Baseline is your pet's normal. We know the general normal values on a lab screen, but it's what your pet's normal is. And so, if we have a baseline and later there are some abnormalities, we know the degree of the abnormality based on your pet's baseline.

We may order that as a general baseline or wellness test to determine if your pet is hiding anything or having some reference values. The other time is most likely when your cat isn’t feeling well, and they can't tell us why they don't feel well, so we'll run specific lab tests to help determine what's wrong.

It depends on the test, and it depends on where we run the tests. We offer a lot of in-house or in-clinic lab tests so that we would get those results immediately. Some might take 30, 45 minutes, but they are essentially immediate. And then, if we send those out, some have a 24 to 48-hour turnaround, and some might have a two-week turnaround. So, it depends on the test.

This is a very general question, but if your dog was coming in for a well-check, we would routinely do a yearly heartworm test, which is a blood test. If they're coming in sick, we may want to look internally at what's going on with them to determine what might be causing that. If they're vomiting, we can look at a blood test to look for pancreatitis. There are many tests that we can do to determine what might be going on.

It depends on the type of blood test that we're running. A complete blood count, for instance, would perhaps detect anemia, which is a low red cell count, or it might detect infection, which would be a high white cell count.

Chemistry would be another example, and for that we would look at the organ values. There are many different blood tests that we can do to look at a pet’s hormones and look for diseases that a pet might be carrying. So there's a variety of blood tests.

There are certain lab tests that we may recommend across the board for any dog, and then there are certain lab or blood tests that we would recommend depending on your dog's risk or what's going on with your pet. If your dog is sick or the area you live in may determine the type of lab work that we run.

So that's very dependent on each groomer. I have a groomer that I use, and I work with personally, and she takes each pet as they come. We offer sedated grooms here. That could be something that an owner feels like their pet needs to be groomed, as their pet gets a little stressed out, or maybe they get a little nippy, and sedation is the best way to go. But there are also some safe medications that your veterinarian can prescribe that your dog can take maybe an hour or two before going to the groomer to make it a more enjoyable experience and make it safer for everybody.

So it's really dependent on each and every groomer. I would encourage you to select a groomer that does require vaccines for your pet. The reason is that they care about your pet's health and safety and the other pets coming into the facility. Like boarding facilities, many animals in a small space can make it easy to cat or transmit some contagious diseases, and vaccines can generally prevent many of those. So I would look for a groomer that does require vaccines. And in terms of flea and tick prevention, being on flea and tick prevention is going to be the best thing for your pet regardless. A groomer may not require it, but if a pet has a flea infestation or maybe even what we call a flea allergy dermatitis, meaning your pet is allergic to the saliva of the flea, it can cause a severe skin rash or infection that could be uncomfortable to your pet to make things challenging for their visit at the groomer.