Angel is a staff member’s cat who came in for a routine dental cleaning. We performed a pre-anesthetic blood profile which is required for all pets going under anesthesia and we found that she has high kidney and liver values indicating kidney failure. We then sent her blood to an outside lab for a more in depth analysis and we discovered that she was indeed in kidney failure. Angel was not put under anesthesia and did not have her dental due to the anesthetic being unsafe for her due to the state of her liver and kidneys. Her owner, Candi, hospitalized her to give her fluids and medications and Angel went home later that week. Candi continues to give Angel subcutaneous fluids twice a week, changed her food to a kidney diet specially formulated for pets with kidney issues, and bring her in for blood draws frequently to monitor the status of her kidneys and liver.
We recommend all pets get yearly bloodwork done so that we can monitor all the organs and notice when something is abnormal BEFORE they start showing symptoms. We also have a senior wellness package designed for pets over 7 years old to perform a more thorough evaluation, just like human doctors require yearly testing as we age. It is important to keep your pet current on all preventative care testing. Testing can frequently detect illnesses before we see outward signs of disease, we can see what is normal for your pet with yearly testing, so that if a value is abnormal for your pet, we can notice the trend (as pictured below) and can treat them before they show signs.