Pre-anaesthetic blood testing is essentially a ‘safety check’ that can be performed before your pet is put under an anaesthetic.
This screening test can provide you with very important and useful information about your pet’s overall health and wellbeing. When it comes to your pet’s health status, what you see on the outside may not always correlate to what is going on internally.
What can pre-anaesthetic blood tests tell me about my pet?
• Kidney/renal function: This allows us to assess kidney function and hydration status. This is often paired with a physical examination and urinalysis.
• Liver/hepatic function: This gives us crucial information about the liver, gallbladder, and/or bile ducts. This can indicate to us whether there is inflammation, possible toxin exposure and certain endocrine disorders.
• Complete blood count (CBC): Provides information about red and white blood cells. This can reveal inflammation, infection or leukemia. We can also assess platelet numbers, of which low numbers can result in bleeding disorders or anaemia.
So, what is pre-anaesthetic blood testing? Will this alter my pet’s anaesthetic/surgery on the day?
This simply means we will take a blood sample, run certain tests and check specific values in your pet’s blood work before administering any anaesthetic or beginning surgery.
If results come back outside normal range, the veterinarian is then able to individualise an anaesthetic plan in order to keep your pet as safe as possible.
Pre-anaesthetic blood tests are a great way to get a baseline result for your pet when they are at optimum health, as this can provide a useful future reference in your pet’s medical care. If your pet is at optimal health then this is a good time to have a friendly chat with your vet nurse about how to maintain your pet at optimum health and aim to prevent any health issues from arising.
If abnormal findings are noted, a discussion with your veterinarian can be helpful in determining whether these results may actually be normal for your unique pet, or if there may be an underlying health issue that requires attention.
AnexaFVC Raglan now offers in-house blood testing, meaning we can have certain blood results back to you within an hour or two!
For more information, please contact one of our friendly nurses for a chat.
The Anexa Team
