Blood really is life — it courses through our veins, arteries, and capillaries bringing nutrients and oxygen to vital organs, carrying platelets to heal and antibodies to fight infection (yay for health and keeping our blood where it belongs!), regulating body temperature, and so much more. Blood is vital to life and it also tells us a LOT about the internal health of our pets. So . . .
When do we recommend bloodwork?
- At a healthy pet visit — getting bloodwork at this stage gives your vet a “baseline” to understand your pet’s internal organ function and blood functionality. Although every pet is unique, there are still “normal” and “abnormal” ranges of blood functionality and organ functions that can be measured by analyzing your pet’s blood at a healthy vet visit. That way, if your pet ever becomes sick, we have your pet’s normal bloodwork analysis to compare it to.
- At a sick pet visit — if you call us when your pet is experiencing fever (usually noticed at home due to lethargy/lack of appetite), vomiting/diarrhea, excessive weight loss, excessive thirst, we typically will recommend bloodwork at your pet’s sick visit. Fever points to your pet fighting off infections, vomiting/diarrhea could mean possible organ function issues, excessive weight loss may mean your pet’s body is struggling to metabolize nutrients, and excessive thirst could mean any number of imbalances in your pet’s body chemistry. Our point being, analyzing your pet’s blood can map out internal abnormalities that help us diagnose various diseases and work toward healing your pet.
- Before Surgery — bloodwork can help your vet calculate the safest amount of anesthesia for your pet and can also help determine any abnormalities that may put your pet at risk during surgery.
Analyzing your pet’s blood helps your veterinarian not only diagnose various diseases when symptoms arise but also helps screen for issues that your pet may not outwardly show signs of yet. Our pets can’t tell us when and how they hurt. But their blood can speak for them.
To schedule your pet’s bloodwork analysis, simply call us at Huntcliff Veterinary Clinic in Clinton, MS (601-924-4549) for an appointment.
