SPONSORED CONTENT: PURINA PRO PLAN SPORT
Your hunting dog doesn’t come with an owner’s manual detailing specific guidelines for his or her well-being. It’s up to you to work with your veterinarian to create an optimal preventive-maintenance schedule for your dog. Not only will it keep him or her healthy, it will also give you the chance to catch anything serious before it potentially becomes a major problem.
“Regularly scheduled veterinary exams are the foundation of good preventive health care,” says Purina Chief Veterinary Officer Kurt Venator. “Preventive care is especially essential for sporting dogs, who are at a higher risk for certain conditions such as orthopedic injuries, lacerations and puncture wounds, foreign bodies, and gastrointestinal disease.”
Follow this checklist of routine inspections and checkups from Dr. Venator to help keep your dog’s health in tip-top condition year-round.
Run a Background Check
During your dog’s annual examination, a discussion with your veterinarian of your dog’s general health history as well as his or her lifestyle at home and in the field will pay dividends. Once a baseline is established, it’ll be easier for you to notice any changes in your dog’s eating and drinking or urination and defecation habits, a fluctuation in weight, or a shift in mobility or field performance. Likewise, your veterinarian can more readily diagnose any such behavioral or health issues.
Prevention Is Paramount
To help prevent communicable diseases, fleas, ticks and intestinal parasites in your dog, you and your veterinarian should implement a comprehensive vaccine and parasite-prevention protocol. Year-round heartworm protection also is recommended in all U.S. geographic regions.
Easy on the Eyes
Your dog works in environments ripe for eye injury, so be on the lookout for irritation or injury after he or she runs through brush, grass or weeds. Some breeds are predisposed to conditions such as dry eye, progressive retinal atrophy, and glaucoma, so it’s also a good idea to talk with your veterinarian to learn whether your dog is at risk.
Polish Those Pearly Whites
Dental disease can be caused by poor dental care or foreign bodies entering the mouth during field work, wreaking havoc on your dog’s mouth and potentially causing other systemic health issues. Cleaning your dog’s teeth daily and following dog-dental-health basics are a must.
Ear to Ear
Besides routine checkups, you should regularly clean your dog’s ears, especially during the warmer months, when the incidence of ear infections across breeds runs high due to frequent swimming.
Brush It Off
Grooming goes far beyond vanity. Brush your dog’s coat frequently to maintain its vitality and remove any debris or foreign material picked up in the field. This also affords you the opportunity to look for fleas or ticks that may have burrowed into your dog’s coat.
Feed a Complete and Balanced Diet
Providing your dog with high-quality, complete, and balanced nutrition, such as Purina Pro Plan SPORT Performance dog food, is the cornerstone of good health and field performance. It’s important to feed the same food year-round, adjusting the amount fed to maintain ideal body condition. In fact, Purina’s 14-year landmark lifespan study showed that maintaining dogs’ ideal body condition throughout their lives can help extend their healthy years by an average of 1.8 years. For a dog in ideal body condition, you should be able to feel the ribs with minimal fat covering, view his or her waist behind the ribs, and see an abdominal tuck from the side.
To learn more preventive health-care tips, visit Purina Pro Club for resources.
