Wellness bloodwork, when performed as part of your pet’s routine exam, can help us diagnose and treat disease early, often times before symptoms are even present.
Curious about how we use bloodwork to diagnose your pets and keep them healthy? Read on!
Routine bloodwork on young and healthy pets serves as a baseline for bloodwork later in life. It allows us to closely monitor and track changes in your pet’s health and intervene before disease causes a problem.
What does bloodwork monitor? Bloodwork can help us monitor organ function, such as liver and kidney function and thyroid function. It can even help us monitor heart function. It helps us evaluate the immune system by measuring white and red blood cell counts.
What is typically included in wellness bloodwork? A typical panel will include a CBC (complete blood count), as well as a chemistry panel to evaluate organ function. In senior panels, we also include thyroid values in addition to a urine sample.
Wellness bloodwork is particularly important for cats. Cats are great at masking illness and owners may not realize that they are sick until disease is very advanced. Some of the most common things we screen older cats for are thyroid and kidney disease. Both diseases are easy to manage and treat if diagnosed early.
In feline panels we also include a marker called BNP. This helps us measure cardiac or heart function. Cats might show no obvious signs of heart disease and still be suffering from significant cardiac dysfunction. BNP is very useful tool to help us evaluate heart health in all ages of cats.
Still have questions about wellness bloodwork? Ask us what panels we offer at your next visit or call 860-669-5721 to schedule an appointment today.