Veterinarians may suggest specific tests when you take your furry friend for a checkup to treat and diagnose any health problems and ensure your pet is in its best health. Prevention is essential to maintain your pet’s well-being and prolonged life. Moreover, this helps reduce the total expense of pet parenting as you’re proactively preventing any onset of potential health conditions.
Regular wellness exams assist your vet in identifying any health problems early and ensure your pet receives the best care possible. So let’s talk about 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 conducted to help the vet determine any conditions that are brewing or developing inside your pet. Below are five common diagnostic tests often performed in facilities like the Animal Hospital of Redondo Beach and vet laboratories to determine and address pet health conditions.
1. Heartworm testing
Heartworm is an internal parasite that can’t be found through fecal examinations. This is because they live 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 canine is on heartworm prevention year-round, annual heartworm testing is still required to make sure the prevention program works.
2. Urinalysis
Through a urine analyzer, veterinarians evaluate the chemical and physical composition of the urine. A urinalysis provides necessary diagnostic info 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 crucial to diagnostic evaluations of health issues and essential to thorough preventive medicine programs. Routine pet examinations include urinalysis, CBC, thyroid hormone testing, and biochemistry profile.
3. Digital X-Rays
X-rays are important diagnostic tools in the medical diagnosis of pets. With the high-quality radiographs provided by modern digital vet x-ray devices, attending to diagnosing several pet disorders has now become much easier. To achieve the best possible image, most vet laboratories and facilities today have invested in state-of-the-art x-ray devices and fully trained specialists that produce the best image possible.
Through the modern digital x-ray systems, your referring vets can access these images or content 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 reviewed on an x-ray machine before a vet surgeon tackles their condition. You may check it out on the web to learn more about common pet surgeries.
4. Fecal examination
The veterinarian examines a pet’s feces under a microscope to find clues about health conditions that are causing pancreas disorders, internal bleeding, and problems with digestion. Most importantly, fecal exams look for signs of intestinal parasites like giardia, hookworm, roundworm, tapeworm, and whipworm. Tapeworm segments, adult worms, or larvae might also be observed in the procedure.
5. 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 leukemia, infections, 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.
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