Diagnostic Services

One of the most important aspects of evaluating a pet in sickness or in health is the ability to analyze how well your pet's internal organs and processes are functioning. For example, are the kidneys and liver doing their jobs removing waste products from the body? Are the heart and lungs circulating blood and oxygen effectively?

Laboratory testing and x-rays provide us a view inside the body so that we may assess your pet's overall systemic health without the need for more invasive and expensive procedures. That's why we maintain an in-house laboratory at Park Pet Hospital and regularly test your pet during wellness exams or if we suspect your pet may have a health issue.

We provide in-house pre-anesthetic and general health biochemical profiling, complete blood counts, complete urinalysis, FeLV/FIV testing, bacteriologic culture and sensitivity and cytology. Some test results are available in as little as 15 minutes, whereas others are completed by the next morning.

We also send out numerous laboratory tests every day to regional and national diagnostic centers that provide us with a vast array of ways to investigate your pet's health. With prompt turn around times and pathologist and clinical specialists available for consultation, these labs help us to provide state-of-the-art diagnostics at affordable prices. Thyroid-profiling, adrenal and reproductive hormone levels, clotting and immune function testing, and histopathology are considered routine tests at our practice.

Dr. Jacobs, Dr. Hoppe, and Dr. Poehlmann have a combination of over 75 years of experience diagnosing and treating a multitude of common and not so common conditions in pets. If your little loved one is not acting like his or herself, let us try to help figure out what's ailing them.

Radiology

Radiographs (x-rays) are extremely helpful for diagnosing and monitoring many medical and surgical conditions. They help us examine your pet's bones, lungs, heart, abdomen, oral cavity and other areas of the body. An x-ray can spot a fractured bone, detect tumors, help with the diagnosis of heartworm disease or identify the presence of a urinary stone. When used in conjunction with other diagnostic procedures such as ultrasound, x-rays can often determine which organ system is involved and how extensive the disease process has become. Sometimes a simple x-ray can help rule-out important diagnostic possibilities such as metastatic disease in the lungs or ingested foreign bodies in the stomach or intestines. Many pets will hold steady for routine radiographs and these can be taken during an office call, but some studies will require dropping them off for out-patient hospitalization and sedation. Radiographs are reviewed immediately by our doctors, and in select situations they may be submitted to a specialist for consultation.

Ultrasound

Ultrasound is a pain-free, totally non-invasive technique that uses high-frequency sound waves to produce a real-time image of your pet's internal organs. Ultrasonography can provide both stillshot images or a movie clip of what is happening inside your pet's body. The process is particularly useful in viewing your pet's abdominal organs including the spleen, kidneys, prostate, urinary bladder, liver, and gallbladder. It can also be used to evaluate the heart and create images of other areas such as the thyroid gland, testicles and mammary glands.

Ultrasound also works well in conjunction with other diagnostic tools and a wide range of diagnostic procedures. For example, if an x-ray shows a lesion inside your pet, an ultrasound may be able to determine the origin of the lesion and whether it has spread elsewhere in your pet's body. In cases of trauma or internal bleeding, a quick ultrasound scan may identify free fluid and permit sampling of the fluid. When using the ultrasound image as a guide, surgical biopsies can sometimes be obtained without major surgery and your pet can often go home the same day.

While not typically uncomfortable for your pet, ultrasound exams may require shaving off or wetting down some fur, and can take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes to perform. Sedation and a brief stay in the hospital may be needed for some pets. The Park Pet Hospital performs basic ultrasounds and we refer more complicated cases to a local imaging specialist.

Endoscopy

Endoscopy is an effective method of non-invasively looking into your pet's gastrointestinal tract by passing a flexible fiberoptic endoscope through the mouth (Upper GI) or anus (Lower GI). With endoscopy we can visualize the inner surface of the esophagus, stomach and intestines, and collect mucosal biopsies if indicated for the diagnosis of common conditions such as gastritis and inflammatory bowel disease.

Occasionally, foreign bodies may be retrieved endoscopically or cancers diagnosed without the need for surgery. Gastrointestinal ulcers and esopahgeal strictures are best appreciated on an endoscope exam, and many chronic cases of diarrhea or GI bleeding are investigated with a "scoping" procedure. Endoscopy at the Park Pet Hospital is performed under general anesthesia but pets go home the same day and generally make a rapid recovery.

In-House Pharmacy

Because Park Pet Hospital is the prescribing veterinary practice for your pet's medications, we are able to ensure there is a direct link between the exam room and our pharmacy. This means your pet will receive the right medication, at the right dose, in the right form as quickly as possible. We will also be able to easily guide you on the medication's use as well as monitor its effectiveness.

We maintain a sizable inventory of pharmaceuticals, heartworm preventives, flea and tick control products, and shampoos to meet the needs of your pet. We regularly stock some of the medications in cat-friendly flavors and can collaberate with a local compounding pharmacist to make tablets into liquids in sizes and tastes that take the hassle out of giving our loved ones the meds they need. We even have our own internet-based pharmacy for you to order whole bottle sizes of most presciption medications that we stock at the Park Pet Hospital and many that we don't keep on hand. Please click on the Vet Source® logo on our home page to access our internet pharmacy and obtain information about home delivery of medications and prescription diet foods. Refills are easy, too. Simply give us a call on the phone or request a refill from Vet Source®, and if we authorize it, it'll be on its way to you the very next day.