our goal is to ensure your dog’s comfort and quality of life at every stage.
Lifelong Wellness for Dogs
From vaccinations and parasite prevention to dental care, nutrition, and early disease detection, our canine wellness program is designed to support your dog through every stage of life. By focusing on prevention and proactive care, we help ensure that your dog enjoys many healthy, happy years as part of your family.