Veterinarians may suggest specific tests when you take your furry companion for a checkup to treat and diagnose any health conditions and ensure your pet is in its best health. Prevention is crucial to maintain your pet’s prolonged life and well-being. Moreover, this helps reduce the total expense of pet parenting as you’re proactively preventing any onset of potential health conditions.
Regular wellness examinations assist your vet in determining any health issues early and ensure your pet receives the best care possible. So let’s discuss the common diagnostic procedures performed in veterinary laboratories to help you be knowledgeable about keeping your pet healthy.
Commonly Used Vet Diagnostic Procedures
Diagnostic tests are performed to help the veterinarian determine any diseases that are brewing or developing inside your pet. Below are five common diagnostic tests veterinarians, veterinary technicians, or vet laboratories perform to determine and address pet health problems.
1. Complete Blood Count (CBC)
Commonly used to perform blood tests like CBC, a hematology analyzer measures the number of platelets, white blood cells, and red blood cells in a blood sample. The numbers of each cell type provide valuable information to accurately diagnose infections, leukemia, and anemia. If your pet is currently under treatment for a health condition, a CBC helps your vet monitor how well your pet is responding to the treatment.
You may see this page for detailed information on vet diagnostic services like blood tests.
2. Digital X-Rays
X-rays are essential diagnostic tools in the diagnosis of pets. With the high-quality radiographs provided by modern digital vet x-ray equipment, attending to diagnosing many pet disorders has now become easier. To achieve the best possible image, most vet labs and clinics today have invested in state-of-the-art x-ray equipment and fully trained technicians that produce the best image possible.
Through the modern digital x-ray systems, your referring veterinarians can access these images or content anytime through the internet, which promotes a smooth transition back to the referring veterinarian. X-ray is also essential in the field of professionals specializing in veterinary surgeries. Dogs that sprain a leg or break a bone are evaluated on an x-ray machine before a vet surgeon tackles their condition.
3. Urinalysis
Through a urine analyzer, veterinarians evaluate the chemical and physical composition of the urine. A urinalysis provides necessary diagnostic information regarding conditions affecting the genital and urinary tracts and some severe health conditions like Cushing’s disease, diabetes, liver disease, and many more.
The urinalysis is vital to diagnostic evaluations of health problems and essential to thorough preventive medicine programs. When you take your pet for a routine examination or vet checkup in Redondo Beach, CA, expect urinalysis, CBC, thyroid hormone testing, and biochemistry profile to be done apart from assessing their general condition.
4. Fecal examination
The veterinarian examines a pet’s feces under a microscope to look for clues about health conditions that are causing internal bleeding, pancreas disorders, and difficulties with digestion. Most importantly, fecal examinations look for signs of intestinal parasites like hookworm, giardia, roundworm, tapeworm, and whipworm. Tapeworm segments, adult worms, or larvae may also be observed in the procedure.
5. Heartworm testing
Heartworm is an internal parasite that can’t be found through fecal tests. This is because they reside in the blood arteries of the lungs and heart rather than the digestive system. An antigen test can detect heartworm proteins, called antigens, which are released in the dog’s bloodstream by adult female heartworms. Even if a dog is on heartworm prevention year-round, annual heartworm testing is still necessary to ensure the prevention program works.
