At the Ark Veterinary Centre, we have our own in house laboratory. This enable us to perform blood and urine tests on your pet, often while you wait. So we can start appropriate treatment right away and minimises repeated visits for you and your pet.

What tests do we offer?

Biochemistry

We use a VetScanVS2, which is a state-of-the-art chemistry machine that delivers uncompromising accuracy from just two drops of whole blood, serum or plasma. The VetScan provides precision reference laboratory quality results in just 12 minutes. It allows us to check your pet’s liver, kidney and thyroid function, as well as their glucose, protein and salt levels. It is crucial for doing preoperative blood tests, checking hydration levels, assessing liver function, and monitoring kidney function. If your pet is unfortunate enough to become unwell, it allows us to make a rapid diagnosis and start treatment right away. It also allows us to monitor response to treatment in hospitalised animals. We also use it for routine health checks in our geriatric clinics.

Haematology

Our HMII haematology machine provides us with highly accurate red and white blood cell counts in just 2-3 minutes. It allows us to rapidly diagnose infections, anaemias and other blood related disorders (e.g. leukaemia).

Blood Gasses

For those animals what require intensive care we use our IRMA. It accurately measures critical parameters such as electrolytes, blood gases, Lactate, BUN, Creatinine, Glucose, and Hematocrit. All tests are performed with single-use disposable test cartridges. It allows us to fine tune the treatment your pet receives and hopefully return them home sooner.

Urine Tests

We use a refractometer and testing kits to analyse your pet’s urine, as well as looking at samples under the microscope. This allows us to check:

• how concentrated it is (tells us how well the kidneys are working and how much the animal is drinking)
• the presence of red or white blood cells suggesting infection of inflammation
• the presence of bacteria confirming infection
• the presence of protein, suggesting damage/inflammation in the kidneys
• alterations in the pH of the urine which may increase the risk of crystal formation
• the presence of crystals which may lead to infections and obstructions
• the presence of glucose or ketones, diagnosing diabetes

Microscope

We also use the microscope to look at other sample

• swabs taken from ears, checking for the presence of mites, yeast or bacterial infection
• aspirates (small samples) taken from skin lumps
• scrapings taken from skin looking fro the presence of mites

Our microscope has a camera built in so we can show you the samples and add them to your pet’s clinical record

Finally

We have access to a specialist outside laboratory to perform more complex tests such as:

• histopathology
• cytology
• bacterial culture and sensitivity

They collect samples from us each evening and courier them to the lab ready to be run in the morning. This ensures your samples are safe and not reliant on the postal system.

This laboratory employs many specialist pathologists, who are always on hand to discuss your pet’s results with us to aid any diagnosis.