103 – Essential Wellness ⭐

Background:

Essential Wellness includes an inflammation assessment with C-Reactive Protein (CRP) or Haptoglobin (HPT) and two of the most important essential vitamins: Vitamin D (25OHD) and Cobalamin (Vitamin B12).   Apparently healthy pets should not have systemic inflammation.  When present, source of inflammation should be identified and resolved if possible before it becomes chronic.  Chronic inflammation leads to the development of serious diseases including cancer.  Detect occult disease in the otherwise healthy looking pet using the single most effective test for overall health: CRP (dog) or HPT (cat).

Clinical Applications:

1. General Wellness (annual or biannual screening)
2. Apparently Healthy pets
3. Pets at high risk of inflammatory diseases
4. Pet Parents wanting to be proactive in detecting & managing disease

Recommendations:

Health screening using a sensitive inflammatory marker, CRP/HPT, should begin once the pet reaches an adult stage.  Annual testing while apparently healthy is the minimum recommended interval with bi-annual screening being the most effective way to detect the presence of occult disease.

Evaluating essential vitamin levels should start once the dog or cat reaches adult stages and establishes their adult diet.  Once diet has been stable for 3 months, test baseline vitamins and correct any insufficiencies with supplementation, or consider a diet change if values are considerably low.  VDI provides patient-specific dosing guidelines for both Vitamin D and B12.  Recheck intervals are every year once sufficient unless diet or health changes occur.