Pet Bloodwork & Diagnostics

Bloodwork

Bloodwork helps us assess and monitor the overall health of your pet’s internal organs and systems. We offer a full range of blood tests, from standard panels and profiles that assess a number of different values to specialized tests that focus on specific organ functions and conditions.

If the doctor thinks bloodwork will be helpful in your pet’s case, he or she will discuss this with you and draw the blood at the visit. We submit the blood to a national diagnostic laboratory for fast and accurate testing. We will reach out to you with the test results and our recommendations when the results are available, often within a day or two of your appointment.

Urine Testing

Urine testing can play an important role in evaluating the health of your pet.

Urine testing can help us determine whether there is a urinary tract infection and, if so, what specific antibiotics will best treat the infection. Signs of a urinary tract infection include frequent urination, a cat urinating outside of the litterbox, or a dog having urinary accidents in the house.

We also use urine testing to diagnose and monitor conditions such as kidney disease, diabetes, and cystitis (inflammation of the bladder).

We can obtain a sterile urine sample directly from your pet’s bladder. In that case, you should ensure your pet has a full bladder at the appointment. You can do this by keeping your dog in the house or blocking your cat’s access to the litterbox for 3-4 hours before the appointment. If your cat is sequestered in a bathroom, you should also take up any mats or rugs that might tempt your cat to urinate during this time.

Not all urine testing requires a sterile sample. For those tests, we can provide a kit for you to collect a sample and mail it back to us. The kit includes a vial for the sample and mailing supplies to return it to us. The kit for cats also includes a special non-absorbent litterbox sand so your cat can use the litterbox as usual, and you can still obtain the sample.

Fecal Evaluations

Let’s face it, it’s not the most pleasant topic, but your pet’s poop is important to their health. Pets can pick up intestinal parasites from playing with other pets, from wildlife outside, from a mouse in the basement, and even from ingesting a flea during grooming.

The best way to know if your pet has intestinal parasites is to run a fecal evaluation. The test we use is a sophisticated genetic analysis that looks for a number of parasites. It is able to identify the parasites, assess the severity of the infection and the risk of transmission to people, and report whether the parasite is resistant to certain treatments.

We recommend a comprehensive fecal evaluation for new pets (especially kittens and puppies), as well as for all pets who spend time outside, catch mice, or otherwise may have come across intestinal parasites or giardia. Once parasites have been identified and treated, we recommend re-testing after treatment to confirm the parasites have been eradicated.

Blood Pressure Monitoring

Just like people, pets can suffer from high blood pressure. Fortunately, we can treat your pet’s high blood pressure with medications, so it is important to test for and monitor blood pressure in pets who show signs of or have a history of high blood pressure.

We can check your pet’s blood pressure at home using a sophisticated digital blood pressure monitor designed specifically for animals. Stressful situations — like a trip to the animal hospital — can raise your pet’s blood pressure and make it hard to interpret the results, so it’s especially helpful to be able to do this testing at home, where your pet is more likely to be relaxed and where we’re more likely to get representative blood pressure readings.

Further Diagnostics

If your pet needs further diagnostics that we don’t provide at home, like x-rays, we will refer you to one of the referral hospitals in the area. We will provide the hospital with your pet’s record and coordinate the referral. After these tests are completed, we will work with you to understand the results and make a plan for your pet’s care.