Accurate diagnostics for your pet’s health
Our new practice space on Depot Street in Enosburg Falls allows us the space to offer several in-office diagnostic tools to aid in preventative screening and medical diagnosis. We also have partnerships with area diagnostic laboratories (Idexx, University of New Hampshire, Cornell University, University of Minnesota, Texas A&M University, and Miravista Laboratories) for services and more in depth tests that we are not able to offer.
Digital radiography
EVC is happy to offer digital radiography. This technology allows us to take high quality images of the skeletal and soft tissue organ systems to aid in medical diagnosis. Images are stored electronically and can be easily shared with referral veterinarians for consultation.
Blood analysis
Our extensive in-office laboratory allows us to analyze blood samples for Heartworm disease, tick borne diseases including Lyme disease, and Feline Leukemia and Feline Immunodeficiency Virus. We are also able to perform Complete Blood Counts (CBCs), Chemistry Panels which assess organ function, and thyroid function testing.
Why do Wellness bloodwork?
As your veterinarian, we recommend annual blood work on your dogs and cats, to make sure they are as healthy as possible. By checking blood work throughout their lives, we can notice if different values are changing in ways that could indicate disease or illness. The earlier we can diagnose a disease, the faster we can get started on treating it!
- Yearly blood work can help us diagnose diabetes, thyroid disorders, kidney disease, liver or pancreatic dysfunction, or disorders with a patient’s red or white blood cell counts, or platelets, nutritional deficiencies and much more! If they do end up with abnormal results, it becomes even more important to do yearly (or more frequent) rechecks.
- We all know our beloved pets can eat the weirdest things, and
sometimes those things can cause serious damage to their organs or blood cells themselves. We always advise bloodwork after ingestion of toxins (rat poison, certain plants like lillies, antifreeze, etc.), foreign objects (bones, socks, metal pieces), or the ever exciting holiday leftovers. - Medications can unfortunately come with side effects that require us to monitor their blood work, to make sure our patient’s bodies can handle the medications. We will advise yearly blood work for patients who take thyroid medications, anticonvulsants, certain pain medications, insulin, steroids, etc.
There are different components to bloodwork:
- CBC (complete blood count) – utilized to check red and white blood cell counts, platelet levels. We use this information to look for infection, anemia, immune disorders, and some effects of tick borne diseases.
- Chemistry – looks at various organ functions, such as liver, kidneys and pancreas. We need to see if the organs are functioning as they should.
- Electrolytes – indicates level of hydration, and some diseases such as Addison’s can be monitored through electrolytes levels
- Heartworm Screening – checks for exposure to Heartworm and 3 tick-borne diseases (lyme, anaplasma, and ehrlichia)
We know the costs of annual blood work can sometimes be daunting, but we truly want to help your beloved pets! We love them too, and want to keep them as healthy as possible, for as long as possible!
Interpreting your pet’s bloodwork results
Our veterinarians and veterinary technicians will do their best to explain your pet’s bloodwork results and answer any questions you have. If you would like to read more about interpreting your pet’s bloodwork results, these links may be helpful.
Urine analysis
Our in-office laboratory also analyzes urine samples for signs of infection, decreased kidney function, and crystaluria (crystals in the urine). For urine cultures that require sensitivity testing, we will collect a sterile urine sample and submit it to our referral laboratory for testing.
Fecal analysis
As part of our annual preventive care, we recommend a fecal analysis to screen for internal parasites. Most internal parasites cannot be seen by the naked eye, and need special analysis to view the eggs microscopically. We use our reference laboratory to analyze all fecal samples.