Provided below is some useful information to briefly explain the importance of routine blood work
- Roughly 20% of outwardly healthy animals have an abnormality on routine blood work
- The kidney enzymes are elevated on blood work only after 75% of the renal tissue is permanently damaged
- Blood work values provide insight to how well your pet’s organs are functioning
- These include the kidney, liver, thyroid, adrenal glands and bone marrow
- Blood work may allow us to catch diseases early in the disease process. This can enable us to institute therapy to help reduce further organ damage and reduce the impact on your pet’s overall health
- Early disease detection is key – It is cheaper and easier to preventserious diseases than it is to treat them
- Performing blood work now allows us to have a baseline measurement of organ function at this point in your pet’s life so we may compare it to the future
- It will help us detect trends towards a certain disease
- It allows us to have a normal value for future comparison in the event that your pet becomes ill
- Just a few diseases or disorders routine blood work can help us detect include;
- Kidney and liver disease
- Hypo- or hyper-thyroidism
- Cushing’s or Addison’s disease
- Immune dysfunction
- Anemia, inflammation or infection
- Gastrointestinal disorders
- Urinary tract disorders
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