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I'm reporting today from the North American Veterinary Conference in Orlando, FL. In addition to being a very nice break from the Michigan winter, the conference is chock-full of great presentations. One I attended yesterday really caught my attention. We now have evidence based on thousands of blood tests on our canine and feline patients to validate laboratory testing of apparently healthy pets. In studies conducted by our laboratory, Antech Laboratories, over 20% of clinically normal dogs and cats seven or more years of age have abnormal findings on routine "Senior" blood tests. I've been an advocate of laboratory testing for early disease detection, but now I'm even more committed. Please, please make sure your furry friend has had laboratory testing in addition to his or her semiannual physical examination!

Here's another interesting statistic. 25% of clinically normal dogs seven years of age or older had abnormal findings on abdominal radiographs. I often feel lucky if I can get a patient's "human" to do routine laboratory testing for them, let alone radiographs. I'm going to try harder to convince you to have that done as well. It's in my patients' best interest. If we can discover problems earlier, we can do something significant about them.

Steve McBride, DVM