Feline Wellness and Senior Screening
Routine blood work is an essential diagnostic tool that provides important information regarding your cat’s health. Yearly blood work allows us to understand what your cat’s normal blood values are and to identify trends in their blood work from year to year.
What does this blood work include?
• Wellness screen: Cats 1-9 years of age need a wellness screen yearly. Our wellness screen is comprised of three tests: Complete Blood Count (CBC), minor chemistry panel, and urinalysis.
• Senior screen: All cats 10 years of age and older need a senior screen at least once yearly. Our senior screen is comprised of three tests: Complete Blood Count (CBC), full chemistry panel, and urinalysis.
What does this blood work tell us?
• Complete Blood Count (CBC): A CBC is the measure of white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets. This test helps us identify problems, such as infection, anemia, low platelet count, and bone marrow disease.
• Chemistry panel: The minor chemistry panel provides information on kidney and liver values, protein levels, and blood sugar. The major chemistry panel also includes those values, with additional information regarding liver values, electrolytes, calcium, and phosphorus.
• Urinalysis: This test looks a urine concentration, which along with kidney values, helps fully assess your cat’s kidney function. We also look for signs of urinary tract infection and inflammation, as well as blood, crystals, and cancerous cells.
The three most common diseases of older cats are kidney disease, diabetes, and hyperthyroidism. Wellness and senior screening allows us to test for these disease and initiate proper treatment. If detected early, these diseases can be effectively managed and your cat can live a longer, healthier life.
Hyperthyroidism
Hyperthyroidism is the most common hormone abnormality in cats. Thyroid hormones affect nearly every organ in the body; therefore, thyroid disease can cause many secondary problems, including heart disease, high blood pressure, and gastrointestinal disease. Early detection of hyperthyroidism is the key to minimizing the risk of these secondary health problems.
Signs of hyperthyroidism:
• Weight loss
• Increased appetite
• Increased thirst and urination
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Hyperactivity
• Excessive vocalization
Hyperthyroidism is easily diagnosed with a simple blood test. Additional diagnostics may be needed, including blood pressure measurement and heart evaluation, to further evaluate your cat’s health status.
There are several options for treatment of hyperthyroidism and treatment is tailored to each individual patient.
Kidney disease
Kidney disease is the most common disease of middle-aged to older cats. Approximately 50% of cats over the age of 15 suffer from this disease. The goal of routine blood work is to detect kidney disease in its earliest stages, which is often prior to any physical signs of disease.
Signs of kidney disease:
• Increased thirst and urination
• Inappropriate urination
• Weight loss
• Decreased appetite
• Vomiting
The diagnosis of kidney disease is made by evaluating kidney values, electrolytes, and protein levels. Urine screening evaluates urine concentration and evidence of infection to fully assess kidney function.
Early diagnosis, nutritional therapy, and supportive home care provide the best prognosis.
Diabetes
Diabetes is a common endocrine disease of middle-aged cats. In cats, diabetes is generally caused by a lack of response to insulin, which is needed for the body to use glucose (blood sugar).
Signs of diabetes:
• Increased thirst and urination
• Inappropriate urination
• Vomiting
• Lethargy
Diabetes is diagnosed based on your cat’s physical exam findings, along with blood work and urine testing to evaluate for the presence of glucose in your cat’s blood and urine.
Undetected diabetes will shorten a cat’s lifespan, making early diagnosis key to keeping your cat healthy. With early detection and initiation of proper treatment, diabetes is a treatable and manageable condition.