Senior Pet Care: Why We Check Blood Work Twice a Year

One of the more common conversations at Bethany Animal Hospital happens when a longtime patient crosses into their senior years and a client asks why we suddenly want to see them every six months instead of once a year. It's a fair question, and the answer comes down to how much can shift in an older pet's body in a shorter window of time.

Why Twice a Year Instead of Once

Adult dogs and cats get annual blood work at Bethany, which is enough to track a healthy, stable pet from year to year. Senior pets get that same blood work on a biannual schedule instead, twice a year rather than once, because organ function, weight, and general condition can change meaningfully in six months in a way they rarely do in a younger animal. Catching a shift early, while it's still small, gives us and you more options than finding it a year later.

What Changes as Pets Get Older

Aging looks different from pet to pet, but there are patterns we watch for across the senior dogs and cats we see. Joints get stiffer, especially after rest, and a dog who used to bound up the stairs might start taking them more carefully. Weight can drift up or down without an obvious cause, which is one of the simplest things a scale catches faster than an owner will notice at home. Appetite and thirst can change in either direction. Teeth and gums often need more attention than they did at five years old, since years of normal wear and tartar add up. None of this means something is seriously wrong, it just means a senior pet's body is doing more work to stay steady, and a wellness visit is where we take stock of all of it together instead of guessing from behavior alone.

What a Senior Wellness Visit at Bethany Includes

A senior preventive care exam gives us a full look at your pet, paired with the biannual blood work mentioned above. We're checking the same core organ function and blood values we'd check in a younger adult pet, just more often, so we have two data points a year to compare against instead of one. From there, our team can talk through nutritional counseling and weight management if either would help, since diet is one of the most useful tools we have for supporting an aging pet's comfort and mobility. We keep the conversation practical. Small, real adjustments tend to matter more than a long list of changes nobody can keep up with.

What to Bring to a Senior Visit

The most useful thing you can bring to a senior wellness visit isn't a specific test request, it's your own observations. Has your dog been slower on walks the last few weeks? Is your cat drinking more from the water bowl than she used to? Has anyone in the house noticed a new lump, a limp, or a change in the litter box? You know your pet's normal better than anyone, and those small details help us know where to look closely rather than running through a checklist with no context. If your pet is on any medication from us or elsewhere, having that list handy saves time too.

What Our Clients Tell Us

A client who recently brought in both of her senior cats as new patients wrote that our team was pleasant, welcoming, and thoughtful about minimizing stress for the animals, and that she appreciated Dr. Mason's approach to senior care, calling him supportive and respectful as she thought through her cats' future care options. That's the tone we aim for with every senior visit. These conversations can be a lot, and we'd rather walk through them with you than rush past them, whether that means talking through a new diagnosis, adjusting expectations around mobility, or simply figuring out what a comfortable routine looks like for a pet who's slowing down.

We've had the benefit of caring for some of our patients across most of their lives, which means a senior visit often isn't a first meeting, it's a continuation of a record we've been building for years. That history helps. Knowing what was normal for your dog at three and at seven makes it a lot easier to recognize what's genuinely new at eleven, instead of treating every visit as a blank slate.

If your dog or cat is heading into their senior years and you'd like to get them onto a twice yearly schedule, call us at (815) 239-6938. For a quick non urgent question or to text about scheduling, our text only number is (815) 991-4556.