Do you do yearly bloodwork?

Southpaw

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#1
Just wondering. Juno & Happy are coming to work with me tomorrow morning so they can get "heartworm profiles" ran - heartworm test + chemistry + CBC.

As much as I think annual bloodwork is a fantastic idea, especially for seniors, to be honest I probably wouldn't do it if I didn't work there. But I'm just curious to see what their bloodwork looks like and, primarily for Juno, to get a healthy baseline.

I'm actually really bad and usually don't even do heartworm tests. :eek:

Lucy had presurgical bloodwork done before her dental 2 months ago, so she gets to miss out on this event tomorrow :p
 

Xandra

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#2
My dog doesn't even see the vet every year. He's never had bloodwork done.
 

crazedACD

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#4
Only for Romeo. And well, that isn't every year, usually when I have extra money to spend :p. Romeo had/has kidney issues that the vets want monitored (yearly bloodwork) but we went in last year and everything came back totally normal. So I'll do it maybe in another year or two.

The other dogs, naw, not unless I suspected health issues. I don't do heartworm tests every year either (I do my own ivermec), though I probably should.
 

PWCorgi

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#5
Frodo has yearly bloodwork done because of the meds he is on, to make sure they are not hurting his liver.

I will have Siri's done when she is about a year or so old, simply to have a baseline.
 

Beanie

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#6
Not yet, but I will soon with Auggie since he's a senior now. I put it off this year (not going to accept that my dog is a senior.) but I'm going to do so next year. He had bloodwork done as a puppy before his neuter and also when he was 6 before his bladder surgery.

P will have bloodwork done at the same time we do his OFA x-rays.
 

Toller_08

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#7
Nope. I've thought about it, but really don't see a need. That said, I did decide to have Dance, Keira and Ripley's bloodwork done last summer just because I was curious. Everyone's came back perfect. But they likely won't have a full panel done again for a while. Our vet thought it was weird actually that I wanted it done at all, since there were no surgeries or anything coming up and the dogs weren't sick. I'll probably get Journey's done next year as a baseline, but other than that, I don't have any future bloodwork plans for the dogs.
 

JessLough

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#8
Frodo has yearly bloodwork done because of the meds he is on, to make sure they are not hurting his liver.

I will have Siri's done when she is about a year or so old, simply to have a baseline.
Oh, yes, I'll add too, everybody here gets bloodwork done around a year so we have a baseline.

Rosey for her last year was on meds that required blood work every 6 months, to be sure there was no damage to her kidneys.

Senior ferrets get blood glucose tests done every 3 months, but that's not really blood work, it's a speck of blood :p
 

Whisper

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#9
No. They've all had bloodwork done, but only when there was suspicion of a problem or upcoming surgery.
I don't do yearly checkups either. However, since Millie is truly a senior now (can't deny it anymore :/) I'm going to start them for her. I already suspect she's starting to lose some hearing, so I know I need to keep a closer watch on whatever may be going on with her.
 

meepitsmeagan

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#10
Nope. I had a CBC done for Harlow last year for a baseline, but I don't know how accurate it was because she had a UTI and a mild cough. Would love to get one for Rider, but I will probably wait til next year, as I'm getting his thyroid checked coming up next week. That should be fun.. he's not a fan of needles.
 

BostonBanker

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#12
Meg got hers this year, and will yearly from now on. She is nearly nine.

Gusto has had a baseline done; barring any issues, I won't do him again for a few years.
 

Flyinsbt

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#13
I should with Tess, since she's 7 now, and ideally I think one should with a senior. But I just can't afford it at this time.
 

Southpaw

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#14
Yeah, I'm always surprised when people with young dogs want all the bloodwork ran. Definitely not a bad thing, just not something I expect most people to do. The combo with the heartworm test is a really good deal though - adding on the CBC and chemistry is just $35 more than the heartworm test on its own! :p

It is cool though, we've caught things early in animals just based on the trends their bloodwork was showing. Or recently a dog that was seemingly healthy, that apparently has a jacked up liver which we found out by running bloodwork before his dental.

Dunno if I'll do it every year. Guess I'll have to see how much this costs me! I don't know why I'm doing it on Happy. Pure curiosity I think - is she really as healthy as she seems to be? I don't do annual exams or vaccines either. It's almost like I need to do SOMEthing in order to redeem myself in the eyes of everyone else. :lol-sign:
 

MandyPug

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#15
We don't even do yearly exams.

She had bloodwork before her first spat attempt though and it came back slightly anemic. Nothing since.
 

SpringerLover

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#16
I have done yearly bloodwork and eye exams for the last... five or so years. Actually, everyone actually has bloodwork run more often than that because everyone is on meds.

Would I do it yearly on a young animal? Maybe...
 

Brattina88

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#17
Maddie gets a thorough exam and complete blood work 2x a year. She's on meds that I have to keep an eye on her liver, though ;) but its peace of mind for me, I want to have a baseline and a heads up if anything changes.
I had Bailey done last year for a baseline. I'll see how I feel about it, but probably won't :p
 

JacksonsMom

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#18
Well, Jackson did not have bloodwork until he was 3, I think. I went to a low cost neuter clinic and they didn't even do it then. Looking back, I'm shocked I did it that way, but hey everything turned out fine.

With that said, he's 4 1/2 and he's been to the vet every year for something or another. 2011 was an expensive year for us, he got sick and had an overnight hospital stay (and had 3 separate bloodwork panels done within a week). Then he had an operation on his canine tooth later that year so bloodwork was done before that. Last year was the first year he did not go to the vet at all and I decided in December to just bring him for a yearly and everything checked out good (no bloodwork though, vet didn't see a need). He just had a dental 2 weeks ago so he had bloodwork again, all perfect.


So basically, I wish I would've done one when he was younger so I could've had a baseline. In the future, I'll probably do bloodwork every other year unless something is medically wrong. I'm just paranoid and I like hearing that my dog is healthy. :)
 
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#19
I too work at a clinic so I'm also biased but my old lady got twice yearly bloodwork (a full profile with her annual and just a pre-anesthetic six months later). Obi gets yearly blood/urinalysis/stool tests for free since he's a blood donor :)
 

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