Hall Veterinary Surgery - Screening Blood Tests

Screening Blood Tests

Hall Vet Surgery is able to offer a number of in house blood screening tests.

Preanaesthetic Screening
This blood test is most commonly run during the morning prior to the anaesthetic of an older pet. Pets that appear healthy based on their history and physical exam will usually have an uneventful anaesthetic procedure. However, the physical appearance of ‘health’ can be misleading and we can derive additional information through blood tests prior to anaesthesia. We recommend all pets older than 8 years have a pre-anaesthetic blood profile. This is to:

test for hidden diseases that affect your pet’s ability to tolerate an anaesthetic
help us choose the anaesthetic most suitable for your pet
tell us if certain internal organs are functioning correctly
provide a baseline for comparison in the future.

Natalie preparing a sample for the IDEXX machine

Pre-anaesthetic testing can identify liver or kidney disease and diabetes. It can also detect changes suspicious of cardiac disease and certain hormonal diseases such as thyroid and Cushings disease. If abnormal values are identified on pre-anaesthetic screening, we will contact you to discuss other options to best help your pet.

Pets with profoundly abnormal blood results may have their anaesthetic postponed due to potential risk and medical options discussed

Pets with less severe abnormalities may proceed with a surgery plan that is modified in the light of your pet’s condition. This could include changes to anaesthetic agents and pain relief medications and the addition of supportive fluid therapy.
We may recommend further blood tests for a suspected disease.

Screening tests can also be performed on younger pets if there are concerns of any disease processes.

If the results of pre-anaesthetic examination and blood testing are within normal ranges, we can proceed, knowing that the anaesthetic risk is minimized and chance of complications is reduced. This provides you and us with peace of mind.

GERIATRIC SCREENING
Tuppy is a member of the grey set These blood profiles on apparently well older animals give us more information about the health of an elderly pet by picking up certain diseases at an early stage. This gives us a better chance of managing these diseases and extending comfortable life.

Dietary changes using prescription diets as well as home cooked recipes can help animals in the early stages of many diseases including, kidney, liver and cardiac disease

Older pets need to be monitored particularly carefully if taking certain medications, which could potentially affect liver or kidney function. These include some medications for arthritis, epilepsy or anxiety. Where screening tests show abnormalities, we may suggest an altered dosage, a change of medication or explore other management options.

Next: Caring for your Older Cat or Dog

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Disclaimer: The information on this website is of a general nature only and in no way should replace a visit to the vet with your animal.
If your animal is unwell, please phone us for an appointment.

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