My Pet Needs Bloodwork!

There may come a time when your veterinarian recommends doing blood work on your pet. Though your initial reaction is to say no, you should consider doing it. You may learn more than you ever imagined, making it worth the extra cost.

Unsure about why your veterinarian may be recommending blood work? Here are some reasons why.

On their first visit, many veterinarians recommend doing blood work on kittens (and cats). You will want to make sure that your kitten or cat doesn’t have Feline Leukemia or FIV, which are very contagious to other cats. You should always have any new cat entering your home tested before allowing everyone to interact.

You may want to consider having baseline blood work done to monitor any changes as your pet ages. Many veterinarians recommend routine blood work to get a baseline for your pet. That way, your veterinarian has something to compare it to if your pet becomes sick. Though there are normal values for everything, not every pet is the same.

Your veterinarian may also like to do routine blood work to catch anything early. He or she may notice that your pet’s liver or kidney values are slowly going up, which may mean extra blood work to monitor the situation.

Most of the time, veterinarians don’t catch these diseases until the kidneys or liver are barely functioning, and there isn’t much to be done at that point. Meanwhile, if caught early, you may just be able to give your pet more fluids to help to flush everything out.

Likewise, your veterinarian may recommend blood work prior to any surgical procedure. Before putting your pet through surgery, you are going to want to make sure that his or her body can handle the anesthesia. These drugs are metabolized by the liver and kidneys, so it is essential to make sure that they are healthy enough before you put your pet through the procedure.

If you are putting your pet on certain medications, your veterinarian may recommend doing blood work before starting it, as well as multiple times while taking it, to make sure that it is helping your pet more than harming him or her. Any medication that gets metabolized by the liver or kidney needs to be closely monitored.

You need to make sure that your pet is healthy enough to take the medications. Then, you should do blood work a few weeks after starting it, just to make sure that your pet is handling it all right. Then, your veterinarian may recommend blood work every six months to a year, just to keep an eye on your pet’s liver and kidneys.

There are also certain medications that need to be monitored. If your cat is hyperthyroid, you are going to have to keep a close eye on his or her thyroid level and make adjustments to the medications as needed. Many seizure medications need to be checked regularly to make sure that they are in a therapeutic range.

You also should be blood work if something is wrong with your pet. This may help your veterinarian diagnose what is going on with your pet, especially if the signs are vague.

Though many people think veterinarians are just out to get your money, the truth is that they may have a good reason for recommending blood work. They could just be making sure that your cat is healthy enough to join the rest of your cats, instead of spreading disease to everyone that you have in your home!

They may also want to get a baseline to have something to compare to in the future. This may be when your pet isn’t feeling well, though it can also be used to catch things early, when things are more treatable! You should also consider doing blood work any time that your pet isn’t feeling well. It may be the only way to figure out what is going on with your pet.

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Previously published on Medium and/or Newsbreak.