That's a fair question. So number one, most clinics have a very well-trained staff that can do all the sticks themselves if necessary—we do here. If time allows, I'm back there pulling it with them or for them. But I have a very well-trained staff who knows how to restrain the animals and how to pull the samples themselves if necessary. So that's step one. Number two, if we have an animal that is fractious, nervous, anything like that, where snapping or biting is even a likely happening, then we'll put a muzzle on the dog just for everyone's safety, the dog included. And if that's not enough, then there are cases where we have to get blood work done. Say we have a very, very ill animal and he doesn't like anybody. So muzzle or no muzzle, he's going to fight you tooth and nail. Sometimes, the only safe way to do it—both for technicians, veterinarians, owners, and patients—is just to give them mild sedation first, or sedative first. I don't do that with everybody. Far from it. I don't like to do it if it's not necessary. But sometimes that's the only effective way to safely and humanely get a sample from an animal.

On the average size dog, meaning let's say anywhere from Labradors on down, most blood panels that have to we pull require a jugular stick from the jugular vein. If we're simply putting a heartworm test for lab work, that just takes a few drops of blood. We can usually pull that from a front leg or cephalic vein. But suppose we have to pull enough blood to do a CBC, chemistry, or any kind of send-off test. In that case, that usually requires several milliliters of blood, and it's usually more efficient, quicker, and safer for the dog if we pull it from a jugular sample.

Do dogs like needle sticks? Probably not any more than you or I like needle sticks. So is there discomfort? I mean, yeah, they're getting poked with a needle. Do I always use the biggest needle I can? Of course not. No. I try to use a small needle, but it's a compromise. The smaller the needle I use, the longer it takes to get the sample, and the longer I have to restrain the dog and hold them in that awkward position. So there’s a fine line between that. Not to mention, let's also be honest; a lot of dogs are different. Some dogs are very stoic. You can do just about anything in the world to them, and they will just sit there wagging their tail and not even moving. You have other dogs that, if you pinch them, they will act like you did something a lot worse than pinch them. So it just depends on the dog’s temperament, how big of a blood sample we need, and what kind of restraint would be necessary to get that blood sample.

It depends on the veterinarian you use and what test that veterinarian runs. All the things I keep mentioning time and again, CBC chemistry, urinalysis, all of that. Many veterinarians now have those kinds of machines or equipment in-house in their clinic. The average turnaround time is probably 10 minutes for CBC chem and urinalysis. If I'm doing fecal and heartworm, it's a little less than that. It's probably more like six to eight minutes to have those two back. If I have to submit a larger test, like an ACTH stim test or thyroid panel or level or a bunch of other things I don't list, I don't have those in-house. So those have to be pulled and sent to an outside laboratory. And depending on what test it is, it's either 24 hours to perhaps 48 to 72 hours for some of the longer taking tests. It’s completely variable and depends on what it is and the lab test. But anywhere from minutes for point-of-care diagnostics or a few days for some of the bigger, harder-to-find tests.

Again, what the dog presents for will dictate what we have to do. And not to be repetitive, but on wellness visits, yearly checkups, heartworm tests, stool samples, and maybe even some wellness blood work, which is a CBC chem. Those are the most common. If you bring an animal in that presents for PU/PD, drinking a lot of water, urinating a lot...maybe they’re losing weight or dehydrated, then, no. My focus goes more to diabetes, hyperthyroidism, kidney failure, those kinds of things. So I'm much more inclined to get CBC chemistry and urinalysis on those animals. So again, it just depends on what they're presenting for, how sick they are, what their clinical signs are. All of that is going to dictate what tests we potentially run.

The most common things that I do on a day-to-day basis would be things such as heartworm tests, fecal samples or stool samples, maybe urinalysis, and probably almost as common we do things like chemistry panels and CBCs. Those are probably the big five or so types of lab tests run in veterinary clinics day-to-day, numerous times a day. We might have to send off other lab tests, like maybe a test for Cushing's disease, like a low dose dex suppression test or an ACTH stim test or thyroid testing. You could pick a disease presentation, and there's probably a specialty test that I can run to give you more information about it. But the ones I listed previously were probably the most common that we use.