Banfield Pet Hospital Optimum Wellness Plan – With Giveaway

The Optimum Wellness Plan and information have been provided by Banfield Pet Hospital® in order to facilitate this post. This post has not been monetarily compensated. Please note that, as always, any personal opinions reflected in this post are my own and have not been influenced in any way.

Banfield has generously offered to donate $1 per reader comment (up to 100 comments) to Banfield Charitable Trust after this giveaway has concluded (11:59 PM the day of your giveaway). Banfield Charitable Trust is a donor-supported non-profit whose mission it is to preserve the human animal bond by keeping pets with their families who love them. Each year, BCT helps 100,000 struggling families through seven programs ranging from life-saving emergency care to assistance with pet food or other urgent pet care needs. Families that are struggling to keep their beloved pets can use some help so please leave a comment!
Our puppy Dobby just turned nine months old. We’re trying to take good care of him in order to keep him healthy. We recently enrolled Dobby in the Banfield Optimal Wellness Plan. You may have seen Banfield Pet Hospital inside your local PetSmart. Banfield believes preventive veterinary care is the best way to maintain quality of life and reduce the risk of developing serious, costly and sometimes fatal diseases, such as heartworm disease. Banfield’s Optimum Wellness Plans can be customizable based on the needs of the individual pet. Plans can cover physical exams, routine vaccinations, screenings, fecal exams, deworming, and more and are all included in one monthly fee. All plans include unlimited free office visits, and discounts for any services not covered by the plan. Currently plan options for my area for a dog Dobby’s age are $29.95 to $46.95, depending on which plan you choose.
Yesterday I took Dobby in for a checkup. There was no fee to do this because we’re on the plan. We arrived and were taken into a private exam room. One of the assistants took a history on Dobby and then went to get the vet. I had done there thinking Dobby was current on all of his shots and wanting to get him on a heartworm preventative. After looking at my paperwork it was determined that Dobby actually needed a booster of one of his shots. Plus the vet recommended that we give Dobby vaccines for parvo and Leptospirosis. Hubby and I lost a puppy to parvo many years ago so I was fully on board for that one. We had a husky once that went into anaphalactic shock from the Leptospirosis vaccination so that one required careful thought. Leptospirosis is a bacterial disease that affects humans and animals. In the end we decided to give Dobby the Leptospirosis vaccine and if needed I’d give Benadryl at home. Then we moved to the topic of the heartworm preventative.

For those that don’t know, heartworm is a serious and potentially deadly disease that both dogs and cats can get. Pets can contract heartworm disease through a single bite from an infected mosquito. Treatment of heartworm disease in dogs is difficult, painful and expensive. There is no approved treatment for cats in the US at present. To check out the heartworm relevance in your state use this interactive map from Banfield Pet Hospital’s State of Pet Health™ 2014 Report.
I wanted to be sure Dobby didn’t have heartworms, and get him on a preventative product to keep it that way. The first step to prevent heartworm infection is annual heartworm testing, which is done by a simple blood test. Testing can be done during an ordinary office visit. After that a year-round preventative medicine is recommended. There was no cost for Dobby’s heartworm testing as it was a part of the Optimal Wellness plan.

I am not the best when it comes to remembering to do certain things, such as give pills on a schedule. As I know how important being on top of this is I decided to put Dobby on ProHeart® 6. ProHeart® 6 is an injectable heartworm preventive that can be prescribed to healthy dogs over the age of 6 months, which delivers six months of protection in a single dose—offering both convenience and peace of mind to pet owners. ProHeart® 6 can protect dogs from dangerous heartworm disease by preventing immature worms from maturing into adults that cause damage in the pet’s heart.
Rather then give Dobby several new shots all at once the vet suggested splitting Dobby’s shots into two visits a week apart from each other. Her thinking was if you give two new shots at the same time it’s harder to tell what the culprit is if there is a reaction. That made sense to me. So one week we have a visit for shots. The other week we have a visit scheduled to go over the heartworm test results and get the Proheart vaccine.
Here’s a brief video on how to protect your pet from heartworm disease.

Here is a $10 off coupon for a 6-month injectable heartworm preventive.
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WIN IT!

One (1) winner will receive a free office visit at Banfield Pet Hospital for a dog to receive a free heartworm test and free 6-months of Proheart® 6 (for dogs only).

HOW TO ENTER.

Enter using the Giveaway Tools widget below. The winner will be selected by the Giveaway Tools widget. If you’ve entered any of my giveaways before then you know that you must complete the mandatory required entry, and that only comments containing all of the requested information will be eligible for entry. US addresses only please, no PO Boxes. Good luck to everyone that enters!

Have you had your dog or cat tested for heartworm disease?