When an animal is brought in to the practice the veterinary surgeon or nurse will ask questions about what the animal has been doing and how it is looked after before it is then examined.
To help us identify diseases that may be causing your pet’s ill health, we often have to do tests or investigations as below. Many diseases cannot be diagnosed simply by looking at your pet though this may help us to narrow down the likely causes.
1) Bacteriology testing.
Animals can have infections caused by bacteria. We send a sample to a lab and ask them to find out what the bacteria is and the best antibiotic to treat it with.
An example of the information we obtain is recorded below:
Culture: Aerobic cultures show a heavy pure growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa
SENSITIVITIES:
Amikacin
Ceftazidime
Gentamicin
Augmentin
Enrofloxacin
Marbofloxacin
Doxycycline
Metronidazole
Sensitive
Sensitive
Sensitive
RESISTANT
RESISTANT
RESISTANT
RESISTANT
RESISTANT
This means the first 3 drugs have a good chance of working but the last four are unlikely to work. Sometimes the lab cannot find anything and the test needs to be repeated.
Simply trying an antibiotic to see what happens is not the best thing to do. It encourages antibiotic resistance to develop and a delay in selecting the right drug can be fatal. The above example shows that in some cases we are more likely to select the wrong drug than the right one for the infection if we do not test to find out which bacteria is the cause of the infection.
There are in fact hundreds of different bacteria that can cause infection and there is no point us trying to guess which one is the cause as they are all very different.
2) Virus tests . We can test for some viruses if we suspect these are the cause of an infection. If we think your pet has a virus we WILL NOT prescribe antibiotics unless there is evidence of a bacterial infection as well. This is because antibiotics do not have any effect on viruses. This is why doctors do not give you antibiotics for a cold.
3) Blood tests.
We can use these to investigate if there are problems with the kidneys, liver and several other internal organs or to look for signs of infection. These tests often need to be repeated during treatment to check that it is working and to monitor for side effects of certain drugs.
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4) X-rays.
We use these to look inside the body to see if there are any changes from normal. Please be aware that not all problems can be diagnosed using this technique and we may need to combine this with other tests.
5) Tissue tests . We send a sample of tissue that has been removed (e.g. a piece of skin) to a veterinary pathologist for them to look at. It is not unusual for the pathologist to say they do not know what the problem is. In one case there were six possible causes of a problem. Veterinary pathologists are specialists in their area of work and if they cannot identify the problem it means it is very complex.
6) Ultrasound tests . Ultrasound tests vary with the problem. For example, pregnancy diagnosis needs a relatively simple ultrasound machine but looking at things like the heart and liver require very sophisticated ultrasound equipment and referral to a specialist.
When we do these tests we may be able to diagnose what is wrong with your animal, however, sometimes test results tell us we must do some further tests.
In order to treat some diseases we may first need to ‘Stage’ the condition which tells us how advanced the disease is and which are the best treatments to use. In this case we often have to use several types of test to help us. Common diseases which this is done for include heart, liver, kidney, lung and pancreatic problems and we also do this for cancer patients.
Pets undergoing long-term treatment may need tests to monitor for drug side effects, to check that treatments are working or to see if their condition is getting worse.
Limitations of Testing
Clients will sometimes ask if there is a guarantee that their animal will get better before they pay for tests. Unfortunately, there are no guarantees as we are dealing with biological systems which work every differently. We cannot guarantee a diagnosis will be reached even after a test is performed as no test is 100% perfect and it is the same in human medicine. Please note: Diagnostic tests are NOT a treatment in themselves. They enable us to select the correct treatment to use and your pet will not get better without completing the treatment course. Testing will at least let us know what is not wrong with your animal, whether it is worth trying to treat the animal at all or if there is a risk to the owners and in fact euthanasia is the correct thing to do.
We only use veterinary laboratories based in the UK. This is so that in the event of a dispute involving court we can call on the laboratory to appear in court.
Pricing
We routinely give clients estimates for any work to be done, it must be remembered that these are estimates and by their very nature can increase or decrease depending upon the circumstances. We will offer every client the ideal set of tests for a suspected problem which can include any combination of x-rays, blood tests and faecal tests etc. We realise that people have different budgets so we will also give you estimates which involve less testing which will mean lower estimates but doing so may mean we get less accurate or helpful results as an element of guess work is then involved in treatment. Your range of estimates may go from £200+ with investigations and testing, to
£45 if we just see how the animal responds to treatment. In some cases tests will also need to be repeated and both sets of tests will need to be paid for.
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As we rely heavily on the NHS for medical treatment, people are not used to paying for medical costs and it can come as a surprise. There is no animal NHS so owners are entirely responsible for paying fees.
You will be charged fees for the laboratory to do the work plus a collection and interpretation fee for the results as you are paying for our time to advise you on the best treatment course. If you send samples directly to the laboratory you will still be charged an interpretation fee when the results are sent to us.
For more information visit our website:
About diagnostic testing: http://www.village-vets.com/client-info/laboratory-tests/
About antibiotics, their use and resistance: http://www.village-vets.com/antibiotics/
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