Vet Connect

By Kim VanWagner, D.V.M.

Cool Cases Illustrating the Importance of Diagnostics (Part 1)

Why do veterinarians recommend additional diagnostics after they complete your pet’s physical exam? Different diagnostics are needed to help obtain additional information that will give additional “pieces to the puzzle” to help solve the problem occurring with your pet. Sometimes treatment recommendations can be made with the physical exam alone, without additional diagnostics. But other times, it’s good to have a definitive diagnosis to treat the exact problem instead of just supportive/symptomatic treatments.

Additional diagnostics vary from sample evaluations, urine cultures, blood works, radiographs, and additional imaging such as ultrasounds or CT scans. Aspirates of masses can help reveal whether the mass is of concern and requiring surgery. Ear cytologies can help pinpoint which medication is best to treat an ear infection. Bloodwork can evaluate different organ systems that can’t be fully evaluated alone with just a physical exam. Imaging can reveal things going on inside that might not be palpated during an examination or just may need additional evaluation after being palpated in an exam. Most of this information holds true in human care as well.

So many cases of routine pre-anesthetic bloodwork reveal abnormalities in what is deemed an otherwise healthy animal being presented for an elective procedure such as a spay or neuter. For example, a young adult cat was presented to be spayed and seemed perfectly normal during the routine pre-anesthetic complete physical exam. However, the bloodwork revealed the cat was anemic, low red blood cells, and even had low platelets. With further diagnostics, the cat was found to have an immune mediated condition which could have caused significant complications during the surgery had the surgery been performed without the required pre-anesthetic lab work. The cat was treated with an aggressive steroid regime to which the cat responded well and was able to have the surgery at a later date.

There are many other situations where diagnostics can help pinpoint the exact cause of a condition that can be treated with specific targeted therapy versus just supportive treatments. If you are not sure why your veterinarian may recommend specifics tests or diagnostics, don’t hesitate to ask for an explanation of what is being looked for and why the test is important.

Next month, we will continue a look at some specific cases where diagnostics led to proper treatment that might not otherwise have occurred.

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