There’s a common misconception that because primary care for pets encompasses all those no-rush needs, it’s not as important as urgent care and can be delayed, skipped, or even ignored altogether. That couldn’t be further from the truth! We sat down with Dr. Katie Peachey to discuss why primary care for pets matters — and how it could help you save on vet bills.

Primary care promotes major health benefits.

The goal of primary care is to keep your pet healthy and happy in their day-to-day lives. It includes a lot of veterinary services, like regular exams and vaccines, that support your pet’s overall wellness add up to major health benefits over time, like:

Early detection and prevention

One of the major functions of primary care, as Dr. Peachey put it, is to “provide care that prevents against common infectious diseases, including vaccines and flea, tick, and heartworm medication.” These services help keep your pet healthy by significantly lowering or eliminating their chances of contracting parasites, bacteria, or viruses that negatively affect their health. 

“We also recommend annual bloodwork and fecal testing that allows us to monitor changes in health over time and catch any problems early,” Dr. Peachey elaborated. These tests give us a look at the microscopic makeup of your pet’s internal organs to gauge their health and function. Often, these tests can detect disfunction in internal organs far before it begins affecting your pet’s day-to-day functions, which means treatment can begin earlier when it is often most effective.

Pets are also great at hiding symptoms, especially from the people they love. Certain injuries, illnesses, and other issues can go undetected until they’re too uncomfortable for your pet to disguise. While Spot might hide his sore hips from you until he’s limping up the stairs, vets are trained to identify changes in gait and posture, or indicators of pain in animal body language. It’s why the physical exam component of an annual primary care visit at Lovet is so thorough, so that vets like Dr. Peachey don’t miss a thing.

What goes into a primary care exam?

A primary care exam is a specific exam that occurs annually or bi-annually, depending on your pet’s age and overall health condition. We carefully examine your pet from the tip of their nose to the very end of their tail and note the condition of each on our Wellness Snapshot: an easy-to-follow, comprehensive record of your pet’s health at the time of visit. The Wellness Snapshot includes:

• Listening to their heart and lungs 

• Feeling their abdomen 

• Examining their eyes, ears, mouth, and skin 

• Observing gait and behavior 

• Asking you questions about changes to any of the above
  
  

Taking a nose-to-tail approach helps us to review your pet’s health comprehensively and part-by-part, creating a reference point for your pet’s health at the time of visit. Your vet may also notate care recommendations or things to look out for during the rest of the year. At the end of your primary care visit, you’ll get a copy to take home with you so that you can keep an eye out for changes and be reminded of care recommendations.

Comprehensive picture of health

Primary care promotes wellness by looking at your pet’s health comprehensively. Much like humans, each part of a pet adds up to their total wellness. This ranges from their diet and exercise to their breed’s predisposition to certain health issues. Vets like Dr. Peachey are trained to understand how each unique component affects another, and how that translates into total body wellness for your pet.

For example, Dr. Peachey says, what doesn't seem like all that big of a deal to pet parents can actually be a “warning sign” for health issues to come. Many pet parents miss the early signs of tooth and gum disease in their pets due to its mild symptoms but, if left unchecked, advanced dental disease can lead to heart, liver, and kidney disease in addition to other painful complications.

By making primary care a routine part of your pet’s care, your vet can establish a baseline of what’s normal for your pet so that changes in things like weight, behavior, and oral health become less subtle.

Primary care can help you save money on vet bills.

We know economic uncertainty is hitting many pet parents hard right now. In fact, we surveyed pet parents in the U.S. and 45% of respondents said that rising costs have led them to delay or skip care for their pet. However, when it comes to your pet’s health, the right primary care can likely help you save money on vet bills in the long run. 
 
For example, primary care includes prevention against infectious diseases with methods like vaccines and parasite prevention medication. These are highly effective preventative methods which have been proven for decades to significantly reduce the risk of your pet contracting certain illnesses in the first place. Instead of spending thousands on treating a dangerous infectious disease like parvo or heartworm, you spend a fraction of that on a vaccine or medication that nearly eliminates their chances of catching it. 
 
Another example of how primary care can actually save money on vet bills that Dr. Peachey noted was in how it improves outcomes for health issues. With heart disease or a heart murmur, early detection is key to preserve the “option of performing early monitoring, testing, and starting medications.” If primary care is ignored and the heart issue goes undetected, the resulting sudden onset of heart failure is distressing, life-threatening, and expensive to treat — and could result in a chronic illness requiring continued treatment.

Primary care establishes a partner in your pet’s wellness.

Between the subtle cues of animal body language and the cumulative nature of pet health, we know it can be overwhelming to identify and track all the different things that make up your pet’s total wellness. That’s why we’re here! The more you tell us about you and your pet’s life together, Dr. Peachey emphasized, the more we’re able to help.

“We want to establish strong relationships which allow us to track your pet’s health history, manage chronic diseases, and be a first contact when new concerns arise,” she said. As your vet gets to know your pet’s day-to-day health and history over the years, they’re able to consider all those factors when narrowing down treatment options. This means your pet can get more personalized treatment, which is often most effective. 

At Lovet, everything we do is in service of helping pet parents find more flexibility and less compromise when it comes to helping their pets live healthy, happy lives. Whether it’s your first visit or your fifteenth, we promise to listen to your concerns, answer your questions, and work with you to find the best possible solution for whatever your pet needs. 
 
“An ideal relationship [between a vet and a pet parent],” Dr. Peachey added, “is collaborative and trusting, working as a team to provide the ideal care for their pet to help them live a happy and comfortable life.”

Need help with vet bills?

Because nothing should get in the way of your love for your pet, Lovet offers more ways for you to get the care your pet needs without compromise. 
 
Lovet Essentials is a monthly primary care plan that makes it easy to get your best friend the best care, no matter what. One monthly payment bundles all core vaccines, a dental cleaning or spay/neuter, diagnostics, and more — adding up to savings of 30% or more on primary care. Plus, with free unlimited exams and 10% off everything else, you’ll have peace of mind and flexibility for those unexpected issues. 

We also offer more flexible ways to pay, including CareCredit, Afterpay, and Lovet Pay: our payment plans with a 99% approval rate. Lovet Pay offers flexibility with unexpected vet bills, but Dr. Peachey emphasized that it’s a great option for primary vet care as well.  
 
“Lovet Pay allows us to remove financial barriers that may limit some pet parents’ ability to perform recommendations made by the vet even when it’s not an emergency. This allows us to give high quality medicine and perform necessary diagnostics earlier to be able to treat our pets better,” she said.

Meet the primary care vet that’s easy to love.

No matter what stage of life your pet’s in, we're here to provide the personalized, comprehensive care they need to be their best selves — with the flexibility and transparency you need to be the best pet parent, too. Book a primary care appointment at Lovet today.