Improving parasite compliance

Dr. Jay Stewart, owner of Aumsville Animal Clinic in Aumsville, Ore., and a CAPC member, offers these tips to help your clients bridge the gap between awareness and action.

• Start the conversation. Talk about parasite prevention during routine examinations or vaccinations. Allocate time to discuss regular fecal examinations and annual heartworm testing and to answer your clients' questions about prevention and treatment. Use this opportunity to recommend products and treatment schedules.

• Don't judge. Be careful not to assume that clients are at low risk for zoonoses—they may interact with immunocompromised individuals or young children. Instruct all clients about the importance of parasite prevention to protect their safety and that of their loved ones.

• Send reminders. You've got vaccination reminders down—now do the same for parasite control. Use your computer software to automatically generate a reminder when a client should be running out of an important product.

• Provide incentives. Consider promoting sales of six- or 12-month supplies of products to help defray the costs for clients and to encourage year-round treatment. It may surprise you how many clients will purchase larger quantities with the incentive of a discount—even a small one.

• Get the team on board. Make sure your entire healthcare team is consistent with the message being presented to clients, make sure the message is as simple as possible, and help ensure that clients realize the value of using you as the top information source for decisions about pet care.

Adapted from "Promoting the value of your veterinary expertise in parasite prevention," Pets, People, and Parasitology: A Supplement to Veterinary Medicine, March 2007, p. 30.