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Preventing Disease in Your Pet
An annual or biannual physical exam is a great tool for evaluating the health of your pet, however there are some things that we cannot detect by feel or sound alone. Even when your pet looks healthy on the outside, there are several tests we can use to monitor the status of your pet's internal health. Tests like these are very similar to having your fasting blood sugar or cholesterol checked at your own annual physical examination. Fecal exam: This test allows us to check for signs of intestinal disease and parasites. We check the stool for blood, mucous, or abnormal color. We also look at it under the microscope to check for common internal parasites such as roundworms, hookworms, or tapeworms.
Heartworm test: This is an annual blood test to check for heartworms- both dogs and cats can be tested. Infected mosquitoes spread heartworm disease and indoor pets are at risk too (since mosquitoes can get into our homes).
Complete blood count and serum chemistry panel: Some diseases will not result in obvious symptoms until your pet is very sick. For this reason we test your pet's blood every year to detect and try to prevent disease as early as possible. We can tell if your pet is anemic (low red blood cell count) or fighting infection, screen for diabetes, as well as check to see if the liver and kidneys are functioning properly.
Urinalysis: Urine testing helps us to screen for kidney disease, bladder infection, diabetes, and even liver disease.
The combination of all of these tests, in addition to your pets physical examination, will help us to have the most complete picture of your pet's total health. If you have any questions regarding this information, any of the staff at Packerland will be happy to help.
