BLOOD WORK AND YOUR PET

Pets can’t say how they’re feeling—it’s usually how they look or act that tells you something is wrong. Blood testing goes a step further, showing us the earliest signs of illness, often before your pet even seems to be sick. Testing gives us immediate insights that we might not otherwise discover. And treating your pet early can help with a better outcome and lower treatment costs, too.
Blood testing can frequently detect illness in your pet before we can see any outward signs of disease. Early detection means earlier prevention and treatment.
Testing healthy pets during wellness visits gives us your pet’s normal baseline values to compare to later.
We’ll routinely perform a complete blood chemistry panel. The chemistry panel tells us if your pet’s liver, kidneys and pancreas are healthy and performing as they should. We may recommend including a CBC, electrolytes, T4 and/or a urinalysis. The CBC tells us if there is infection, inflammation or anaemia. A urinalysis tells us if there’s infection or inflammation in the urinary tract—a common problem for pets of all ages. A T4 test provides information about your pet’s thyroid gland function. This is extremely important because thyroid disease is common in dogs and older cats.
With an onsite laboratory the immediate results allow immediate treatment. Blood testing takes only a few minutes and can save lives and costs in the long run. In-house blood testing lets you be more involved in your pet’s care, as you and your veterinarian can discuss the results right away. If they’re abnormal and we need to run more tests, there will be fewer trips back and forth. If the results are normal, your veterinarian can rule out certain diseases right away so you can worry less. And that’s better for you and your pet.
What is a Pre-anaesthetic screen and why is it important?
We perform this blood work the morning of your pet’s surgery, dentistry or other procedures that requires anaesthesia. If we have concerns after we see the test
results, we can reschedule the surgery for a day when your pet feels better. Or we can adjust the anaesthesia to be safer for your pet that day. You’ll need to fast your pet the night before for the most accurate test results. Testing the same day as surgery means your pet has to skip a meal only once and you need to make just one trip to the clinic. We know that’s easier for both of you!