Our In House Laboratory Services: Our IDEXX In House Laboratory System: This system allows us to do most blood diagnostics for our patients (even our exotic patients) in house and while you wait. This allows for faster turn around time and allows us to quickly diagnose your pet's problem. With this system we can test for common organ problems, such as liver, kidney, pancreas and electrolytes. We can test your pet for endocrine diseases such as diabetes, thyroid disease (hypo or hyperthyroidism), and adrenal diseases. Our clinic can also test for bleeding disorders be they congenital or brought on by exposure to poisons. This testing is essential for screening patients prior to extensive surgeries and biopsies.
Urinalysis and Urinary Tract Tests: Arbor Ridge Pet Clinic is capable of evaluating the kidney function, not only with blood work but also, importantly with being able to evaluate the urine. A complete urinalysis can be performed in house. This test tells the doctors many important things. It allows us to look for infection, crystals, glucose, and the specific gravity. If there is blood sugar present that is an indicator of diabetes. Crystals if present depending on the type can tell us if there are problems with the liver, a lot of blood cell breakdown, or if there is a possibility of uroliths or stones in the bladder or kidney. Specific gravity tells us if the animal can concentrate its urine which if it can not, is usually an earlier sign of kidney failure than the blood work is. If signs of infection are present we can perform a urine culture to see what organism is present and which antibiotic will best be suited to treat the infection. Further tests can be performed like a lepto titer to rule out leptospirosis if needed. If kidney function is a concern an in house urine protein creatinine ratio can be performed to see if there is protein losing nephropathy (kidneys leaking protein) present. Many people, doctors and clinics do not perform urinalysis evaluations enough and thus miss many signs that only urine examination can show. This is why the doctors at the Arbor Ridge Pet Clinic believe it is an important part of workups for our patients. |