An annual physical check-up is a luxury not everyone has, but we still recommend it for dogs. Unfortunately, our beloved furry friends don’t talk and can hide discomfort very well and for a long period of time. Nausea, headaches, muscle pain, dizziness and stomach acidity can go unnoticed very easily in dogs. This is why, annual blood testing is a valuable tool to assess your pet’s general health and detect early stages of diseases.

Your veterinarian, by a complete physical exam of your dog will be able to detect some early problems such as: tartar build-up, gingivitis (or gum inflammation), abnormal eye discharge (that can be a sign of tear deficiency), deterioration of the haircoat (that can be a sign of hormonal imbalance), etc.

Frequently, all these signs are only the tip of the iceberg. Chronic bad teeth can lead to infection of the heart or the kidneys. A heart murmur or a change in the dog’s drinking and urinating habits will take time to develop. Excess of weight can be due to numerous treats and lack of exercise, but can also be secondary to hypothyroidism, which needs bloodwork to be diagnosed. A mildly diminished appetite and weight loss can appear normal for the owner of an old dog, but could be related to chronic kidney disease or cancer. Vomiting can be perceived as uneventful for a dog that chews on anything and everything, but could also be a sign of liver disease.

Most pets in North America are on heartworm preventative medications. In order to use these medications safely, the dogs need to be annually tested for heartworm (small blood test). Adding a “wellness test” (screening of general health status/measurements of organs’ function) to the heartworm test is always an option and labs often offer a price reduction when multiple tests are done. Annual testing is therefore easy and I strongly recommend it, especially in pets over 7 years old.

I also recommend bloodwork prior to any anesthesia or surgery. The anesthetic drugs have to be filtered by organs during the procedure and have various effects on the heart’s rate and blood pressure. Underlying disease, congenital malformation, or organs with a diminished function capacity can lead to slow recovery of the animal, dangerous drop in blood pressure or cardiac arrest. Pre-anesthetic bloodwork can tell us to post-pone a surgery or adjust the drugs used for anesthesia adequately.

For example, we once saw a pug puppy that had strangely elevated liver enzymes on his pre-neuter bloodwork. More testing revealed that the dog had a severe liver shunt: vessels were by-passing the liver.  This meant that this dog would not respond to anesthesia as other puppies; neutering before his shunt problem was fixed could be fatal, and the pug had a long-term life-threatening problem that needed to be attended to.

Another old dog was seen for a “red eye”. The eye was actually totally opaque with a huge blood clot floating behind the cornea. The dog had been a bit quiet lately, and had vomited a few times. Bloodwork revealed that the uveitis (eye problem) was not the dog’s first worry: the little sheltie had chronic renal failure and the vomiting was the first sign of a close end.

Bloodwork gives us information that a physical exam cannot. It can save pets or reveal chronic diseases and sometimes, a state of chronic pain. It helps the owner make the right decisions for his friend.