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By Emily

September 18th, 2014

*Banfield Pet Hospital provided me with the Banfield Optimum Wellness Plan & 6 month Proheart treatment. All opinions are my own.

When we had pets growing up, caring for them seemed so simple. Give them food everyday, make sure they have a constant source of water, let them outside a few times a day and if they get sick or hurt take them to the vet. My pugs Frank & Beans were the first dogs that I ever had as an adult on my own. I did a fair amount of research about pugs prior to getting them because I knew they were a unique breed. It didn’t really occur to me to research dog care in general because I thought I knew enough.

One thing I wasn’t aware of was the importance of protecting dogs against heartworm. Dogs get heartworm disease through mosquitos that are infected with the disease. They can actually get the disease from a single bite and heartworm is a serious issue for dogs and can even be fatal. Preventing heartworm can be as simple as having a ProHeart® injection given to your dog at the vet once every six months. (Hint – there is a giveaway at the bottom of this blog post for a 6 month ProHeart® injection treatment plus a free vet office visit to have it done!)

Banfield Pet Hospitals are found inside of Petsmart locations across the country. I live in a rural area and there are two Banfield pet hospitals within reasonable driving distance from my home. Banfield Pet Hospitals strongly encourage prevention for all aspects of pet care. We recently signed Beans up for the Banfield Pet Hospital Optimum Wellness Plan®. The plan pricing can vary based on your pets age and other factors but for my 11 year old Pug it was about $300 for a year plan. This covers a comprehensive physical exam twice a year, vaccinations, diagnostic testing, 2 fecal exams, 2 dewormings, unlimited free office visits for the year and discounts on other services. We took Beans in for her first comprehensive physical exam and they looked her over from snout to tail. She was caught up on her vaccinations, given blood tests, checked for parasites and more. We had a few questions during the process and the staff was really friendly and helpful at answering our questions and explaining everything to us the entire time. Beans’ tests all came back as we’d hoped and it was great to walk out of there knowing that my senior pug was completely healthy. While looking at Beans’ ears the vet noticed some build up so they did an ear swab (covered under the plan) and we learned that Beans had an ear infection. As a result, she needed an ear-cleaning and to be put on medication. These weren’t covered under the plan but the vet was sure to point out to us that it would be out of pocket if we moved forward, there was no confusion about what was and wasn’t covered under the plan. I felt that Beans was well cared for the entire time. I also liked how they had a dish of water ready for Beans – it’s a small thing but in the past at my old vet I would have to request water for her.

Banfield pet hospital review

There’s no way of knowing what is in your pets future regardless of their age, but I love knowing that if I begin to suspect that Beans isn’t feeling 100% I’ll be able to take her in without worrying about having the cash to pay for the office visit because it will be free. Plus, if it turns out to be nothing I haven’t wasted my money. I have no doubt that we’ll be getting our $300 a year out of the plan.

Banfield pet hospital review

Banfield is going to donate $1 for every comment left on this blog post up to 100 comments. The donations will be made to Banfield Charitable Trust, a donor-supported non-profit. The BCT mission is to keep pets with their owners who love them in an attempt to preserve the animal-human bond. BCT helps 100,000 families per year through seven different programs that assist with needs like life-saving emergency care and assistance with pet food and other urgent pet care needs. 

Banfield Pet Hospitals are found inside of Petsmart locations – check for a location near you here. I recommend putting in your zip code instead of just your state as searching for my state didn’t bring up all of the locations in my state.

Banfield wants you to be proactive about your dogs’ health. They are sponsoring a giveaway for a free office visit at any Banfield hospital that will include a free heartworm test and an injection of ProHeart® that will protect your dog against heartworm for 6 months. Enter below. Giveaway ends 9/26/2014.

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