Drawing bloodwork, stool, urine, and other bodily fluids is not a strange thing for humans. We have done it for as long as history is recorded, and the signs and tells of your body could be readily displayed through these ways. The same goes for our pets: the importance of comprehending pets’ lab results is primacy in taking care of them. As our pets grow older, preventative measures taken as early as possible would be more beneficial than treating any injury or disease that might surface in the future.
Taking care of our beloved pets needs to extend beyond just simply feeding them and giving them homes; their health is also of utmost importance. As an example, taking lab tests may reveal what type of disease or illness your pet may be experiencing. That way, you could follow up with the proper decisions when it comes to treating such illnesses. You could also see what type of illnesses your pets are prone to and hence start the preventive measures right away.
Lastly, a routine checkup on bloodwork and other lab tests would ensure the health of your pet and track the progress of its condition. As you can see, there are many beneficial effects lab testing could do on your pets.
What type of tests gives what results?
As with us, there are different lab tests that your pet may take. Depending on the situation and the need, you could avail of a service best suited for your pet. For example, a complete blood count (CBC) is one of the more common lab tests you could get. In a CBC, your pet’s white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets are all accounted for. This gives a number of the three that may be used to cross-reference different health conditions, such as dehydration, joint inflammations, immune system conditions, and even the bone marrow health of your pets. A routine CBC is preferable since blood changes occur more frequently than other markers of health. However, the benefits outweigh the possible discomfort it may cause to your pets.
A urinalysis is very common in routine checkups on humans, as well as pets. Your urine is a liquid byproduct that contains traces of chemicals and minerals that have been circulating all over your body. The same goes for your pets, and taking a urinalysis for them may help reveal underlying complications. Exposure to toxic materials, decreased/improper kidney function, liver complications, infectious diseases, inflammatory issues, reproductive health problems, and even cancer are just some of the possible diseases veterinarians could detect whenever doing a urinalysis for your pets.
Rounding it up, a fecal analysis is another type of lab test that may be done on your pets. As another type of animal byproduct, the stool of your pets contains different materials and food traces that may also tell signs of a possible health condition. A fecal analysis could also reveal if your dogs, for example, have parasites and intestinal worms that are not visible to the naked eye. Since parasites are microscopic, they make their way into the digestive tracts of your pets, and the only way to reveal and identify them is through a fecal analysis. This is helpful because such worms and parasites could also be transmitted to the family that’s housing the pet. Moreover, this also allows for specific treatment methods that could help target different diseases that could be found within the body of your pet.
Lab results may be complicated. What to do, then?
It is entirely normal to have complicated, highly jargonized results that may not be as easy to interpret or comprehend by the layman. In this scenario, it is best advised for you to ask your veterinarian what the implications are with the test results. An advantage of this is that it could be done in a remote setting. Booking a virtual veterinarian could be your go-to in order to save yourself from the hustle, bustle, and hassle of booking an appointment just so that you could have somebody look at the test results.
