A Pet Owner’s Guide on the Common Vet Diagnostic Procedures

Vets may suggest specific tests when you take your furry friend for a checkup to treat and identify any health problems and ensure your pet is in optimal health. Prevention is vital to maintain your pet’s well-being and prolonged life. Additionally, this helps reduce the overall expense of pet parenting as you’re proactively preventing any onset of potential health issues.

Routine wellness examinations assist your veterinarian in determining any health issues early and ensure your pet receives the best care possible. So let’s discuss the common diagnostic treatments performed in vet laboratories to help you be knowledgeable about keeping your pet healthy.

Top 5 Vet Diagnostic Services

Diagnostic tests are performed to help a Redondo Beach vet identify any illnesses that are brewing or developing inside your pet. Below are five common diagnostic tests veterinarians, veterinary technicians, or vet labs perform to identify and address pet health problems.

1. Fecal examination

The veterinarian examines a pet’s feces under a microscope to find signs of health issues that are causing pancreas disorders, internal bleeding, and difficulties with digestion. Most importantly, fecal exams 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.

2. Urinalysis

Through a urine analyzer, veterinarians evaluate the chemical and physical composition of the urine. A urinalysis provides important diagnostic info regarding conditions affecting the genital and urinary tracts and some severe health conditions like Cushing’s disease, liver disease, diabetes, and many more.

The urinalysis is crucial to diagnostic evaluations of health problems and essential to thorough preventive medicine programs. When you take your furry companion for a comprehensive physical pet checkup, expect urinalysis, CBC, thyroid hormone testing, and biochemistry profile to be done aside from assessing their general condition.

3. Digital X-Rays

X-rays are important diagnostic tools in the diagnosis of pets. Diagnosing several pet conditions has become much easier with the high-quality radiographs provided by modern digital veterinary x-ray devices. To achieve the best possible image, many vet laboratories and clinics today have invested in advanced 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 content or images anytime through the web, which promotes a smooth transition back to the referring veterinarian. X-ray is also vital in the field of veterinary surgery. Dogs that sprain a leg or break a bone are evaluated on an x-ray machine before a vet surgeon tackles their condition.

4. Complete Blood Count (CBC)

Frequently used to perform blood examinations like CBC, a hematology analyzer determines the number of platelets, white blood cells, and red blood cells in a blood sample. The numbers of each cell type provide helpful information to accurately diagnose infections, leukemia, and anemia. If your pet is currently under treatment for a health condition, a CBC helps your veterinarian monitor how well your pet is responding to the treatment.

You may browse the web for more details on vet diagnostic services like blood tests.

5. Heartworm testing

Heartworm is an internal parasite that can not be found through fecal exams. This is because they live in the blood arteries of the lungs and heart instead of 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.