By Dr. Morris Samson, Kingston Road Animal Hospital, with Joanne Ingrassia
For Beach Metro – February 16, 2004 issue

Just as it is for humans, it is a wise idea to make sure your pet has regular check-ups, including wellness tests that could include urine, stool and sometimes blood tests. These simple tests can tell volumes about the state of your pet’s health and wellness to your veterinarian.

What a little pee can tell

Urine tests can indicate a number of health situations or conditions that can then be assessed and treated, if necessary. For instance, they can help to diagnose diseases, some of which show very few, if any, obvious symptoms. This could include such fairly common urinary problems as crystals or stones.

But urine tests provide much more information to a veterinarian than just about urinary diseases. For instance, they can provide information about the integrity of many body systems, and can help define or verify non-urinary problems or conditions, such as diabetes. Urine screening tests can help detect many other treatable diseases, especially in the early stages if the urine tests are done regularly, which improves the outcome for the pet.

Urine tests can also be used to monitor existing diseases to see if they are progressive or not. And they can be used to measure the effectiveness of treatments. Sometimes, medications will be adjusted due to results of urine tests that indicate how well the pet is responding or absorbing the medications.

Especially important for older pets

Urine tests, along with stool and blood tests, are especially important diagnostic tools for pet health as pet’s age, and should be considered mandatory once a pet is considered a senior. For dogs and cats, that means around age 7. Just like humans, pets can develop conditions as they age that can often be caught and treated through simple tests such as these.

Samples easy to collect

It’s surprisingly easy to get urine or stool samples from your pets. Some pet owners are able to gather samples from their pets, with guidance on how to do it properly by their veterinarian. Cats, for instance, can be placed in a clean litter box with non-absorbable litter so that when they urinate or defecate, the waste product stays separate from the litter and can be carefully poured into a vet-provided sample containers. Dog owners can sometimes put a small container underneath their dog as it begins to urinate as dogs will usually continue to urinate and not stop mid-stream if this is done quickly enough. Stool samples of course are easy to pick up since as responsible dog owners, we all know how to poop and scoop! Alternatively, urine samples can be taken at the veterinarian’s office in different ways, if necessary.

Blood tests, too

Like urine tests, blood tests, especially for senior pets, can also be very helpful in providing information about many body systems and samples can be taken easily by your veterinarian Special geriatric blood screens can evaluate your pet’s health and point to specific areas to watch for should any of the results indicate anything out of balance.

Wellness tests cost effective

Regular wellness tests like urine, stool and blood, are less expensive when compared to having to later treat a disease if it isn’t caught early enough by simple diagnostic tools like these.

If you are not already getting regular wellness tests for your pet, or geriatric blood tests as well for older pets, speak with your veterinarian to see if it might be worthwhile to include these tests at your pet’s next check-up.