Diagnostic Laboratory Services

When your pet is not feeling well, they can’t easily tell you where, or why, and sometimes they may have been hiding their illness for awhile. That is when you need timely answers. By gathering a complete view of your pet both inside and out, we may have a clearer picture of what may be going on.

We offer an in-depth evaluation of your pet’s health through routine blood work, evaluation of urine and stool, and imaging. With these tools and technologies, we are better able to diagnose and treat health concerns in a timely manner.

Laboratory Services

We offer a variety of basic and advanced diagnostics for your pet. We partner with outside laboratories for more specialized testing when necessary.

We have bedside SNAP tests for a number of infectious diseases, including:

• Heartworm Disease

• Lyme Disease

• Ehrlichia

• Anaplasma

• Feline Leukemia Virus & Feline Immunodeficiency Virus

• Parvovirus

We can screen your pet for internal parasites and perform a complete urinalysis on-site.

We have the capability of performing general blood work on-site when we need to evaluate your pet’s organ function quickly.

Other in-house testing we perform include:

• Ear cytology

• Ear smears

• Skin cytology

• Skin scrapes

• Fungal cultures

• Some fine needle aspirates (to evaluate masses)

• Schirmer tear testing

• Ocular fluorescein staining

• Intraocular pressure measurement

We also utilize outside referral laboratories to expand our diagnostic capabilities.  Turnaround time for these results may be anywhere from 24 hours to 7 days.

Radiology

Radiographs (x-rays) are an important tool that can help us make an accurate diagnosis for your pet. Our radiology imaging is there for when a physical exam and general blood work simply are not enough to effectively assess your pet's condition. Because we believe that pet owners throughout the Northern New York area deserve the best possible care, we have invested in a state-of-the-art, high-quality digital veterinary x-ray system. This means that we can quickly take highly-detailed radiographs and manipulate them to gain a better view of your pet's bones and internal organs. We are able to diagnose a wide range of medical conditions with more speed and accuracy than ever before.

Digital x-rays can be saved to a disk, quickly shared via email to veterinary specialists for second opinions, or reviewed for additional diagnostics as needed. Your pet's time on the x-ray table is reduced because fewer images need to be taken. Digital x-rays eliminate the need to use toxic chemicals in the film development process, decreasing the risk of exposure to our staff and the environment. We can display them on a computer screen for you to see, as well!

What can a radiograph tell us?

• Radiographs can be used to evaluate bones as well as the size, shape, and position of many of the body’s organs

• The size of organs is important to know because some medical conditions, such as kidney, heart, or liver disease, can alter these organs’ size

• The shape and position of intestinal organs can be altered when a pet has an obstruction or cancer

• Abdominal and chest masses can sometimes be found on a radiograph

• Radiography can be used to diagnose bladder stones, broken bones, chronic arthritis, and other conditions

Ultrasound

Ultrasound is a non-invasive diagnostic tool that uses sound waves to yield detailed images of your pet's internal organs. This technique provides a real-time movie view of your pet's organs. Typically, it takes 30 to 60 minutes to perform an advanced diagnostic ultrasound and is relatively stress and pain-free for your pets. It has become a standard of care in veterinary medicine, and we want to provide the best diagnostic tools for your pets.

Common ultrasound exams include:

• *Abdominal exam – liver, gallbladder & biliary system, stomach, pancreas, spleen, kidneys, adrenal glands, bladder, prostate, uterus, ovaries, bowel, vasculature, lymph nodes, mesentery & serosal surfaces. All abdominal ultrasound exams are complete exams. It is inappropriate to only examine part of the abdomen – all organs must be examined every time to ensure there is not occult pathology.

• Thoracic (chest) exam – if a mass effect exists on thoracic radiography, and the lesion is along the thoracic wall or the lesion is suspended in pleural effusion, the lesion may be found with ultrasound and if it can be seen, in most cases it can be biopsied to yield a diagnosis.

• *Pregnancy - confirm pregnancy, estimate litter size (although this is best done with radiography), confirm fetal viability and monitor heartbeats.

• Parathyroids & Thyroid Glands – indicated if there is hypercalcemia and elevated serum PTH. Sedation generally required providing complete relaxation of the head.

• Cryptorchid Exam – localize the cryptorchid testicle prior to surgery to help minimize surgical time and surgeon frustration.

* At this time, we are only equipped to perform an abdominal ultrasound or pregnancy check. Other exams are beyond the scope of our current capabilities.