It's a very simple blood test. We just take a small sample of blood. About three drops of blood are all we need, and then it is run on an in-house test.

In this area, heartworm disease is very significant. One mosquito bite can transmit heartworm disease.

Most dogs are actually potentially affected by heartworm disease. There's definitely a higher risk in dogs who spend a lot of time outside hiking, but even indoor dogs can get heartworm disease.

Heartworms are transmitted via the mosquito. A mosquito first bites an infected dog, then the heartworm actually gets in the mosquito's body and reproduces, and then it is put back into another dog through injection.

Dog heartworm is caused by a parasite that lives in their blood and migrates to their heart.

It's usually very quick. Some of it's done in-house in our laboratory, and we can have it done in minutes. Sometimes we send it out to external laboratories, but it will return in a few days.

Good question. It depends on two things. Is your dog normal, is it sick, or is it getting better? Second of all, were there any abnormalities in that blood work? If there was, we'd probably want to recheck it after we do the appropriate treatment.

Possibly. That was just blood work. That was a CBC and chemistry, maybe a thyroid, but dogs often need fecal checks. They might need a urinalysis to check for diabetes, and it's checking the specific gravity of the urine. They might need cytology of their ears or their skin. So there are lots of types of tests that we do.

Definitely. Senior animals are more likely to develop diabetes, kidney failure, liver disease, or some other electrolyte problems, like Cushing's disease. So by checking it routinely, we'll be able to catch it right away.