Preventative Care & Wellness

Because of the lifespan of your pets, we stress the importance of a tailored annual physical examination, or “well-pet” visit. Thorough check-ups and preventative care can detect and alleviate potentially serious health problems. As early detection is important, we offer several screening options with annual visits. We also strongly encourage all pets be spayed and neutered. This will decrease the likeliness of your pet running away and getting lost as well other health benefits to the pet.

We also recommend all pets be current with prescription strength flea, tick, heart worm, and intestinal parasite medications. Florida's tropical climate creates a higher risk for pets to contract parasites and we want to make sure your baby is covered!

Vaccinations:

Merrill Animal Clinic strongly encourages all puppies and kittens have a series of vaccinations based on their age. We make recommendations for adult pets based on the pet's lifestyle. Florida law requires all dogs and cats, 4 months of age or older must be vaccinated by a licensed veterinarian against rabies with a vaccine that is licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture for use in those species. An exempt animal must be vaccinated against rabies as soon as its health permits.

Microchips as Permanent identification:

Merrill Animal Clinic is pleased to announce we now offer the HomeAgain® Pet Recovery Service, a permanent, unalterable method of pet identification responsible for the successful reunion of more than 200,000 lost pets with their rightful owners.

To help control the pet population, cut down on disease and reduce the number of lost pets that euthanized because they cannot be properly identified, Merrill Animal Clinic recommends that pet owners follow a three step program of responsible pet care – spay/neuter, vaccinate and microchip.

HomeAgain is an advanced pet identification and retrieval system. A microchip with a unique identification code is implanted under the skin between the shoulders of the pet. The pet is enrolled in the HomeAgain Recovery Service. HomeAgain maintains a national database and is available 24-hours daily, 365 days a year. When a lost pet is found, it can be scanned at an animal shelter or the clinic of a participating veterinarian. The animal’s identification number is called into HomeAgain, and the pet owner is notified immediately.

Currently, more than two and a quarter million pets microchipped with HomeAgain are enrolled with the HomeAgain Pet Recovery Service. Today, pet recoveries as a result of the HomeAgain microchip have grown to an average of 7,000 per month in the U.S. and a successful recovery is now occurring approximately every six (6) minutes.

Pets enrolled in the recovery network also receive collar tags to wear with their HomeAgain identification number and the toll-free recovery hotline. The tags alone help identify lost pets, but tags/collars can easily come off. A microchip provides permanent identification that remains in place and functional for the life of the implanted animal.

The microchip is about the size of a grain of rice and you cannot see the microchip after it is implanted in the dog or cat. The procedure is simple and similar to administering a vaccine. The microchip comes preloaded in a sterile applicator and is injected under the skin between the shoulder blades. Extensive testing and long-term studies have shown the HomeAgain microchip is safe for pets.

The veterinarians at Merrill Animal Clinic urge that with microchip identification, a pet that is lost can be shown the way home. The case for having pets implanted with a microchip is a strong one, as the statistics show that microchipping is the best, most reliable method of permanently identifying pets.

The Home Again microchips can give your pet an additional source of identification in the unfortunate event they are lost and are useful if your pet is traveling outside the country. To microchip your pet, Merrill Animal Clinic injects a tiny computer chip - about the size of a grain of rice - just under your pet's skin between the shoulder blades. The number on the chip, along with your personal contact information, is then entered into a national database for easy retrieval. Microchips can be inserted at any time; it is highly recommended to do it at the time of spay/neuter. If your pet already has a microchip, we encourage you to make sure your information is up-to-date with your contact information. Contact us today to schedule your pet's microchip insertion.