When it comes to parasite prevention, veterinary teams everywhere know that year-round protection is key. But the idea that it’s not necessary for “indoor only” pets or that it’s only important in the spring and summer persists among many pet owners.
So how does your team help pet owners understand the importance of parasite protection every day of the year? Keep reading for tried-and-true strategies that will make a difference.
Prepare your practice with data
Pet owners are often unfamiliar with the prevalence of parasites, even in their own backyards. So the CAPC parasite prevalence maps are a great place to start. These interactive maps show prevalence and positive case data for heartworm, intestinal parasites, tick-borne diseases, and viral diseases for each state, as far back as 2012. You can even drill down into the data by pet species and your local county.
Even when clients understand the importance of prevention, there’s still a lot of misinformation out there about when fleas and ticks or other parasites are active. Many people mistakenly believe that these pests are an issue only in cold temperatures, with the oft-cited 50 degrees for mosquitos and 45 degrees for fleas and ticks. You can counter the “first frost fallacy” with local weather data to see just how many days were below 50 degrees even in cold seasons to show the breakthrough potential.
Share the data with clients:
- Print the CAPC parasite prevalence map for your county, add local weather data for your town, and place in your exam rooms to encourage discussion.
- If you have dog-only or cat-only rooms, customize the data by species for stronger impact.
- Consider setting a reminder to update these monthly or quarterly to show the most current data.
Focus on client education to keep pets protected
Client education should be ongoing, not just a one-and-done effort. By building prevention education into everyday conversations and communication, you’ll reinforce the message with pet owners.
- Use automated reminders for preventative refills, fecal testing, etc. to help clients stay on track.
- Take advantage of your practice’s social media to reach more pet owners online.
- Vetsource customers get access to free practice-branded client education videos, including one on prevention. Visit your Practice Toolkit to sign up or talk to your account manager.
- Consider creating a resource for the front desk that shows the cost of prevention vs. the cost of treatment.
- Post current parasiticide promotions available in your online store (find these in your Practice Toolkit) at the front desk, and show pet owners how to use them.
- Talk to clients about manufacturer guarantees: “Did you know that if Dolly is on vet-purchased prevention and contracts a parasite, the manufacturer will help pay for the treatment?”
Address year-round protection beyond seasonal data
Sometimes data alone isn’t enough to move people to action. Offer your clients additional reasons why year-round protection is best for their pet:
- It’s easier to stick to a monthly habit than trying to pick it back up again. Doing it every month means there’s less risk of starting “too late in the season” or missing doses.
- Intestinal parasites are not just a risk for pets — human family members can also contract these parasites year-round if pets in the home aren’t protected.
- Fleas can live indoors throughout the entire year, as long as the temperature in your home is above 45 degrees.
- To get the manufacturer guarantee for most preventatives, your pet needs to be protected year-round.
Get the whole team on board with parasite prevention
Improving parasite protection for your patients is a team effort, from the front desk staff to the DVMs. Dedicating time to focus on training and resources reinforces the importance of year-round prevention for everyone. Your team will find it easier to initiate prevention conversations with confidence when they’ve got resources and training to call on.
Give your team tools and strategies for talking with clients about prevention
- Set aside a staff training to go over the CAPC guidelines so everyone is on the same page. If needed, adjust your protocols to align with the guidelines.
- You can also use your Pharmacy Dashboard to get insights on compliance rates and benchmark your practice against state and national trends.
- Take advantage of vendor relationships:
- Call in your preferred preventative vendor to go over their products and conduct a lunch and learn with your staff. Make sure to ask about their manufacturer guarantee so everyone knows.
- Schedule time with your Vetsource rep to go over your practice’s data and spot opportunities to improve parasite protection — and ask about a custom staff training on the prevention tools available with your Vetsource solutions.
- Encourage staff to reframe how they talk about preventatives
- Avoid saying: “Do you want to buy heartworm today?”
- Start saying: “I see the last time we have a record of your prevention purchase was in December so it looks like Boogie needs a refill. Do you want to get that today in the clinic or have us send you a recommendation to purchase on our online store?”
- Send recommendation emails while clients are in the building and ask if they got it. That way, if there are any issues with receiving or knowing what to do with it, you can help them before they leave.
- For budget-conscious pet owners, offer purchasing in smaller amounts with RemindMeSM and AutoShip. Breaking the cost down from one big purchase for 6 or 12 months to smaller, monthly amounts can be a game-changer.
- “To make sure Brutus is protected against local risks like heartworm and Lyme year-round, we created a parasite protection plan for him. We can set this up so it arrives at your door every 30 days — that way it spreads the cost out so you’re only paying about $25 a month instead of $250 today.”
Consistent year-round parasite prevention is the key
Ultimately, improving year-round parasite prevention is a winning strategy for everyone: it keeps pets protected and provides peace of mind for pet owners. By using resources like the CAPC parasite prevalence maps, reframing your team’s conversation around refills, leveraging programs like AutoShip and RemindMe, and educating clients on manufacturer guarantees, you can ensure your patients are protected.
The key is consistency — reinforcing the message that prevention is a 365-day commitment, just like all other aspects of pet health.
