Our hospital utilizes both an outside commercial veterinary laboratory as well as an in-house laboratory, which allows us to offer comprehensive diagnostic care directly to our furry patients. These advanced lab services are capable of meeting a wide range of needs, including routine blood work, urinalysis, fecal diagnostics, and dermatology and cytology analyses, as well as the most sophisticated diagnostic assays in order to identify what your pet needs.
Because we do have a laboratory right here at TotalBond Veterinary Hospital at Forestbrook, when necessary a fast turnaround on results is ensured. We know how stressful it can be to wait for results when you’re worried about your pet, so we make every effort to deliver results as quickly as possible without ever sacrificing accuracy and confidence.
Our lab manages a wide range of diagnostic tasks. Some are routine, like blood work used to get an overall look at your pet’s health. Others will be requested when we want to confirm information on your pet based on outward symptoms or behavior. Here are just a few of the most common lab tests that we conduct at TotalBond Veterinary Hospital at Forestbrook:
Blood is made up mainly of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Taking a complete blood count (CBC) can tell us a lot about your pet’s health, including information about potential problems like inflammation, infection, anemia, and even some specific types of cancer.
This general test is used to determine how healthy your pet is when it comes to their organ functions. It will sometimes be conducted on a before/after basis to see how your pet responds to treatment or changes to diet or behavior.
Analyzing urine samples is not only used to help diagnose problems, but can be a great way to prevent future issues from popping up. Regular urine tests as part of your pet’s regular check-up schedule can give our veterinarians a lot of important information, and help us catch infections or diseases when it’s early enough to treat them.
Like urine samples, fecal samples can tell us a lot about your pet’s health, including information about parasites, digestive issues, problems with the pancreas, internal bleeding, and other conditions. For that reason, we recommend that owners bring samples of their pets feces to annual checkups for analysis.
Cytology is the microscopic examination of cell samples taken from skin, lumps, bumps, and other tissues. When we do this in our in-house laboratory, it provides quick, easy, and Inexpensive insight into whatever type of lesion or condition has been observed. In some cases, we will advise that the cell sample be sent to a pathologist for more expert over-read.
Histopathology Is sending an actual tissue sample to the lab for a pathologist to read and diagnose. This is always done through our commercial laboratory and generally takes 3-4 days for a result.
We will often send a sample of fluid - urine, pus, or other material - to be cultured that we may a) Identify the organism causing an infection, and b) Identify the best antibiotics that will work against It (and conversely, which ones to avoid).
Cultures, skin scrapings, and other microscopic analyses are often used to look for parasites, bacteria, fungus, or other abnormalities that your pet may have picked up. These are commonly performed with pets exhibiting itchy or other abnormal skin, coat, or ear problems.
In the simplest terms, imaging allows us to find out more about your pet than we can in a physical examination or even blood tests. It lets us get high-def images of the internal organs and systems of your pets body, which can be vital in assessing its health, looking for issues, or determining whether a treatment is effective.
Radiographs emit so little radiation that it’s completely safe for your pet. Meanwhile, our expert staff at TotalBond Veterinary Hospital at Forestbrook will make sure your pet is calm, comfortable, and rewarded for the procedure— which is relatively quick and completely painless; occasionally we may advise mild sedation to make it go even faster and easier.
We provide point of care "FAST" ultrasound scans, usually done while your pet is in a standing position being offered treats and takes only about 10 minutes. For more comprehensive ultrasound scans, we arrange to have performed at our sister facility, TotalBond Veterinary Hospital in Lake Wyle.
These diagnostic imaging procedures can help assess a range of organs and conditions, including the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and conditions like arthritis, liver disease, spinal cord disease, and bladder stones. We can also look closely at the position and size of your pet’s organs, which can give us information about whether they’re fighting medical conditions like kidney or heart disease. Serious issues like intestinal blockage or tumors will also sometimes influence the size, shape and position of organs— all things we can see thanks to diagnostic imaging.
Your pet's radiographs will be examined by us but also customarily sent digitally to, and read by, both a computed automated artificial-intelligence program (report back within 10 min) and a human Board-certified radiologist (usually <24 hours). Once we’ve had a look at your pets internal organs, and received the reports, we’ll be able to take next steps like making an informed diagnosis and developing a treatment plan that will ensure their continued health.
Your pet’s skin, fur, ears, eyes, and feet go through a lot. They often spend lots of time outside, running through long grass, plants, pollen, flowers, and a whole lot more. As a result, allergies and dermatological issues are fairly common among dogs, cats, and other pets. These issues can leave your pet feeling unhappy, uncomfortable, and anxious— and they often only get worse with time.
When you bring in your pet with a suspected allergy or skin problem (or during regular examinations), we’ll be sure to assess for signs of known allergy symptoms or discomfort due to skin. Some of the most common ways that you can identify issues like these in your pet at home include:
We love dermatology and can assess your pet's allergies, conduct examinations of skin, eyes, ears, feet, and fur, and offer diagnoses and general treatment plans,. managing the needs for 95+% of our patients. For the most advanced or difficult cases, we do refer to veterinary dermatology specialists in Charlotte. We only partner with the absolute best, so you can be assured that your pet will be in the best possible care whether they’re here with us or being taken care of by our local dermatological specialist.
Electrocardiogram records the electrical activity of the heart
Blood pressure can have either hypertension or hypotension just like people!
Capnography measures carbon dioxide output
Pulse Oximetry measures oxygen saturation of blood
TotalBond Veterinary Hospitals at Forestbrook has each of these devices, used for acute emergencies, anesthetic monitoring, or chronic care monitoring – the better to understand and safely treat your pet!
Our animal hospital is located just 26 minutes from downtown Charlotte via I-85 N. We are by Gaston Country Club, easily accessible to the pets of Gaston County and the surrounding areas.
Phone: 704-867-8318
