Laboratory
There
are too many laboratory procedures to mention. At Ark Animal Hospital we do
both in house testing and we also use a referral laboratory for the more
exotic tests for which it would not be practical to do in our hospital.
However in our hospital we do complete blood counts, and blood chemistries, as
well as heartworm testing, Lyme disease testing, erlichia testing, and feline
leukemia and feline immune deficiency testing. The serum chemistries are
essential for determining kidney disease, diabetes, liver disease, and they
are an aid in diagnosing other diseases affecting your pet. Note: check web
links for more information.
And so you can see that laboratory tests are used not only for diagnosis of disease, but to let us know the status of your pet before performing a surgery or utilizing a drug that may be toxic to a specific organ.
A
blood chemistry profile is an important piece of data to know about your pet.
It is a mandatory requirement in all dogs 7 years of age or older undergoing
surgery, and is necessary to help diagnose disease. However, it has real value
in knowing what is normal, or what is the status of your pet now so that we
have a data base to compare if your pet gets sick" . We believe in a well
pet screening, and if you call us and ask for a well pet screening, and say
that you asked for this as a result of reading this on our web site, we will
give you ten dollars off of its cost.