The importance of blood work.
Many of you have talked to us about doing screening blood work on your cats or dogs, whether that is at a yearly exam or before anesthesia. Why do we suggest or require this? Many diseases are very sneaky, and don’t show up on a physical exam. Routine blood work can help us discover these when there is still time to help. This is especially important before surgery, as anesthesia can make some diseases worse.
Meet Duke, a 12 year old beagle mix who came to see us for some stinky teeth. Duke had been doing well at home, and scheduled a dental cleaning. Before surgery, Duke had blood work run, which we always do at Milford Animal Hospital for older dogs and cats. The doctor quickly saw that Duke had a low number of red blood cells, and that he could not proceed with a regular teeth cleaning. After more testing it was found that Duke had a mass on his spleen!
Duke did end up having surgery that day, but instead of having his teeth cleaned he had his spleen removed.
Because of routine testing we were able to get Duke the treatment he needed, and now he is better than ever!
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