IN HOUSE PATHOLOGY - RAPID BLOOD ANALYSIS Finding the cause for a pet’s health problems can be challenging since pets cannot speak to us. Blood work gives us a better understanding of your pet’s health and provides vital information for any future medical needs.  The results of the blood work up assists us to adopt the best treatment plan and take the best possible care of your pet.   Whether your pet is in the hospital because of illness or requires surgery, Vet Central Animal Hospital can perform these tests immediately, thanks to our counter top point of care blood analysers. We can now have answers to your pet’s problems in minutes, rather than hours.This helps the team make crucial medical decisions and start treatment earlier. This type of diagnostic assessment is not only helpful with sick pets, but healthy animals can benefit as well. Wellness and Pre - anaesthetic blood tests gives us baseline values of your pet’s vital organ function and this is used as comparisons in later years to compare between normal and abnormal results. Early signs of many different illnesses will first show up in a blood profile, well before any clinical symptoms are noticed by the pet’s owner. Most pets mask their illness and subtle signs of illness can go undetected by even the most vigilant pet owners. The most common set of blood work usually involves a complete blood count (CBC) and a chemistry profile.  Depending on symptoms and the patient’s health status additional tests maybe added. CBCs are a measure of the different types and numbers of cells in the blood, both red and white cells. Chemistry profiles look at key enzymes and metabolic products to determine the health of internal organs .These include the liver, kidney, pancreas and electrolytes. Here are lists of some of the blood tests performed at Vet Central Animal Hospital; Pre-Anaesthetic Blood profile General Health Profile Heartworm antigen test Feline Immunodeficiency Virus test Feline Leukaemia tests Thyroid level monitoring ACTH stim tests for Cushing’s Glucose Curve for diabetic patients Routine histopathology and biopsies Swabs and cultures Faecal and urine analysis Some specific or special testing will still need to be sent to Veterinary reference laboratories. Our preferred reference laboratories are Vetnostics and IDEXX.