Understanding Dog Lab Work and Why It’s Important
For dogs, there are a couple of different classifications of lab work. I would say there's some routine annual screening that we do for pretty much any pet or dog that comes through the door on an annual basis. Usually, we recommend an annual heartworm and tick screening test along with fecal testing for intestinal parasites. If your dog is sick, we would tailor our recommendations for lab work to fit what's going on.
Sometimes that includes a CBC, which looks at red blood cell count, white blood cell count, and platelets. Sometimes we recommend chemistry, which is more of an internal organ function screen. There is also more specific blood work testing like thyroid testing and urinalysis. We can get pretty detailed and talk about some specific GI panels that would be fasted, but broadly it's if your pet is sick, we're going to probably recommend some lab work.
Even if they're well, we may recommend annual screening as well. Hopefully, all good news if it's more of a routine screen, but certainly, we do a lot of lab work to help guide our treatment plan or any kind of next steps or prognosis depending on what we find. Depending on what the testing is for, your veterinarian will go through what the results mean. Sometimes we get an answer, a diagnosis based on lab work alone. Sometimes that kind of info helps guide next steps for either further diagnostics, workup, or treatment plan. It's hard to say exactly what it's going to mean for your pet, but hopefully if it's good news, that's a nice normal baseline for your pet. Otherwise, it'll hopefully lead to the next step in the treatment plan.
Importance of Baseline Annual Screening
I do love baseline annual screening in pets, especially once they reach a certain age. I feel like a lot of the team here, we start talking about that annual baseline screen even if they're feeling well around middle age. That kind of depends on your dog's breed. Usually, we start talking around 7 years old. It's nice to have a baseline to know what their normal is because every dog, just like us, has a different normal value for certain parameters. Heaven forbid that something happens to your dog, we'd be able to compare previous normal lab work to where they're at that day to know what has changed and what is now abnormal for them, knowing they've come from a normal place.
What Lab Work for Dogs Can Reveal
What I can tell you again depends on what lab work you're running. Things we look at include internal organ function, evidence of dehydration, anemia. Some very specific lab work screens can look for changes to urine like a UTI, and fecal parasites in our fecal testing. We talked a little earlier that there are very specific lab work parameters that we can run if we're worried about a certain disease. Definitely reach out. I know myself, and I can probably speak for my colleagues as well, that we're usually really good about trying to help you navigate the results of all this lab work that you sometimes do because it can be confusing. Just reach out. Usually, if we haven't already fleshed out what these results mean, if you have follow-up questions, email us or call us. We're usually pretty open to discussing the details of your lab work results.
Cost Considerations of Dog Lab Work
It's hard to say because the cost of things changes over time. Unfortunately, we don't set the cost for a lot of the sendout lab work that we run at the lab. So that's a great question to ask in the room when you're with your veterinarian or your nursing staff to say, "Hey, what are we looking at financially for the lab work we want to run?" because things do change a little bit. We definitely go over every bit in detail to make sure you're comfortable with the plan.
In-House vs. Send-out Lab Work
That's a great question. We do run in-house lab work here. A lot of veterinary clinics do have that capacity, but not all. If the pet's really sick or we want to have a sense of what's going on sooner than sending blood out to the lab, we can run them in-house. We are a bit limited in what we can run in-house versus sending out to the lab, but we get a very good basic sense of what's going on with our in-house machines.
Blood Draw Process and Pet Comfort During Lab Work at City By The Sea Veterinary Hospital
I liken it to when we get our blood drawn. Everyone has their own personal threshold for what they can tolerate and how comfortable they are getting their blood drawn. Some pets are champs getting their blood drawn, hardly even noticing it, while some of them, just like us, can be a bit more sensitive to that poke to get that blood. It's very case by case. I previously had a personal dog that was very sensitive to getting his blood drawn. So, he would come in on some medications to help reduce stress, and then he would do well with lots of treats and positive reinforcement. We're usually pretty good here at picking up on those subtleties if they're nervous, especially for blood draws. A lot of pets don't like their legs touched, and that's usually where we obtain that blood sample. Let us know if you know that your pet is sensitive to that, and we can help work with you to get them set up with a plan, either food-wise or medication-wise, so that they're more comfortable for that little poke.
As far as expectations go for a blood draw, again depending on how much blood we need and how comfortable the pet is being restrained or having their leg touched, it typically takes a couple of team members and maybe even a treat feeder. We gently clean the area with a little bit of alcohol on their skin, then introduce the needle and obtain our sample. As mentioned earlier, oftentimes the blood draw is from one of their legs, but we do have a couple of other areas that we can obtain blood from if that site is not best for them.
At City By The Sea Veterinary Hospital, your pet is our priority. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call our team at (848) 217-5000, or you can email us at [email protected]. Our staff would love to talk with you!