Preventative Health Care
TLC Health Check
An annual TLC Health Check is essential for keeping your pet healthy and happy. Regular visits help us detect early signs of illness, such as dental disease, ear infections, glaucoma, or skin growths, before they become serious. Since pets age faster than humans, yearly check-ups let us monitor changes, start treatment early, and maintain your pet in their best condition.
During the visit, your vet updates vaccinations, provides flea and worm treatments, discusses diet and behaviour, and answers any health concerns you may have.
Vaccinations
We offer a full range of pet vaccinations tailored to your pet’s needs, following World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) guidelines for optimal protection. Each vaccination appointment includes a thorough health check to ensure your pet is fit, healthy, and ready for their vaccines.
Worm Treatment for Cats & Kittens
Why do I need to worm my cat?
Regular Cat Worming
Regular worming protects your cat from roundworm, hookworm, and tapeworm. These parasites can cause vomiting, diarrhoea, and poor condition, especially in kittens. Treating preventatively is far more effective than waiting for signs of infestation.
Worming Schedule for Kittens
Kittens should receive worming treatments every two weeks until 12 weeks of age. After that, treat them every three months for life. Because tapeworms spread through fleas, controlling fleas is an important part of effective worm prevention.
Treatment Options
Worm treatments come as tablets or easy-to-use pour-ons. Some products also protect against fleas and ear mites. For advice on the best worming and flea control plan for your cat, contact us today.
Worm Treatment for Dogs & Puppies
Why do I need to worm my dog?
Regular Dog Worming
Regular worming keeps your dog healthy and protects your family from parasites. Dogs in New Zealand can get roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, and tapeworms. These parasites can cause vomiting, diarrhoea, weight loss, coughing, anaemia, and even death. Some worms can also infect humans, especially children, so routine treatment and good hygiene are essential.
Worming Schedule for Puppies and Dogs
Puppies should receive worming treatments every two weeks until 12 weeks old. After that, treat them every three months for life. Dogs that have contact with sheep should be wormed monthly to help control sheep measles.
Treatment Options
Worming options include tablets, chewable treats, and flea + worm combination treatments in pour-on form. Always consult your vet at Vet Marlborough, especially before treating pregnant dogs, to choose the safest and most effective worm prevention.
For the best worming and flea treatment plan for your dog, contact us today.
Worming Programme for Sheep Measles Protection
Vet Marlborough run worming programmes for working dogs and pets. For working dogs, the focus is on sheep measles, a parasite in sheep and goat meat that affects meat quality but isn’t a human health risk.
Once enrolled in the dog worming programme, you’ll receive a monthly dosing schedule and the required tablets for each dog. The tablets are posted at the start of each month to be administered on the 15th, ensuring a consistent parasite control routine. To enrol your working dogs in the sheep measles prevention programme or for more information on dog worming and parasite control, please contact Derryn on 577 9822 or enquire@vetmarlborough.co.nz.
Sheep measles is caused by the tapeworm Cysticercus ovis (Ovis), which forms cysts in the muscles of sheep and goats, downgrading meat quality. Dogs spread Ovis by eating infected sheep meat, passing eggs in their faeces onto pasture, which then infects grazing sheep and continues the cycle.
While Ovis does not make dogs, sheep, or humans sick, it renders meat unfit for consumption, and even one infected sheep can result in all carcasses from that farm being downgraded, causing significant financial loss. All dog owners in New Zealand whose dogs access sheep paddocks have a responsibility to keep their dogs free of Ovis through regular dog worming and sheep measles prevention.
Do not feed your dog raw sheep or goat meat and prevent them from scavenging carcasses. Freezing meat for at least 10 days or cooking it thoroughly kills the parasite.
Ovis eggs can be spread short distances by wind from dried dog faeces, so always pick up and safely dispose of your dog’s waste on walks. Regular dog worming is essential. Dogs that do not access sheep paddocks should be treated every three months with a multi-wormer for roundworm and tapeworm. Dogs that roam near sheep paddocks also need a monthly treatment containing Praziquantel to target tapeworms. Note that pour-on flea and worm products such as Revolution and Advocate do not kill tapeworm.
Any home slaughter of sheep or goats should occur in a dog-proof enclosure, and offal or dead stock disposal sites must be kept away from dogs. Meat fed to dogs should be either cooked or frozen to kill Ovis cysts.
Cooking: Heat meat to a core temperature of 72°C until fully brown to ensure cysts are destroyed.
Freezing: Freeze meat to -10°C or colder for at least 7 days, clearly label and date it, and check freezer temperatures regularly.
Alternatively, feed dogs commercial dog food, biscuits, or dog rolls, and always keep dogs under control to prevent scavenging and reduce the risk of sheep measles.
Flea Treatment for Dogs and Cats
Fleas are more than just a nuisance for dogs and cats. They cause severe skin irritation, especially in pets allergic to bites, and constant itching can drastically reduce a pet’s quality of life. Fleas also suck blood, which can lead to anaemia and even death in young kittens and puppies if left untreated. In addition, fleas transmit tapeworms and, in cats, Mycoplasma haemofelis, a parasite that causes severe anaemia. Regular flea control and prevention are essential to keep your pets healthy and safe.
Preventing fleas is far more effective than treating an existing infestation. By the time you see a flea on your pet, your home likely already has a full flea population, making treatment harder, more expensive, and leaving your pet to suffer unnecessarily. Fleas are difficult to spot, especially on dark or long-haired pets, and one flea likely indicates many more.
Most fleas in your home are hidden. Adult fleas on your pet represent only 5% of the population. The rest are eggs, larvae, and pupae in your environment. Female fleas can lay up to 50 eggs per day, and the life cycle from egg to adult takes 2-4 weeks. Pupae can remain dormant for months and hatch when they sense warmth, vibration, or carbon dioxide, meaning fleas can thrive in your home year-round.
Year-round preventative flea treatment is the safest, most effective way to protect your pet and your home.
To effectively prevent fleas and break their life-cycle, a flea treatment must kill all adult fleas on your pet within 24 hours, before they can lay eggs. It is crucial to treat all pets in the household simultaneously, and in heavy infestations, the environment may also need insecticide treatment.
The ideal treatment is fast-acting, long-lasting, easy to administer, and non-toxic for pets and humans. Not all flea products achieve this, especially those from non-veterinary outlets. Sprays, shampoos, and powders often have little residual activity, while some contain toxic ingredients like organophosphates or permethrin. Modern, effective options include pour-on treatments or chewable tablets, with some also protecting against worms, ticks, ear mites, or lice.
At Vet Marlborough, we stock only safe, high-performance flea treatments and provide professional advice to ensure the right product for your pet. Our knowledgeable staff can guide you in choosing the most effective flea and parasite prevention for your pet’s needs.