• "Veterinarian wants to do many tests on my senior dog??? Is it REALLY necessary???? offered a health plan?!?"
SHOULD be:
• "My veterinarian wants to do many tests on my senior dog● Is it REALLY necessary? He offered me a health plan●"
You should also know that Y!A requires that the first field ENDS with your MAIN question, so actually, that line SHOULD be:
• "My veterinarian wants to do many tests on my senior dog, and offered me a health plan● Is it REALLY necessary?"
And your username should be Arial with a capital letter, not arial in all lower-case.
You NEED to realise that for many people in Y!A, English is only their 2nd or 3rd language, and so YOU must always CHECK and CORRECT your typing before posting it. Actually, I doubt that English is your natural language.
For the rest of your question I will place ❌ where-ever you started a NAME (such as Poodle, or I) or a sentence with a lower-case letter, or you neglected to use an apostrophe, or you left a word out - thus making it harder for us to understand what you MEANT. Sadly, Emoji is not yet sophisticated enough to supply apostrophes, commas, fullstops, quote-marks in red.
• "Hello, I have a 10 year old ❌poodle and he is my only dog I've had for this long! I took my dog in today for a skin/coat check because he has warts. The vet also said he wants to do a URINE, blood test, heart worm test, and a DDAP vaccine AS WELL AS a DENTAL EXAM... The dental exam requires blood and urine beforehand.. ❌he said if ❌i sign up for a wellness plan it is all covered... ❌the wellness plan is ❌540 a year... ❌is it really necessary to have all these things done???"
We have to ASSume that you meant au$540 or nz$540 or us$540 (each of which has a DIFFERENT value!) - but it COULD have been £540 or €540 or ƒ540 or R540 or ₹540 or ¥540 or kr540 or ₽540 - or some other currency. Please develop the habit of being AWARE that this is a BIG world with MANY currencies, and so you need to be SPECIFIC.
How do you expect US to know whether they are necessary? You haven't TOLD US your pet's BREED (there are FOUR "breeds" of Poodle, varying from 27cm/10½" to 62cm/24½"), and whether he is fertile or a neuter. You haven't even created an "About me" on your Home Page to tell us the YEAR you were born, your nearest CITY or TOWN (add the nation or state if other places use the same name), the things you reckon are interesting ABOUT you, and the topics that interest you most.
So WE cannot yet tell whether:
👸🏽1: a "urine test" is necessary at 10 years for a dog of whatever specific BREED you have;
👸🏽2: a "blood test" (WHICH test?) is necessary at 10 years old for a dog of whatever BREED you have;
👸🏽3: you live in "heartworm territory" (if so, it IS neccesary unless you have been supplying the protectant at the specified intervals);
👸🏽4: your "DDAP" means "Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs". If it does, their page is about CoViD-19: https://www.paproviders.org/secretary-letter-covid-19-vaccine-update/ - and so far CoronaVirus of ANY kind is so rare in dogs that I doubt that a CoViD vaccine has been developed for dogs. You MIGHT have noticed that the 14 or 15 months it took to produce the first CoViD vaccines for humans is amazing - vaccines USUALLY take 3 or more years to be developed and licenced as "SAFE TO USE". Mind you, the CoViD vaccine is VERY different to the killed or attenuated virus vaccines developed for other diseases.
👸🏽5: a "dental exam"(ination) is necessary. For very small breeds and giant breeds it probably is - but it is quick, the vet needing only to look at enamel & gum of each of the teeth (SHOULD be 42!) your dog has. But x-rays MIGHT be necessary.
• "I did have my dog do a dental exam 3 years ago, and hasn❌t had one since. My dog has never had a heart worm test/treatment before, so is that necessary??
[Amos] should NEVER have written:☠ "So if you have no concern over heartworms = THEN SKIP IT."She should KNOW that IGNORANT owners don't KNOW whether their pet has been bitten by a mosquito that is incubating the (Stage2? Stage 3?) larvae (there are NO heartworm carriers in my nation and I've forgotten which stage the larva is at when squirted intothe pooch that the mosquito is sucking blood from) - not until the adult worms are big enough to block the heart, and the dog passes out and dies.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP1JEpIwWZY
shows too much talk, and only brief parts of the surgery - but I got sick of sites that DEMANDED my password.I cannot predict what YOUR vet would charge for removing those young ADULT heartworms. But if your pet has ADULT heartworms it is NOT safe to use the "preventative". Nor is it safe to leave them alive, to soon be added to by juvenile heartworms becoming adult heartworms.I don't have to worry about heartworms, because the area of ocean between my nation and anywhere where heartworms exist is too long for a mosquito to fly across - and no dogs are allowed onto "my" country unless they have been dosed before leaving their country, so "my" mosqitoes can't swallow any Stage 1 larvae inthe blood of whatever it is biting, to soon pass on to different dogs.👸🏽 But unless you live in one of the few places where a vet can honestly say, "No heartworms in THIS district!", you DO need to know whether your 10-year old is safe to use a protectant on, OR is infested with adult heartworms that MUST be removed before you start using a protectant.
• "We've kept him up to date with vaccines"
WHICH vaccines? The CORE vaccine used at 8, 12, and 16 weeks old should last for life - and are the ONLY vaccinations my GSDs have needed unless they are to be flown to places such as the Americas, Asia, Australia, or Europe. If you are in "rabies territory" most of the world currently requires that the vet vaccinates and CERTIFICATES each pooch at 18 weeks old, 1 year later, and every 3 years after that - and YOU have to keep that certificate. But there are many other diseases for which vaccinations might be needed, depending on WHERE you chose to live.
• "but IDK do people usually get these tests/exams for their dogs???"
IMPOSSIBLE for us to tell - you haven't supplied the PRECISE INFORMATION we would need.
If you contact any of the licensed dog-rescue organisations (such as an SPCA) you will find that THEY almost ALWAYS have to vaccinate & neuter every pooch they accept or collect. Sadly, as there are no LAWS defining whether a person is able to AFFORD the feeding and fencing and kenneling and training and veterinary checks dogs need, and to BAN those persons neither COMPETENT nor WILLING to do those things, FAR too many pooches end up in highly unsatisfactory ownership & accommodation.
• "I also have a cat and she was recommended for a dental exam too but like ❌i thought having pets was low maintenance and only required shots for the most part... ❌i didn❌t have pets growing up"
Which COULD be why you have such unrealistic ideas about what is involved, and the INFORMATION you must supply when asking a question about any Canis lupus familiaris.
A pet costs about the same during its lifetime, regardless of where/who it came from and how long it lives for.
But...
✔️ The ones for which maintenance is low come from EXPERIENCED BREEDERS who CHARGE you part of what it cost them for: (1) the genetic testing to PROVE that their bìtch is very low risk for the hereditary disorders found in THAT breed; plus (2) the competitive showing to PROVE that their bìtch is typical of the correct members of their breed; plus (3) the training & competition to earn the qualifications that PROVE their bìtch has the agility + character + determination + instincts needed for that breed's tasks; and (4) paid the stud fee of a suitable male who also has those PROOFS - and preferably already has young adult offspring to PROVE that he produces offspring with his qualities and is very low risk for producing the genetic problems found in that breed. They usually have a printed & signed Guarantee stating what financial compensation you will receive if YOUR pet develops genetic problems within a specified time-frame.
😡 The ones whose PURCHASE price is low usually cost you HEAPS for medical attention at frequent intervals, and often have a sadly short lifespan.
• "Update: My dog has been going to the vet since he was ❌. ❌Puppy but I don’t remember ever doing any heart worm prevention or treatment s and well I was a teen when we got him but my mom was his owner and she was ❌Poor and we didn’t learn anything about pet care ... I think we did a urine test when he was showing signs of a uti and a blood test to see what was wrong with the uti but that was 4 years ago❌ I❌ll do dental but ❌542 is too expensive for a yearly plan ...❌what do ❌Poor people do???"
Suffer and die, of course, unless they - like me - have a free public health system paid for by past & current taxpayers. But demand is high, and so some people die before they can get an appointment in the hospital. I guess I should have made sure that I was born to RICH parents!
And POOR people's neglected untreated dogs suffer and die miserably.
King Les The Lofty - first pup in 1950, GSD trainer & breeder as of Easter 1968