Laboratory / Animal Medical Clinic of Goose Creek

Laboratory

Our in-house laboratory has the capability to perform diagnostic tests on your pet's blood. This is particularly useful for pre anesthetic blood panels and emergencies, where the results are available immediately.

Our blood machine is able to check many different diagnostic parameters with speed and accuracy.

Blood Panel
A crucial set of tests to determine if an animal is ill is a blood panel. This panel gives us an indication of a pets internal health, and allows us to monitor disease processes and their treatments.
The first part of the blood panel is called a CBC, which stands for complete blood count. It is a measure of an animals white blood cells (WBC's) and red blood cells (RBC's).
The RBC's are measured with 3 different tests. These are the RBC count, hematocrit, and hemoglobin. The RBC's are counted with a machine that gives us an actual number, usually in the millions per cc. Hematocrit is a percent of the red blood cells in the serum. Finally the amount of hemoglobin in the blood is determined.

The other part of the CBC is the analysis of the white blood cells, and is closely tied to the immune system. The total number of WBC's are noted, giving us an overall indication if a problem might exist. An elevated WBC count can be caused by inflammation, infection, or cancer. A low WBC count can be caused by a virus, an immunosuppressive disease, or a problem with the bone marrow. After the total WBC is determined the WBC's are broken down into their different types. These different types all have unique functions in the normal processes of the body. Changes in the amounts of these different types; whether or not the WBC count is normal, high, or low, also gives us important information.

The next part of the blood panel is called the chemistry panel. It focuses more on the internal organs. (although the two are closely related and not easily distinguished in this way-but that's the art of medicine).

In general, the chemistry panel checks internal organs like the liver and kidneys. It also checks the general health of the body by measuring parameters like protein, glucose, and calcium. Interpretation of problems in the chemistry panel is very complex, and must be interpreted in conjunction with the other parameters of the diagnostic process.

Some of the tests in the chemistry panel measure internal organs directly, while others measure them indirectly. These tests are interpreted in conjunction with the CBC since the two are so closely related. Obviously, a normal chemistry panel is highly advantageous, although it is no guarantee that a pet is disease free.

From the time we take the sample until we get results is less than 30 minutes. It is used for young pets, apparently healthy pets, and for routine surgeries like spays, neuters, and declaws.

Organs that are important for the metabolism of the anesthesia we will be administering are targeted. Five specific areas are monitored:

Red blood cells (RBC's) to check for anemia, proper oxygen carrying capacity of the red blood cells, and adequate clotting.

White blood cells (WBC's) to look for signs of infection, inflammation, or cancer.

A protein test to check for dehydration, overall health status, and to help assess the liver.

A specific kidney test to check for proper kidney function.

A specific liver test to check for proper liver function.

To run these tests we take less than a teaspoonful of blood from your pet. This blood is put into 2 separate test tubes for analysis. The first set of tests is performed with our Lasercyte cbc machine, the second set with our serum chemistry analyzer. We also check the electrolyte levels in your pet's blood with every blood chemisrty panel.

microscope

Cytology

The first of these tests is cytology. A cytology looks at biological material under the microscope. One of the more common tests is to look at discharge from ears. Most people with pets assume their dog or cat has ear mites whenever there is an ear problem. Only if we see them under the microscope can we say for sure. More commonly an ear infection is the problem.

There is another test we routinely perform on ear discharge, called a DiffQik. It is a special stain placed on a microscope slide that contains a small amount of discharge from the ears. It helps us determine if an ear infection is due to bacteria or yeast. This greatly enhances our ability to control the ear problem.

We can also use this technique to examine debris from the skin to look for bacteria or fungi infecting the skin.

One of the cytologies we perform commonly is called a fine needle aspirate (FNA). A very tiny needle is inserted into the growth and a small amount of cells are aspirated into a syringe. These cells are then put on a microscope slide and sent to pathologist for analysis.

In some cases the pathologist can tell us the source of the problem. Sometimes the pathologist can give us an idea of what the problem is, and occasionally, the pathologist cannot say for sure what the problem is. Since the test is simple to perform, relatively inexpensive, and can be performed without any anesthesia, it is well worth utilizing. In some cases, particularly if the report tells us the mass might be malignant, we know that we need to remove all of the tumor when surgery is performed.

Fecal analysis
A fecal exam for worms (internal parasites) is a test we perform many times each day. Again, the microscope comes into play. Some fresh feces is placed on a slide that already has sterile saline on it. What we are looking for is the egg of the parasite, not the actual parasite, since the parasite resides in the stomach and intestines, and usually does not come out in the feces (tapeworms and the occasional roundworm are an exception). This is called a direct smear.

To further enhance our ability to find these eggs we use a technique called fecal flotation. Taking another sample of fresh feces, we put it into a solution that causes all of the eggs (sometimes with the exception of tapeworm eggs) to float to the top. These eggs are then collected with a cover slip and placed on a slide for analysis under the microscope. In both the direct smear and fecal flotation techniques finding these eggs is a hit or miss approach, and all depends on whether or not the individual female parasite is releasing eggs at the time of the sample. This means that a negative fecal report does not guarantee a pet is free of internal parasites. If we suspect them, we will recheck the fecal sample, sometimes several times. By rechecking we increase the chance that we will be analyzing a sample in which the female parasite residing in the digestive tract is actually releasing eggs into the environment through the feces.

Maintaining your pet on a monthly preventative will reduce the chances that your pet will contract the most common parasites.

Hookworm Ova as seen in stool