In this blog post we’re going to talk about unlearning that health checkups equal health care.
Introduction: Rethinking Pet Healthcare
This is all about challenging conventional wisdom about pet health. We’ll be examining a fundamental misconception in pet healthcare.
Today, we’re tackling an important paradigm shift: the idea that routine health checkups automatically equate to comprehensive healthcare. This common belief has shaped how we approach pet wellness for decades, but it’s time to reconsider whether this approach truly delivers the preventative care our animal companions deserve.
Throughout this discussion, we’ll explore holistic alternatives and complementary approaches that can enhance your pet’s wellbeing beyond the standard veterinary visit. By questioning established practices, we open the door to more effective and natural ways to support our pets’ health.
Join me as we continue this journey of unlearning and rethinking what true healthcare means for our beloved animal companions.
The Reality of Health Checkups
“They’re really detection checkups. The check up is going try and determine if everything’s okay with your pet, but they’re not going prevent anything. Everybody has thought that when we do all of these different exams, whether it’s for human health or animal health, that this is for PREVENTION.“~Dr. Kim Bloomer
Let’s clarify what health checkups actually do. They’re going to check out and make sure everything’s okay with your pet, but here’s the important distinction – they’re really detection checkups, NOT prevention checkups.
This is perhaps one of the most misunderstood aspects of veterinary care. The interesting thing is that everybody has thought that when we do all of these different exams, whether for human health or animal health, that this is to prevent illness. This fundamental misconception shapes how we approach pet healthcare.
Annual wellness exams can certainly help detect markers of potential issues. They allow veterinarians to identify early warning signs of disease or health concerns before they become more serious problems. This early detection is valuable, but we need to be clear about what these checkups actually accomplish: they detect, they don’t prevent.
Understanding this distinction is crucial as we begin to rethink our approach to comprehensive pet healthcare. True prevention requires a different approach altogether, which we’ll explore in the following sections.
True Prevention Through Lifestyle
“The prevention is in the lifestyle; in how we’re caring for them, how we’re feeding them, how we’re nurturing their innate nature is really what we’re doing. So the very things that they’ll tell you in these health checkups that are supposed to be facilitating health care are actually facilitating the disease that we’re trying to avoid. Some examples would be the vaccines or the pesticides that are masquerading as prevention; e.g. flea and tick medication.“~Dr. Kim Bloomer
Annual checkups do serve a purpose if you’re doing them every year. They’ll alert you to any markers showing up that could indicate something happening with your pet. This early detection can be valuable in certain situations.
However, true prevention doesn’t come from these checkups. Real prevention comes through lifestyle – how we’re caring for our animal companions day in and day out. It’s found in how we’re feeding them, the environment we create for them, and perhaps most importantly, how we’re nurturing their innate nature.
This concept of nurturing their innate nature is at the core of holistic pet health. When we honor and support what animals are naturally designed to do and be, we create the foundation for genuine wellness.
What’s particularly concerning is that many of the standard recommendations given during these health checkups – interventions that are supposedly facilitating healthcare – may actually be facilitating the very diseases we’re trying to avoid. The conventional approach often introduces elements that work against an animal’s natural health mechanisms.
Some prominent examples of this counterproductive approach include vaccines and pesticides that are marketed as prevention, such as flea and tick medications. While presented as protective measures, these interventions will actually introduce substances that compromise your pet’s natural immune function and overall health.
By shifting our focus from detection to true prevention through lifestyle choices, we can build a foundation for our pets’ health that addresses the root causes of illness rather than simply looking for early signs of disease.
The Foundations of Natural Pet Health
“I know people are going to think that, well, that’s not very cool to say, Dr. Kim, because how else are we supposed to prevent these things? Again, it’s all through the lifestyle. You know, the nutrition, the exercise, the pure water, fresh air, sunshine, doing things in a balance, in temperance in other words, good rest, and then trusting in those laws of health to bring about the health in your animals.“~Dr. Kim Bloomer
I understand that questioning conventional prevention methods like vaccines and flea and tick medications might seem controversial. Many pet owners naturally wonder: “If we don’t rely on these standard interventions, how are we supposed to prevent health problems in our pets?“
The answer lies in something remarkably simple yet profoundly effective: lifestyle. True prevention comes through creating the right conditions for your animal’s natural health to flourish.
Let’s break down these foundational elements of natural pet health…
Nutrition
Proper nutrition forms the cornerstone of your pet’s health. This means providing species-appropriate raw food that nourishes rather than merely fills. When animals receive the nutrients their bodies are designed to process, their immune systems function optimally, creating natural resistance to disease.
Exercise
Regular physical activity isn’t just about maintaining a healthy weight—it stimulates circulation, supports joint health, and provides mental stimulation. Exercise appropriate to your pet’s species, breed, age, and individual needs helps maintain their natural vitality.
Pure Water
Clean, fresh water is essential for every bodily function. Ensuring your pet has constant access to filtered water free from contaminants supports their overall health and helps their body naturally eliminate toxins.
Fresh Air and Sunshine
These elements might seem too simple to be significant, but they’re vital components of wellness. Natural sunlight helps humans synthesize vitamin D. However, our carnivore pets such as dogs and cats do not obtain vitamin D through anything other than their natural raw diet. The sunlight serves another purpose for them. Do your research so you can learn further. The frequencies from the sun are very valuable to ALL life on planet earth! Additionally, the sunlight supports their natural circadian rhythms, while fresh air provides oxygen and reduces exposure to indoor pollutants.
Balance and Moderation
Temperance—doing things in balance and moderation—applies to all aspects of pet care. This means avoiding extremes in diet, exercise, and other lifestyle factors. Even beneficial practices can become harmful when taken to excess.
Proper Rest
Quality sleep and adequate rest periods allow your pet’s body to repair and regenerate. Creating a comfortable, quiet space for your animal to rest is an often overlooked but crucial element of health maintenance.
When you consistently provide these fundamental elements of health, you’re creating an environment where your pet’s body can function as nature intended. Rather than constantly fighting against disease with external interventions, you’re building health from within.
The beauty of this approach is its simplicity. These natural laws of health work together synergistically, strengthening your pet’s inherent ability to maintain wellness. By trusting in these foundational principles, you’re supporting your animal’s body in doing what it naturally knows how to do—maintain balance and health.
This doesn’t mean abandoning all conventional veterinary care, but rather shifting the focus from reactive treatments and questionable preventatives to proactive lifestyle management that truly prevents disease at its source.
Modern Challenges to Pet Wellness
“Nowadays, so much wrong has been done to the food, air, and the water and everything else for that matter, so that even when we’re doing everything right, our animals can present with imbalances no matter what we’re doing. I’ve never seen anything like this before in the twenty-one years I’ve been involved in natural, whole health. I think we really want to honor the animals according to their needs and their nature.“~Dr. Kim Bloomer
Despite our best efforts in implementing natural health practices, we’re facing unprecedented challenges in maintaining our pets’ wellness. The reality is that the environment in which our animals live has changed dramatically, often in ways that work against their natural health systems.
Even when we’re doing everything right—providing appropriate nutrition, exercise, clean water, and all the other foundations of natural health—our pets can still develop health issues. This is because so much has been done wrong to the food, the air, the water, and virtually every aspect of our environment. These pervasive environmental challenges create a situation where even the most conscientious pet owners may see their animals struggle with health issues.
In my twenty-one years in natural health, I’ve never seen anything like what we’re experiencing nowadays. The compounding effects of environmental toxins, processed pet foods, electromagnetic radiation, and other modern exposures are creating health challenges that weren’t common even a decade ago. This isn’t meant to discourage you, but rather to acknowledge the reality we’re facing so we can adapt our approach accordingly.
Despite these challenges, the solution isn’t to abandon natural health principles and return to conventional methods. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Now more than ever, we need to honor the animals according to their needs and their nature. By doubling down on species-appropriate care, we can help our pets build resilience against these environmental challenges.
While we may not be able to guarantee longevity in today’s world, we can focus on providing quality of life. By continuing to honor our pets’ natural needs, we can ensure they experience wellness, comfort, and joy throughout their lives, even if we can’t control all external factors. This focus on quality over mere quantity of life embodies the true essence of holistic pet care.
The path forward isn’t to give up in the face of these challenges, but to become even more committed to providing the foundations of natural health while acknowledging the limitations of our current environment. By doing so, we give our animal companions the best possible chance at thriving despite the modern obstacles to wellness.
Conclusion: A Better Path Forward
“I wouldn’t go back to doing anything in the conventional fashion for my own animals. I just haven’t seen anything good coming out of our broken health care system. It’s really a disease management system at best, if not creation.” ~Dr. Kim Bloomer
After everything we’ve discussed here today about natural pet health, I want to share my personal commitment to these principles. I wouldn’t go back to doing anything in the conventional fashion for my own animals. So, other than a true, needed emergency, I’ve found that even the diagnostics these days are less than stellar.
I’ve simply not seen anything good coming out of this whole broken healthcare system. What we commonly call “healthcare” is really a disease management system at best, if not actually creating the very problems it claims to solve. This perspective comes from years of observation and practice, seeing the outcomes of both conventional and natural approaches. One caveat here that I will concede on is that emergency care is still very much needed and appreciated. My encounters with emergency care in both human and animal health is where I’ve seen conventional care shine as it was designed to do. However, true HEALTH is obtained very differently than what is offered in conventional medicine.
Quite simply, health checkups do not equal healthcare. True healthcare requires addressing the foundational elements of health through lifestyle—nutrition, exercise, clean water, fresh air, sunshine, and proper rest.
Thank you for joining me in this basic overview of true pet wellness. By questioning conventional wisdom and returning to natural principles, we can create a better path forward for the animals who depend on us.
Here is some additional information on human health you may want to go through and glean – this is all true for our animals as well:
How Big Ag & Big Pharma Keep You Sick
Until next time…
Have a PAWSitively, tail waggin’, NATUROPATHICALLY healthy day!
Kim Bloomer, V.N.D., N.D. is an animal naturopath as well as being certified in small animal nutrition, with years of experience in animal wellness. Dr. Kim is a published author, writer, and blogger. Subscribe to her DOGgone Newsletter for updates or to her blog via email. Copyright ©2005-2025 Aspenbloom Pet Care, Dr. Kim Bloomer, All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the Author/Publisher. This article is intended to be educational. However, it is not intended to be a substitute for diagnosis or treatment from a qualified animal health professional. Dr. Kim Bloomer and Aspenbloom Pet Care, do not assume any legal responsibility for misuse of the products discussed in this article. The only essential oils referenced on this website are Young Living.
