AVMA, AAHA announce new preventive care guidelines as AVMA kicks off $5 million preventive care campaign

Schaumburg, Ill. —

— The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), along with the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) released new preventive care guidelines for dogs and cats today.

The new guidelines were developed in response to recent data that suggests a decline in veterinary visits at the same time preventable diseases in pets are increasing.AVMA says the new guidelines will provide veterinary practice teams with a new foundation for promoting preventive care.

“These new guidelines, which were created by veterinary experts brought together by the AVMA and AAHA, are the first of their kind and will be the foundation of the newly formed Partnership for Preventive Pet Healthcare,” says Dr. René Carlson, AVMA president. “The guidelines are extremely important because we know that fewer and fewer pet owners are bringing their cats and dogs in for regular preventive care. Experts agree that regular visits are essential in preventing health problems such as ear infections, dental disease and obesity.”

The Partnership for Preventive Pet Healthcare is a new initiative announced earlier this month by AVMA that aims to help advance economic health of the veterinary profession. Under the plan, AVMA will create a $5 million National Economic Strategy Reserve Fund and establish a Veterinary Economic Strategy Committee to advise and develop strategies on economic issues.

The new guidelines are designed to help the veterinary team emphasize the importance of preventive care to pet owners.

"We're seeing some evidence in some data sets of increasing disease prevalence, and these diseases are the kind of things that are very easily prevented," says Dr. Michael R. Moyer, AAHA president. "We know that we have tremendous value to offer our patients, but we have more to do as a profession to communicate that value, the importance of those preventive care visits and what we do during these visits, to pet owners."

The new guidelines can be found

here

.

Read more about AVMA’s new preventive healthcare initiative, as well as the new guidelines in the October issue of

DVM Newsmagazine

.