Animal Health Screening in Older Pets

Early detection

Animal Health Screening is a simple and effective way of monitoring your older pet’s health. Early detection of pet disease means early intervention and in many cases this will mean successful treatment and prevention of medical problems.

Preemptive pet care helps to ensure your pet will be healthy and active for as long as possible. We think it is a wonderful way of ensuring that your precious companion and crucial family member does not leave you prematurely.

We don’t want you to find yourself in a situation that could have been prevented just by taking a simple test.

Health Screening in older pets

The veterinary team at Ku-ring-gai Veterinary Hospital is devoted to offering our patients the very best animal health care. With our state-of-the-art equipment and facilities, we can implement the most advanced diagnostics and animal treatment available.

We can now offer testing for early diagnosis of many common diseases even when your pet appears to be healthy. Known as Health Screening, it is proving to be a very simple yet powerful tool in prolonging the healthy life of your pet.

Benefits

Pets age around 7 times faster than we do so diseases progress equally as fast, making early detection and intervention even more important.

As we all know pets cannot tell us how they are feeling and additionally disease processes can start well before symptoms arise. This may mean your pet is unwell without you even knowing it. Pets over 7 years of age have a greater chance of harbouring underlying disease in the ageing process.

Healthscreening is the key to early detection of disease in these animals and means we can take steps to manage and even reverse the problem before irreparable damage is done.

For example, did you know that over 75% of kidney function is lost before there are any external signs of renal failure? We cannot reverse damage to kidney cells as they do not regenerate, however the good news is that if we identify the problem early we can save many of those cells that would otherwise have been lost. As the old adage tells us, prevention is better than cure.

Annual pet testing

Routine, pet healthscreening is best conducted on a yearly basis. However depending on your pet’s age, specific health concerns or any previous results, more frequent testing may be best. Monitoring your pet’s health status makes it easier for your vet to detect minor changes that signal the onset of disease. Combining healthscreening with your pet’s annual physical examination and vaccination is a convenient solution for those short on time.

Test options

There are 3 levels of healthscreening for you to choose from. Each level increases its depth of investigation and can be selected based on prior testing results, health status and the age of your pet.

It is important to discuss your specific requirements with your vet to have the most appropriate test conducted.

Level 1 is a basic look at the blood and urine.
Samples can be collected at a routine consultation and run in-house for immediate results. These results can give us an insight into the basic body function of your pet.

• Checking calcium levels for example can be a marker for some cancers.
• Red blood cells, which are the oxygen carrying cells, are checked for anaemia and low numbers can indicate bleeding or clotting problems.
• Analysis of the urine allows screening for conditions such as diabetes, urinary tract infections and kidney disease. All of this information can come from a blood and urine test.

Level 2 is a more comprehensive screening.
In addition to the tests conducted in level 1 this is a more thorough look at the cells within the blood.

• It includes white blood cells that are involved with inflammation, cancer and other systemic illnesses.
• Enzymes relating to vital organs such as the pancreas, spleen and thyroid are also checked.
• An ECG (Electrocardiogram) is conducted to check heart function and blood pressure is tested for hyper or hypotension. 

These additional tests make this level slightly more time consuming though it can usually be completed whilst you wait or gives you time to grab a coffee and come back.

Level 3 is a very comprehensive and flexible group of tests specifically tailored for your pet.
There are known risks typical of your pet’s breed, age or clinical history. This group of tests is highly recommended in pets over the age of 10 who have never had healthscreening before though can be conducted at any age. This is the most aggressive way to assess the complete health status of your pet.

• Depending on the tests conducted, this level is likely to require a day stay in hospital and potentially some light anaesthetic or sedation.
• Diagnostics like x-rays, ultrasound and CT are non-invasive ways to look inside your pet to see changes even before things show on blood tests.

Remember early detection and intervention is the key to successful treatment. Anything we can do to help prolong a healthy happy life of our best friend is time well spent.

Results

The level of and presence or absence of abnormalities will determine what happens next. In some cases if you and your vet are happy with the results, it may be appropriate to return for routine review the following year and a certificate outlining this will be issued for you to keep with your records. If there are any abnormal results, we may want to investigate further. This may mean anything from repeating the test in the near future to a more extensive diagnostic workup as described in level 3.

For more information or to arrange an appointment, please call 94494111