Laboratory Services
Our hospital has a fully equipped laboratory to quickly meet most routine and emergency needs. We routinely perform the following in-house tests:
Complete Blood Cell Counts (CBC): Our Lasercyte machine accurately measures your pets red and white blood cells, platelets and hemoglobin. This allows us to check for anemia, elevated white blood cell counts, or low platelets. In addition, our doctors can check blood smears under the microscope to further evaluate blood cells to confirm problems, evaluate shape, or to look for blood parasites.
Blood Chemistry: We can quickly run tests to help evaluate the major internal organs.
Electrolytes/Blood Gas: This machine allows us to quickly and accurately test your pet’s electrolytes, blood gas status and also ionized calcium. The electrolyte analyzer reports produce rapid results of the sodium, potassium, and chloride levels in the blood. These electrolytes are very important in muscle, heart, and nerve function. In some cases, abnormalities can require immediate treatment.
Urinalysis: performed in house, tests for blood, glucose and other abnormalities in the urine, also includes microscopic examination.
Fecal testing: includes a Giardia test, and microscopic examination of a direct and float sample to accurately diagnose intestinal parasites.
Heartworm testing: This is a combination test that provides rapid results for Heartworm, Lyme, Erlichia canis, and Anaplasma phagocytophilum (3 common tick-borne diseases) exposure and infections. These are potentially life-threatening infections for dogs. Fortunately, when diagnosed early most infections are easily treatable. We perform this test yearly on all of our canine patients as part of their routine wellness exams.
Feline leukemia/AIDs testing: This is a combination test that checks cats for both feline leukemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodefiency virus (FIV) infections. These are two common and life-threatening infections of cats. Kittens are generally tested to make sure that they didn’t acquire one of these diseases from their mother. Both of these infections are transmitted from direct contact such as bite wounds, this puts outdoor cats at risk for these diseases. There is an effective vaccine for FeLV; we test all cats before starting this vaccine.
Pancreatitis testing: Pancreatitis is an inflammation of the pancreas which causes anorexia, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. Pancreatitis can be difficult to diagnose n dogs, but this test allows us to better detect this painful inflammation in your pet.
Parvo testing: Parvo virus is an extremely serious virus affecting dogs. Between 25-50% of infected dogs can die even with aggressive treatment. This rapid test allows us to accurately diagnosis this disease and start immediate treatment. Fortunately, there is a very effective vaccine for this disease.
Vaginal Cytology: microscopic exam of a vaginal swab to help determine heat cycle staging in dogs. Also used in diagnosing certain reproductive disorders.
We also utilize several high-quality outside laboratories for any more complete analysis of your pets. This includes hormonal assays (thyroid, progesterone, etc.), advanced endocrine testing and pathology samples. Depending on the test, we often have results back in less than 24 hours.