I think it's a good idea. And I'm faced with this question a lot because they'll come in for a yearly checkup on a, I don't know, let's say 10-year-old dog, and he's perfectly fine. Well, I get it. You wonder—does he need it? I don't know yet, to be honest with you. Do I recommend it? Yeah. You bet I do. Why? Because he's 10. If I catch something early, then I have a much better chance to treat it effectively. If I don't look, I'll never know. Maybe he's a dog that comes in two weeks after he was just here, and now his kidneys are greatly impaired. He's in kidney failure. Something like that. Would I have had better results knowing that two weeks prior and addressing it then? Heck yeah, I would have. So if given the opportunity, yeah, I will always choose for the side of being cautious and more proactive when I can. But the word "need" blood work is an interesting word because it's, like I said, if you don't look, you'll never know. So it's my job to be the advocate for the pet and recommend things earlier if possible so we can catch them earlier and have a better treatment outcome.

Depending on what test we run and if we do the lab in the veterinary clinic, I would argue to tell you between five and 10 minutes you'll have them back. And again, when we say lab results, we're talking about fecals, urine analysis, CBCs, chemistry, maybe a coag panel. Most clinics, including ours, has in-house equipment that allows for point of care blood work, such as that, or lab work, I should say. In the cases of those tests I just rambled off, I’ll have the results in 5-10 minutes. Some tests that have to be sent off, like phenobarbital, certain thyroid panels, ACTH, or various endocrine type panels that we're screening for, those likely have to be sent off to an outside lab. And that might take anywhere from one to maybe even two, three days to get back.

It depends on what test we run. I was just laughing because you sounded very nervous about your follow-up blood work, but that's okay. I'm sure the dog was too. No, it depends on what we uncover on the initial blood work. Let’s say we're doing wellness blood work and your dog is, just as the name implies, well, and there is nothing doing, then no. There'll be no follow-up. Maybe next year we'll want to do it again just to make sure we're staying on top of things. But no, there wouldn't be any follow-up. Where follow-up blood work would come in is, say, you have an animal with elevated kidney numbers. Let's just pick kidneys for a second. You do that. You put them on a special diet. You might put them on Azodyl or some other supplement to help drop some of those numbers. Maybe we increase their fluids. Maybe we're giving them sub q fluids weekly or daily, something along those lines. And we'll want to follow up in either days or weeks to ensure that those values are going in the right direction. So that kind of follow-up, yeah, makes perfect sense. If there's no illness underlying and your dog's perfectly healthy, then, of course, no follow-up is necessary. So it just varies on what we're running and the condition of the patient.

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.