I usually tell my clients that it's a needle poke, so it's like getting a vaccine. We often scratch their ears, we pet them, and we might feed them cheese—something to distract them, and most pets don't tell me that they find it very painful.

The simple answer is from the vein. That might include the cephalic vein. We may draw from a leg or the neck—from the jugular vein—those would be the most common areas.

If we detect abnormalities, we want to follow up and make sure that they have improved with the treatment. We don't want just to assume because the pet is acting better that they are genuinely better. Again, we know that cats, like all of our animals, hide their sickness and disease much of the time.

The lab work for our senior cats would be to ensure that they aren't developing a problem that can commonly occur as cats age.

Adult cats can hide things. So, that would be one reason to do a well check—to detect problems early and serve as a baseline.

One of the tests we've talked about is screening for the viral diseases, feline leukemia and FIV. Another lab test might be a stool check. So, we want to make sure your kitten doesn't have parasites that can be contagious to you, me, or other cats in the household. We want to ensure that the cat or kitten is as healthy as they can be.

We try to make it as stress-free as possible, whether we are distracting by petting or using the catnip or treats if they're food motivated. Some cats are too nervous to take treats when they're here. And so, the proper restraint method is essential in protecting your cat from getting hurt, as well as protecting our staff from getting hurt. We don't want that to happen to either side, so well-trained staff goes a long way. If we know the pet is too stressed, then we stop. We also have the kitty comfort kits if we know we need to run tests, then you can give them something to calm them, to take a little of the stress off of them. Most of our cats do great, but we have those few that get too stressed. By giving them something to calm them, it helps everyone involved.

It is a needle poke, so the cat reacts as they might to a vaccine. We know some cats are over-reactors while others let us do whatever we want to do. It's not pain-free, but we make it as painless as possible. We like to use distraction and some other fear-free methods. We'll spray catnip. We spray catnip on a towel, sometimes hiding their head or letting them hide in a towel. They like that. They feel more secure. There are other things we can do, like leaving them in the carrier. We have a whole video on carriers that we like and don't like. But if the top easily comes off and the cat can stay in the bottom part of that, that's an excellent carrier for your cat because they feel more secure not being completely removed from that carrier.

We collect the blood through the cat’s vein. We often do that from the back leg or perhaps from the jugular. The latter’s advantage is that we can get it quicker and usually get a larger volume without stressing the cat out.

The pet’s age would determine that, along with the results of other tests that you do that might spur you on a different test. We usually do what's most common. We're looking for what's most common, but not all cats read the books, so sometimes we have to dig a little deeper to find an answer to these problems. We usually take it step by step. Owners appreciate it when we're not just running five tests at one time.