Bloodwork gives us rapid and accurate information about your pet. The in-clinic laboratory at Martensville Veterinary Hospital can provide fast diagnostic answers for your pet. Our in house veterinary lab can test for liver, heart, kidney, thyroid and intestinal diseases. As well, this information can assist our veterinarians to diagnose medical problems such as: diabetes, infection, electrolyte imbalances, and dehydration. Our state of the art, digital laboratory can evaluate your pet’s ability to coagulate (clot) their blood should they get into a toxin such as warfarin or other rodenticide. A separate machine can be used to look at how well your pet is delivering oxygen and removing wastes. This is particularly useful in trauma, heart and lung disease and severe illness. We also have the ability to evaluate blood smears to look at the individual cells which make up your pets blood, and ensure that the cells appear normal in size, shape, and number.
Having bloodwork performed on your pet prior to having a procedure requiring anesthetic is recommended. The results of a pre-anesthetic blood test allow the veterinarians at Martensville Veterinary Hospital to determine which anesthetic agents are best for your pet on an individual basis and prepare for problems in advance. Although this bloodwork is often optional, we recommend it to ensure your pet has the safest procedure possible.
Bloodwork also helps us know what the best medication choice for your pet is, and if it is safe to refill this medication for weeks, a month or for a year. For example, there are many pain medication options and the most common and cost effective medication is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory. However, if your pet has kidney disease, it would be best to use these medications in very low amounts or use a different medication all together.
Other diagnostic lab services we offer at our small animal care clinic in Martensville includes cytology, urinalysis, fecal analysis and rapid ELISA tests.
Please call us if you have questions about bloodwork in your pet and check out our services page for more information about specific services available at our small animal care clinic in Martensville.