The Right Treatment Begins With the Right Diagnosis

Lab

Sometimes it’s not enough to physically examine your pet so that we can understand the extent of your pet’s health. Laboratory testing is one of the most essential tools that we have for diagnosing illnesses and problems with your pet’s health. When you bring in your pet for its yearly pet wellness appointment, tests for intestinal parasites are recommended, which includes a test for heartworm.

It’s also sometimes suggested that we do a CBC (complete blood count) as well as a serum chemistry panel regularly. We do this even on the pets that are healthy and young, so that we know what the normal values are for your cat or dog. This is going to provide baseline measurements and let us know when something changes. This helps us to monitor it and treat it quickly, if treatment is necessary.

If your pet needs surgery, we also will do a blood panel before we put them under anesthesia. This will help ensure that your pet’s organs are working well and that he or she is in good health and can be anesthetized safely. We have a laboratory right in the office, so that the tests are able to be accurately and quickly processed. This means that that there is no agonizing wait for the results; you will know them before the appointment is done.