What Love Deserves

Gold-Standard wellness care

We believe that prevention is truly the best medicine! Regular wellness exams allow us to prevent, diagnose and treat disease in its early stages, often before you notice any symptoms. Treatment is more effective when it starts earlier, so preventative care helps your pet live a long and healthy life with you. We believe in working with and providing you with enough knowledge to put you in control of the health care decisions for your pet and their needs. In addition to dogs and cats, we also welcome small mammals such as ferrets, sugar gliders, hamsters, gerbils, hedgehogs, and prairie dogs.

“Hospice Care focuses on providing the best quality of life possible for a pet with a terminal disease or condition until the pet dies or is euthanized. Hospice care also helps you by providing you with time to adjust to the coming loss of your companion. The care is tailored to the needs of both you and your pet.”

Spay/Neuter

Our goal is to start them with a solid foundation of preventative care and nutrition. Puppies and kittens will be tested for parasites and treated accordingly. Prevention including heartworm, intestinal parasites, and flea and tick will be recommended for your pet. Follow-up visits will be needed to complete their puppy and kitten vaccines, during which time their development will be monitored.

We follow vaccine recommendations from the American Animal Hospital Association and the American Academy of Feline Practitioners. This usually means 4 to 5 visits in their first year of life to ensure they are adequately protected from infectious diseases.

Most pets benefit from being surgically sterilized (“spayed” for females or “neutered” for males) at a young age. The reduction in hormones in females means a much lower risk of mammary (breast) cancer as your pet ages. Removing the female reproductive organs also prevents a common and life-threatening uterine infection called pyometra. Neutering males will reduce sex-related behaviors such as fighting and marking, and also eliminates the possibility of testicular tumors, which are very common in un-neutered (intact) males. Neutering also reduces the risk of prostatic infections and peri-anal tumors.

Barks + Bliss recommends cats be spayed or neutered between 4 and 6 months of age. For dogs, their surgery is typically recommended between 6 and 12 months of age prior to their first heat cycle, depending on the size and health status of the dog. The spay or neuter procedure is a day surgery, so your pet will go home with you the day of the procedure in most cases. We utilize the most up-to-date anesthesia and monitoring and ensure your pet will be comfortable after the procedure with pain medication to go home.

Puppies and Kittens

Most pets enter their adulthood when they turn one. By this time their activity levels and nutritional needs will have changed. Our doctors will continue to see your pet every six to twelve months for wellness checks, routine vaccinations, preventative care medications, and recommended laboratory testing as appropriate for their age and lifestyle. We will monitor any changes or health care needs of your pet and partner with you to provide the best care.

Adult Care

Just like in the case of humans, more health care issues arise as pets age. We will want to see your senior pet twice a year for exams. It is likely that we’ll run more blood work and lab tests. Catching and treating disease early, before it is in an advanced state, is always best for your pet and usually less costly.

Common senior pet conditions include:

Skin diseases
Eye changes (cataracts, tumors, glaucoma)
Allergies
Kidney problems
Dental and periodontal disease
Thyroid and adrenal issues
Arthritis
Heart Disease
Lung Disease
Cancer

Senior Care