Wellness Exams for Dogs and Cats in Huntington Beach

In a wellness visit, Dr. Lewis gives your pet a full head-to-tail exam, talks with you about what's changed at home, and builds a plan for vaccines or lab work around your pet's age and lifestyle. Abstract background with a thick, wavy orange curve on the left side against a light gray and pale blue backdrop. The modern design features smooth, flowing lines—perfect for a contemporary veterinarian or vet clinic brand. A blue silhouette of a palm tree with detailed fronds stands against a light gray background, offering a calm and soothing design perfect for any veterinarian’s office or vet clinic. A simple blue silhouette of a tall palm tree with a long curved trunk and a wide, leafy crown, set against a plain white background—a calm scene perfect for any veterinarian or vet-themed space.

If you're even thinking about booking a wellness exam, you're already doing right by your pet! That's what good preventative care looks like: showing up before anything's wrong. And if Dr. Lewis finds nothing at all, you still made the right call. A boring "everything looks great" is the best news he can give you, and it means you're staying ahead of your pet's health instead of chasing it.

A wellness visit is also your time to ask questions. If you've wondered about your pet's food, a supplement, a change in their behavior, or something you read online, this is a great time to bring it up: these routine visits are the perfect time to build a relationship with our team. If your pet ever has an emergency, Dr. Lewis will already know your pet’s baseline and what normal looks like.

Why a Wellness Exam Matters,
Even When Your Pet Seems Fine

Unlike people, who can say when something hurts, dogs and cats (especially cats!) are masters at hiding it. That's why your pet's wellness exam isn't the same as your own annual checkup. Since Dr. Lewis can't ask your pet if something hurts, he has to proactively look for the early signs of pain or illness himself. They're often more subtle than you'd expect—and hopefully, not there at all!

It's easy to look at a healthy, happy pet and wonder whether a checkup is worth the trip. But a pet can look completely fine when they're not, and your dog or cat can't tell you the difference. With a wellness exam and bloodwork, Dr. Lewis often spots the early signs of a health problem months before you'd notice anything at home.
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Wellness Exam
Across All Ages

A new puppy and a senior cat need very different things from a wellness visit. As your pet ages, Dr. Lewis adjusts the schedule, the vaccines, and what we focus on.

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Puppies and kittens

Having a new puppy or kitten is one of the most fun times as a pet owner! The first few months are when you set them up for a long, healthy life. You’ll bring them in every three to four weeks, from around 6 to 8 weeks old until they’re about 16 weeks. At each visit, Dr. Lewis does a physical exam, gives the next round of vaccines on a schedule he’ll walk through with you, handles deworming, and makes time for your questions, from nutrition counseling, to house-training, to socialization. These visits are also important for discussing recommendations personal to your pet, like spay and neuter timing or any breed-specific health conditions. By the end of the series, your pet has a full early vaccine record, a healthy baseline, and a good start on parasite prevention.

Bengal cat with green eyes resting on windowsill

Adult dogs and cats

Once your pet is grown, you’ll come in less often—but these visits are no less important. For adult dogs and cats, Dr. Lewis recommends a wellness exam every six months, along with bloodwork to check what he can’t find through the physical exam alone. Twice a year sounds like a lot, but pets age faster than we do, and a lot can change in twelve months. The best case scenario is that nothing dramatic comes out of these visits. When you show up for routine wellness visits year after year, you’re doing one of the most important things you can for your pet: proactively monitoring their health.

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Senior pets

By the time your pet is a senior, you start to see every earlier visit pay off. Dr. Lewis has years of baselines for your pet, he knows what’s normal for them, and you already know and trust him. You’ll lean on all of that now, because senior dogs and cats are the most likely to develop kidney disease, thyroid disease, high blood pressure, and arthritis, often without any obvious signs at home.

Dr. Lewis recommends a wellness visit every six months at this age. When he catches one of these conditions at the first abnormal lab value, rather than once your pet already feels unwell, you tend to have more treatment options. He adjusts senior wellness panels to look for common aging issues, like abnormal liver or thyroid values, and also includes blood-pressure-related markers for senior cats. If your pet is already managing a chronic condition or taking daily medication, he’ll walk through a plan with you to keep them aging well.

What Happens During a Wellness Visit at
Huntington Beach Pet Hospital?

Dr. Lewis runs a wellness visit in two parts: a hands-on physical exam in the room with you, and lab work to find what he can’t through the exam alone.

The Physical Exam

Pet owners often underestimate the hands-on part of the visit, and it's one of the most important things Dr. Lewis does. Because your cat or dog can't describe what they feel, he has to find it himself, with his hands.

He checks your pet from head to tail: weight and body condition, temperature, heart and lungs, the abdomen, mouth and teeth, eyes and ears, skin and coat, lymph nodes, and how your pet moves. A new lump, a bump that wasn't there last year, a stiff joint, or a muscle that's lost tone are all things Dr. Lewis can find by examining your pet. He talks through what he finds as he goes, including the ordinary "this looks the same as last year," which is also useful information.

Dr. Lewis finds dental disease often on a wellness exam, and it’s something many owners miss at home. If he sees teeth that need work, he'll show you what he's seeing and what he'd suggest. Nothing happens that day beyond the exam itself. We schedule a dental cleaning as its own visit, so you have time to ask questions and plan for it. A large owl wearing glasses sits on a tree branch, reading a red book about becoming a veterinarian. Green leaves and little light blue birds surround the owl against a pale background. A blue silhouette illustration of a palm tree with detailed, textured leaves, set against a plain white background—perfect wall art for a veterinarian or vet clinic waiting room. Five wavy, white, leaf-like shapes with subtle line details are arranged vertically on a light gray background, creating an abstract design that could appeal to a veterinarian or vet with its natural, calming feel. Blue line drawing of a palm tree with multiple fan-shaped leaves extending from long stems, shown on a plain white background—perfect wall art for any veterinarian or vet clinic seeking a calming touch. Kitten being weighed on scale at veterinary clinic Blue line art illustration of a spiky, bushy plant with long, slender leaves radiating outward in all directions, set against a light background—perfect for brightening up any vet or veterinarian's office.

The Wellness Panel

With bloodwork, Dr. Lewis can see a problem long before it becomes a symptom you’d notice at home. Our wellness panels start with bloodwork and, depending on what the two of you decide, can also include urine and fecal testing.

For a healthy adult pet, he uses the blood panel to check kidney and liver function, protein and blood sugar levels, and the red and white blood cell counts, and he runs a heartworm test. For senior pets, we’ll often add more liver values and a thyroid check. For senior cats, who are more prone to thyroid disease and high blood pressure, he always includes those.

Dr. Lewis can also run a urine test to check what he can’t see in bloodwork alone. This test helps spot watery, dilute urine, one of the earliest signs of kidney disease. He can also catch crystals that may lead to bladder stones, or a bladder infection, which female pets get more often. With a fecal test, he checks for intestinal parasites, which your pet can carry without visible symptoms until the parasites are well established.

Not every pet needs every test at every visit. Dr. Lewis bases his recommendations for lab work on your pet’s age, history, your priorities as an owner, and what he finds during the exam that day. French Bulldog in pink harness at veterinary clinic

Titer Testing

If you'd rather confirm your pet's existing immunity than vaccinate on a set schedule, Huntington Beach Pet Hospital offers titer testing. Owners often choose it when they want a more holistic approach, or when their pet has reacted to a vaccine in the past.  Beyond the core vaccines, Dr. Lewis builds other vaccines around your individual pet and their lifestyle. A dog who hikes, goes to daycare, swims at the beach, or travels faces different risks than a dog who's happiest at home on the couch. Cats are the same. An indoor-only cat needs less than a cat who goes outside, or one who lives in a home where the family fosters kittens. Dr. Lewis will walk through which vaccines your pet actually needs and which ones they can skip.

How We Decide Which
Vaccines Your Pet Needs

We know many pet owners often have questions about their cat or dog’s vaccines. If you want to space vaccines out, hold off on one, or talk through what your pet needs, Dr. Lewis wants that conversation. He's here to work with you, not against you.

We follow the vaccine guidelines published by the major veterinary universities, including UC Davis, and Dr. Lewis builds your pet's vaccine plan on that research at every visit. He gives an adult dog the distemper-parvo (DAP) vaccine once every three years, the interval the studies support. For senior pets, he'll talk with you about whether your pet still needs to continue certain vaccinations at all.
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Digital X-rays are one of the most common tools we use to help diagnose illness and injury. This form of diagnostic imaging allows us to evaluate bones, joints, the chest, and abdominal organs quickly and efficiently.

Pet X-rays are frequently recommended for dogs and cats that are limping, coughing, vomiting, showing signs of pain, or may have eaten something they should not have. They help us identify fractures, arthritis, intestinal blockages, heart enlargement, lung disease, and many other conditions.
 We never want cost to be the reason a pet goes without care. If you need to spread payments out, we offer financing through Cherry, along with other ways to pay. We're always glad to walk through the options we offer with you before anything is scheduled.

What Does a
Wellness Exam Cost?


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About Dr. Lewis &
Huntington Beach Pet Hospital

Dr. Lewis has practiced veterinary medicine for more than 20 years, and he's owned Huntington Beach Pet Hospital for more than a decade. He approaches a wellness visit the same way he approaches the rest of medicine. He examines your pet fully, talks with you directly about what's changing, and orders tests only when he has a specific question to answer.

Dr. Lewis owns the hospital and sets its protocols himself. No corporate office hands him a vaccine schedule, and no one makes him add services to a treatment plan. You leave with the plan Dr. Lewis would choose for his own pets.
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Frequently Asked Questions

A wellness exam at Huntington Beach Pet Hospital costs $74. What you pay beyond that depends on your dog’s age and additional services Dr. Lewis recommends. On our pricing page, you can see the exam fee and the cost of the most common wellness services, and we bundle the exam with blood, urine, and fecal testing into packages that cost less combined. If cost is a concern, we offer financing through Cherry and other ways to pay, so you can spread it out. Request a visit online or call the practice, and we’ll walk through the options before you book.

At a wellness exam, Dr. Lewis gives your dog a full head-to-tail physical exam and runs lab work to check what he can’t see by hand: blood, and when appropriate, urine and fecal testing. He has two goals. He confirms that your dog’s healthy, and he catches the early signal of a problem while it’s still easy to address.

During the physical exam, Dr. Lewis checks weight and body condition, temperature, heart and lungs, the abdomen, mouth and teeth, eyes and ears, skin and coat, lymph nodes, and how your dog moves. In the wellness panel for a healthy adult dog, he reviews kidney and liver function, protein and blood sugar, and the red and white blood cell counts, and he runs a heartworm screen. From a urine test, he learns about kidney concentration, crystals, and signs of a bladder infection. With a fecal test, he checks for intestinal parasites. For senior dogs, he expands the panel with added liver and thyroid values.

Your dog or cat needs more or fewer visits depending on their age and health. How often your dog or cat needs one depends on age. A puppy and kitten come in every few weeks during their vaccine series, while Dr. Lewis recommends that healthy adults and senior dogs and cats come in every six months. Dr. Lewis will recommend the right schedule for your specific pet.

Schedule a Wellness Exam

If your pet’s due for a wellness exam, or you’re moving over from another practice, we’d love to see them! Request a visit online or call us, and we’ll find a time that works for you.