Doing lab tests can help us diagnose your pet's problem more quickly and accurately. Many blood tests can be run in our office. This allows us to give you results within about 30 minutes. More extensive testing can be done by sending blood to an outside laboratory. We use Idexx Veterinary Laboratory, whose excellent facility has been serving us for 14 years. They pick up samples twice a day and issue routine reports the following morning, or STAT reports the same day.

We do a lot of cytology--looking at stained cells under the microscope. This can tell us what is causing your pet's ear infection, or if that lump on her back needs to be removed. Obtaining the sample may be as simple as using a Q-tip to swab an ear, or doing a fine needle aspirate of a lump. Sometimes surgery is required to obtain a sample, and a surgical biopsy is performed. These tissues for histopathology are sent to a board certified pathologist who examines them and sends us a complete report.

We also do other laboratory tests, such as ECGs, urinalysis, fecal examinations, skin scrapings to look for parasites, bacterial culture and antibiotic sensitivity testing, fungal culture, testing the mineral content of bladder stones, and more.