Working with animals can be quite a challenge since they are unable to verbalize what may be bothering them. While a physical examination is certainly an integral part of evaluating you pet’s health, the internal organs can have problems that can be present that may go undetected on a physical exam. Your pet’s blood contains cells, proteins, and enzymes that when evaluated individually and in relation to each other can indicate organ dysfunction, infection, hormonal imbalances, or inflammation

The benefit of testing your pet’s blood early in life, prior to the development of disease, is that it allows a normal baseline to be established to compare future test results with. Repeating testing every 6 months (which is comparable to 3 human years) allows for early detection of illness or disease. This can allow us to reverse or delay progression of disease and ultimately lead to a longer life for your companion.

An additional reason for blood testing would be prior to anesthesia to assure that your pet can easily metabolize all of the anesthetic drugs and/or to allow precautions to be taken to allow safer anesthetic procedures.