How do you get blood on my pet?
It's not that dissimilar to how we draw blood on people. The biggest difference is it depends on the size of the pet which vein we use. On some of them, we're going to use their jugular vein in their neck because it's a little larger size, it's a little easier, and actually there's just more tissue there, so it's less sensitive than from their little leg. In some of our larger dogs, or if we only need a small sample like for a heartworm test, we may use their front leg.
Dr. Leigh Samanowitz
University Animal Clinic
Is bloodwork painful for my dog?
Not typically. You know, if you'd ask some people, they'd feel like getting their blood drawn is not painful. And for others, like my husband who's not great for blood draws, it's probably the worst thing in the world. But no, not typically. It's usually one little pinprick just like us, so typically it is not excessively painful.
How is this safe for a dog to ensure that everything is done safely?
We use as little restraint as possible, so we'll use lots of treats if possible, cheese, peanut butter, all the good things if we can, to have them be as still as possible with very light restraint, kind of like a hug from our technician. Sometimes they need a little bit more restraint than others, or sometimes we may ask for them to either be on a medication before they come if they don't like to be here, or sometimes we need sedation. But we try to make sure that it is done as safely as possible with as little fear from your pet as possible.
How soon will I receive the results?
Now that all depends on what test we're doing. For our basic tests, like a fecal test, kind of a general blood panel, we often get those back within 48 hours. But some of the more involved tests, a culture per se, things like that can take longer, maybe 3-5 days or even up to a week or two depending on what the test is. If you're not sure when you're getting a blood test of any kind, just ask. We either know or can look up on the lab's website how long a test is going to take for us to get the results back for you.
Does my senior dog really need lab work?
Yes, it is absolutely important that any pet, but especially our older pets, get lab work, especially as they age each year. One year for a dog is like 5-7 years for us, so a lot can change in a short period of time. In younger pets, we may recommend blood work, and we recommend that as a baseline. Everybody's normals are different. So we have the lab's kind of classic normals of what they say a normal pet on their studies that they test hundreds of pets should be, but everybody's a little different. Your pet’s may be just a little bit elevated or a little low, and that's their normal. But if we don't get a lab sample when they're healthy and check it periodically throughout their life, we won't know what their normal is to compare if they get sick. It's also always good to know a timeline of when things happen. So if our pets are older and we do blood work and there's an abnormality, if we haven't been checking every year or every so often, we won't know how long that's been going on. Did this just happen? And we know we gave this treat that was irregular or something happened, or has this been going on for over a year or two? We won't know if we don't have that annual blood work every year.
What types of bloodwork does my dog need?
It just depends on your pet. We generally, for our kind of annual blood work every year, will recommend a panel that includes a chemistry panel that checks their liver, kidney values, proteins, glucose, cholesterol, very similar to what you may get every year, as well as their white and red blood cells. It will also include urine and a thyroid typically. But there are larger panels and smaller panels. So we can very much customize it to what we think that pet may need.
Will my pet need follow-up blood work?
It just depends on what we find. If we find abnormalities, liver or kidney abnormalities, we may recommend that we try a treatment and then recheck in a few weeks. If everything looks great, then we'll typically recommend annual blood work again so that we can catch things before you see symptoms. And that's the whole name of the game for a lot of this is, we want to try to find a problem in your pet if we can, before you see symptoms, because it is so much easier to treat, so much more cost-effective and safe for your pet if we can catch problems before they have extreme symptoms at home that caution you to bring them in. So we want to catch them as early as possible because that's when they're going to be at their most treatable.
If you still have other questions and you'd like to reach out to us, you can call us directly at (941) 253-5218, or you can email us at staff@uacvet.com. But please do reach out, and we'll get back to you as fast as we can. Don't forget to follow us on social media Facebook, Instagram