​At the Elmsdale Animal Hospital we have a wide variety of in house testing equipment to give your pet the best care as quickly as possible.

Blood Analysis

These machines are the workhorses of our diagnostic equipment! One machine gives our doctors a complete blood count to check for things like anemia, inflammation, infection and clotting ability. Another looks at enzyme and electrolyte levels to infer internal organ and endocrine (glands) function. This can tell us if your pet has kidney or liver problems, pancreatitis, and thyroid disease. These analyzers are an important part of our pre-anesthetic screenings, allowing owners the luxury of having these tests done the same day as their pet’s surgical procedure. We can also test for Lyme Disease (and 3 other tick-borne diseases including heartworm) and Leptospirosis in dogs and Feline Leukemia and Feline Immunodefiency in cats. 

Urinalysis

Urinalysis is an important piece of many diagnostic plans. It allows us to check for urinary tract infections and inflammation, urinary crystals, and kidney problems. Its amazing how much information you can get from a little urine! Our Idexx SediVue is a urine analyzer that uses very little sample and allows us to have results in minutes. It also takes 70 high quality images of the sample (as you can see in the image to the right) to keep as part of the medical record. 

Digital Radiography

You can see this poor puppy's broken leg!

​This machine allows us to take and see radiographs in seconds, much more quickly than older systems using film! Radiographs, or x-rays, allow doctors to see what is going on inside your pet and can help evaluate cardiac health, check for broken bones, and see what’s happening inside the body. 

Cytology

​Our microscope is how we analyze samples that are too small to see with the naked eye. Fecal samples are checked for parasites and bacterial overgrowth. Skin and ear cytologies can tell us if there is a bacterial infection, fungal overgrowth or mites. We can also look at samples taken from lumps to identify the type of mass.

This is how a yeast overgrowth looks under the microscope!

ECG - Electrocardiogram

​This little machine allows us to detect an arrhythmia and monitor patients under anesthetic. This test is part of our pre-surgical screening (along with blood work) and can help us to evaluate your pet's anesthetic risk. These results are sent to board certified anesthesiologists or cardiologists to ensure the best care possible for your pet. 

We are also pleased to offer monthly ultrasounds with a visiting board-certified Radiologist