what is a comprehensive exam at Banfield?

At Banfield, we believe preventive care is an important part of a pet’s overall health. That’s why we recommend twice-yearly comprehensive exams for all of our furry patients. What’s a comprehensive exam, you ask? Good question!  
  
These drop-off exams allow us to spot any changes in your pet’s health and to screen for disease.  
  
Here are the checks we do on your pet:  

• Coat and skin  
• Ophthalmic (eyes)
• Otoscopic (ears)
• Oral and nasal
• Respiratorio  
• Cardiovascular  
• Abdominal palpation (feeling the abdomen for masses or tenderness)  
• Urogenital (urinary and genitals)
• Rectal  
• Musculoskeletal (bones, muscles, joints, and connective tissues) 

  
There are several benefits to our comprehensive exams:  

• It helps us assess and collect exam findings of your pet throughout their lifetime
• It enables us to track conditions such as obesity, ear infections, and dental disease, which can be better managed with routine exams
• It enables us to track conditions that are more common in certain breeds  
• It helps us screen for disease, which allows for earlier intervention and gives us a baseline of your pet’s current health status to work from as they age  

  
Comprehensive exams are best when your pet stays with us for a few hours — we like to take our time giving your pet a thorough exam. Because of this, we’ve made it super easy for you, the pet owner, to drop your pet off so you have time to go about your day. All we ask is that you have your phone handy — we will call you to authorize any treatment and, of course, call you when your furry pal is ready to be picked up. 
  
Drop-offs aren’t our only type of appointment, though. We have in-room appointments, typically for first-time visits and other visits where it’s important for you to be in the room with your pet. These appointments are a great opportunity for you to meet your pet’s care team and for us to get to know you and your pet.  
  
We also have our super convenient virtual services! Our Optimum Wellness Plans®️ include unlimited 24/7 Pet Chat™. Sounds pretty awesome, right? Well, it is! Our 24/7 Pet Chat allows owners to get pet health advice from a credentialed vet tech on their phone or computer, whether it’s 3 a.m. or 3 p.m. This feature comes with every Optimum Wellness Plan, with no extra charges or fees. All OWP plan owners need to do is log in to their Banfield account and start chatting. Learn more about Pet Chat here.   
 
Our Optimum Wellness Plans also include two yearly Virtual Visits, which allow pet owners to virtually meet with their Banfield veterinary team to go over lab test results and X-rays, new puppy or kitten behavior, nutrition, chronic disease treatment, or tips on how to give your pet medicine. Of course, these are just a few of the topics you can discuss over our Virtual Visits. To learn more, please visit our Virtual Petcare page.