Dental Care for Pets, Australia’s leading veterinary dental specialist hospital, requires pre-anaesthetic blood and urine testing for all pets undergoing anaesthetic and dental work with us.
Why do we require pre-anaesthetic blood testing?
Blood results performed on a small number of our patients each year have resulted in either re-schedule of the procedure or discussion with your family Veterinarian about other diseases which were not visible on just the physical examination. Such examples include hyperthyroidism in an older cat with severe dental disease which necessitated medical treatment prior to the anaesthetic to increase safety. Older dogs and cats have demonstrated early kidney disease which was not apparent on physical examination – necessitating the placement of intravenous fluids (drip) at higher flow rates prior to the anaesthetic and for an extended time afterwards, rather than the usual shorter administration time.
We Use Idexx Laboratories
We utilise Idexx Veterinary Laboratories and Idexx in-house pathology, backed up by their Pathology Specialists. Idexx Laboratories are the world leader in companion animal health diagnostics.
Whilst we recommend that you have blood tested prior to your pet’s arrival, if you elect not to, we have in-house Idexx blood pathology equipment to provide you and your pet with real-time pathology solutions as blood results are collected and run within a short period after collection.
At the dental clinic our trained nurses are able to collect blood and urine from your pet on arrival in the morning and provide results and answers on the same morning prior to dental surgery. This ensures, in combination with a thorough physical examination, that your pet receives same day care, and if there are any major abnormalities, either re-schedule the dental surgery, talk to your family Veterinarian about treatment options or plan for a safer anaesthetic for a successful outcome.
Increased safety for your pet’s dental anaesthetics
Pre-anaesthetic examinations provide increased safety during you pet’s dental anaesthetic. We have performed Idexx pre-anaesthetic blood profiles on over 3,000 patients and have re-scheduled or not performed dental surgery on pets who seemed clinically normal, but had an abnormal condition, such as kidney disease, which could have lead to a serious outcome.
We have also added a Specialist veterinary anaesthetist, Dr Leah Bradbury to our team, so your pet receives the best of care whilst at our hospital.