Blood sampling is a relatively painless and non-invasive way to gain large amounts of information about your pets’ condition. We use them to investigate many problems when the underlying cause is not immediately evident from a clinical examination.

We can asses the state of health of internal organs, check for levels of antibodies which confer resistance to disease, monitor drug levels in your pet’s blood while they are under treatment and measure hormone levels which can be responsible for many diseases. In addition to this we can measure the red and white blood cell levels which can indicate the severity and progression of many conditions. We have recently invested in new state of the art equipment which can measure and differentiate between all of the different blood cells present in a sample, by measuring the refraction of a laser beam fired through a falling stream of cells.

If your pet needs to have a blood sample, it is usually done at the time of the consultation. Most animals, with careful restraint, will allow us to take a blood sample without any undue stress. It is usually taken from the jugular vein in the neck and you may notice a small area of hair has been clipped away to allow us to cleanse the skin and access the vein easily.

Results can be obtained within a day or two in most cases where samples are run in house. We are able to run a comprehensive biochemistry and haematology profile including electrolytes in house. Some samples need to be sent to an external lab and may take several days for results to come back.