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Walking with Dogs

Surgical extras

Pre-anaesthetic

blood testing

& fluid therapy

Due to our strong commitment to providing the best medicine that we can for your pet, we strongly believe that regular blood testing is important in helping your pet to achieve a long and happy life. Testing your pet's blood prior to anaesthesic helps us check that they don't have any underlying conditions which would make the surgery unsafe, while additional fluid therapy helps keep your pet hydrated and safer throughout their procedure. We offer 3 increasingly comprehensive levels of blood testing: bronze, silver and gold.

Importance of blood testing

Many healthy animals have pre-existing internal problems that cannot be detected on an external general physical examination, even young animals. Comprehensive In House Blood Tests look specifically at a wide range of parameters including liver and kidney enzymes. If the results are normal, this is excellent, and we will have a record of baseline levels for your pet, which becomes a useful reference point for the future. If these results are abnormal we may change our anaesthetic and /or fluid regime to suit pet's condition

Pre-anaesthetic blood testing

This level of testing means that we assess:

  • Red blood cell count

  • White blood cell count

  • Platelets (clotting cells)

  • Markers of internal organ function (kidney, liver and pancreas etc)

  • Blood glucose

  • Total protein

Senior blood testing 

This is our most comprehensive level of blood testing and it is recommended for pets of all ages pre-anaesthetic. It involves testing:

  • 3 markers of kidney function

  • 3 markers of liver function

  • Blood glucose - abnormalities could indicate diabetes or pancreatic tumours

  • Total protein — abnormalities can indicate: dehydration, protein loss, inflammation

  • Albumin — abnormalities can indicate: intestinal malabsorption or malnutrition, chronic liver disease, kidney disease, blood loss

  • Globulins — abnormalities can indicate tissue injury and inflammation

  • Amylase, lipase — abnormalities can indicate inflammation of the pancreas

  • Cholesterol — abnormalities can indicate: thyroid disease, liver disease, acute diabetes or pancreatitis

  • Calcium — abnormalities can indicate cancer, chronic kidney disease, hyperparathyroidism

  • Electrolytes — abnormalities can indicate endocrine diseases, kidney disease and dehydration (crucial in choosing the right IV fluids for your pet's surgery)

  • Red blood cell count - these cells carry oxygen to tissues

  • White blood cell count - these cells are the body's primary defense against infection

  • Platelets - these are crucial in the dotting process especially during and after surgery.

  • Identifying abnormalities helps detect: anaemia, inflammation, acute or chronic
    infection, bleeding disorders, dehydration

We can also add additional tests including testing SDMA levels, and thyroid levels.

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Additional fluid therapy

Choosing additional fluid therapy for your pet can be an important part of their pre-surgery and recovery time. Fluid therapy is vital for ensuring your pet's blood pressure is kept at a suitable level during and after the procedure- this means blood supply isn't drawn away from vital organs like the brain! After fasting for a procedure, our pets can be dehydrated post-operatively so the additional fluids help is restoring their hydration levels. It also helps your pet flush out the anaesthetic drugs from their system quicker, meaning they go home brighter and happier. 

Fear not though, if you do not choose the additional fluids, your pet is placed on surgical fluids for the duration of the procedure only.

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