People sometimes ask why a healthy pet needs a check-up at all. The honest answer is that the yearly visit is where most problems get caught while they are still small, still cheap, and still fixable. Dental disease, heart murmurs, weight creep, lumps that have been there a while: all of these are found at the annual check far more often than by owners at home.

Before you arrive

Bring any medication in its packaging, and a note of anything that has changed: appetite, thirst, energy, toileting, behaviour. Small changes you have got used to are often the most useful thing you tell us.

The examination

Nose to tail, in the same order every time so nothing is missed. Eyes, ears, mouth and teeth. Heart and lungs. Abdomen, by hand. Skin and coat, lymph nodes, joints and gait. Weight and body condition. It takes about fifteen minutes and your pet is on the table for most of it.

The most common thing we find at an annual check is dental disease. The second is a lump the owner had not noticed.

What we are actually checking

The short version

• Teeth and gums — tartar, gingivitis, fractured teeth
• Heart rhythm and murmurs, breathing sounds
• Weight trend against last year, not just the number
• Any lumps, and whether a lump has changed
• Joint range and any stiffness, especially in older pets
• Vaccination and parasite cover, brought up to date if due

After the visit

You leave with a written summary of what we found and what, if anything, to do about it. If we recommend something further, we quote it in writing before anything is booked. And your record in the client portal is updated, so the next visit starts from what we know rather than from scratch.

We do not sell insurance and we do not recommend a provider. But we do see, several times a month, the moment an owner learns their policy will not cover the thing in front of them. This is about avoiding that moment.

What it is for

Insurance is for the bill you cannot plan for: the cruciate repair, the snake bite, the foreign body surgery. It is not, in most policies, for vaccinations, dental work or the annual check. Buying it to cover routine care is usually a bad deal.

The clauses that bite

Read these sections first

• Pre-existing conditions — anything noted on a record before the policy started, even if it resolved
• Waiting periods — often 30 days for illness, six months or more for cruciate ligaments
• Annual and per-condition limits — a $10,000 cap sounds generous until you meet an orthopaedic quote
• Bilateral conditions — if one knee has been treated, the other may be excluded
• Dental — frequently excluded entirely, or only for accidents
• Age limits and premium increases as the pet gets older

The policy is cheapest the day you buy it and the pet is youngest. That is the day to read the exclusions.

Questions to ask

Is dental covered, and under what circumstances? Does the limit reset each year, or is it per condition for life? What counts as pre-existing? Can you choose your vet? How are claims paid — to you after the fact, or to the clinic directly?

Our honest view

For a young, healthy animal, a comprehensive policy taken out early and kept continuously is usually worth it, because the alternative is making a medical decision under financial pressure. For an older animal with a history, it often is not, and a dedicated savings account can be the better tool. Either way, decide before you need to.