Dog Wellness Testing: What, When, and Why

Experienced pet owner? Getting ready to adopt your first puppy? You should learn the basics of veterinary testing for pets at different periods of their lives. So that you never zone out while your vet’s spitting gibberish.

In this article, we’re breaking down the What, When, and Why of dog veterinary testing. We’ll walk you through the typical tests for young dogs, adults, and senior dogs.

We’ll also take a look at additional tests for certain conditions, and even throw in a couple of bonus tips at the end!

Key Takeaways

• Regular check-ups and testing for dogs are crucial for maintaining your pet’s health and detecting diseases early (you knew we would mention that, right?).
• It’s true, there are tests for common canine diseases that stay the same no matter the age. But some specialized tests help to diagnose age-specific conditions.
  • In short, puppies tend to get a lot of trouble from parvo and worms (especially if they are street rescues).
  • With adult dogs, you keep an eye out for manifestations of genetic diseases, heartworms, and signs of internal organ malfunctions.
  • Seniors — hello, liver, kidneys, arthritis, as well as everything else they had in their prime.
• Vaccination is a cornerstone of protection against diseases and infections. It’s particularly important for puppies, but also adults from high-risk groups: senior and geriatric dogs, and those with chronic health issues. Watch out for ticks, mosquitoes, and foxes in your area. Consult your local vet to determine if certain vaccinations are more crucial than others in your area.
• Joining your local pet hospital’s yearly health program could result in significant savings.

Puppy Checkup: Common Routine 

Having your puppy undergo standard tests is essential for protecting their health. So before you show off your new family member to your friends, make sure to bring the pup to your local clinic first.

The staff will go through the first steps you should take, and yes, it means testing.

First off, the veterinarian will begin with a physical examination. They will see if the dog shows any obvious signs of illness. They’ll conduct temperature checks, and fecal tests to look for intestinal parasites.

Your veterinarian will give your puppy deworming medicine, probably twice within the initial weeks. They’ll also tell you when you should return for your first vaccinations.

During your puppy’s initial visit, they’ll also carry out two standard tests: one for canine distemper and another for parvovirus.

• Canine distemper is a highly infectious and lethal disease. It assaults a dog’s respiratory, gastrointestinal, and nervous systems. Usually, vets conduct the test by drawing blood or swabbing the conjunctiva (pale pink stuff behind the eyelid).
• On the other hand, parvovirus is a virus that can cause severe vomiting, diarrhea, and dehydration. Parvovirus can also affect the heart muscle of young puppies, leading to cardiac problems or sudden death.
• Sudden death can occur in a puppy infected with parvovirus, even if it seems to be on the mend. It usually occurs at night and is caused by sudden cardiac arrest.

Parvo diagnosis typically involves an analysis of a dog’s fecal matter. The veterinarian may use the Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA) test, which identifies the presence of parvo in your pet’s stool within 15 minutes.

However, the ELISA test can occasionally produce false positives. Hence, you might be offered a white blood cell count test.

Parvo is known to affect the bone marrow. A decreased WBC count along with a positive ELISA test usually confirms the diagnosis.

Once your puppy has been dewormed, vaccinated (or treated) and quarantined a few times, you will be relatively free to socialize with other people and animals.

Only then can you take your puppy outside for his first walks.

Unvaccinated puppies and dogs are more susceptible to various diseases. Keep in mind, that vaccine immunity duration varies based on breed, age, and the specific virus.

Some viruses require a yearly booster, while others need one every three years. Good news, pet lovers! As your puppy grows, you’re likely to experience fewer hassles. Well, we certainly hope so.

Recommended Tests for Adult Dogs

Regular check-ups for mature dogs focus on early disease detection and monitoring of organ function. Veterinary practitioners will typically suggest to you:

• a physical exam
• fecal test
• blood pressure test
• tests for heartworms and tick-borne diseases
• blood count test and chemistry profile
• urinalysis (optional, depending on what the CBC and chemistry show). 

A complete examination of an adult dog should preferably include two more parameters:

• Thyroid T4 assay
• NT proBNP cardiac marker.

Blood count and chemistry profile tests help in evaluating organ function and spotting conditions like diabetes or anemia. You can learn more about all the different types of veterinary medical tests in our guide for pet owners.

Blood pressure tests can track potential hypertension indicators in adult dogs. And high blood pressure isn’t a joke. It can lead to:

• Thickening of the dog’s heart muscles, which can result in congestive heart failure.
• Damage to the heart valves, leading to a condition called valvular insufficiency. This condition can cause abnormal blood flow and leakage of blood through the valves, which can worsen heart function and increase the risk of heart failure.
• Damage to the nervous system, leading to symptoms such as seizures, disorientation, or behavioral changes.
• Loss of kidney function.
• Blindness, bleeding in the eye (hyphema), glaucoma (increased pressure within the eye), or cataracts (clouding of the lens).

Talk to and listen to your doctor to become better at understanding how to care for your pet better. Lab work can reveal minor changes in your dog’s body system and help prevent damage before it happens.

So make sure you are not skipping on your duties: just because your dog isn’t showing any symptoms, it doesn’t necessarily mean everything’s fine. 

Owning a pet while staying frugal isn’t easy. Navigating medical costs can be tricky. However, subscribing to your local health center’s wellness plans can help.

These plans can save you money on essential medical tests for the upcoming year.

For example, we offer this option for Armenian locals at Vet Express. Our Preventive Pet Care plans feature transparent discounts for yearly wellness, and you can add extra services like dental cleaning and grooming, as well.

Tests for Seniors

It goes without saying, older dogs need a tad more care. Depending on their breed and living conditions, they might be diagnosed with arthritis, heart issues, inflammations, and previously hidden genetic diseases.

You must keep an eye on their liver function, just as you’d watch over the kidney condition of adult and elderly cats.

Seniors Regular Checkup

So, your veterinarian might suggest that your dog should visit every six months, not “the usual” once a year unless there’s an urgent issue requiring immediate attention.

This schedule is a recommended minimum, so don’t be shocked if you have to make more frequent trips to the clinic.

Common tests for senior dogs include:

• Physical examination to detect weight loss, dental disease, and lumps
• Complete blood count and chemistry profile to identify organ dysfunction
• Urinalysis to uncover infections, bladder stones, and diabetes
• Specialized tests for genetic diseases, based on symptoms and physical exam results
• Intestinal parasite exam and heartworm test based on exposure risk.

This should allow your vet to determine if there’s any need to perform additional tests.

Thyroid hormone testing may also be recommended for dogs starting at six or seven years or those showing signs of hypothyroidism.

Hypothyroidism in Senior Dogs

Dog hypothyroidism is a condition where the dog’s immune system assaults its thyroid gland. This attack results in the gland’s inability to produce enough thyroid hormones.

Symptoms include weight gain, skin issues, constant fatigue, laziness, and difficulty exercising. Sounds pretty vague, doesn’t it? Because it is. Hypothyroidism is a condition that is only diagnosed correctly by testing.

Veterinarians assess a dog’s thyroid health by analyzing cTT4 (canine total T4). This test measures total T4 levels, indicating the function of the thyroid gland.

It’s crucial that your clinic has access to reliable testing equipment, ideally in an in-house lab. Some tests are more technically challenging than others. Your clinic should not be allowed to send thyroid tests to a human clinic, as is often practiced, for example, in Armenia.

Don’t hesitate to ask your vet about this: as a pet caregiver, you must make sure the results that come in are clean and dependable.

The common diagnostic workflow would include:

• Total T4 measurement
• Complete blood count
• Biochemical profile
• Electrolyte analysis
• Urinalysis
• Thyroglobulin Autoantibody (TgAA)

As a reference, at Vet Express Vet Lab & Clinic, we use Seamaty’s VG2 Vet Analyzer. It’s a top-tier diagnostic tool that merges fluorescence immunoassay, blood gas, and electrolyte analysis capabilities.

The results obtained with this analyzer are available to the attending physician within minutes. They are also accurate and reliable, so you can say with certainty whether your pet has a thyroid problem.

Cushing’s disease

Should your dog exhibit signs like excessive drinking and urination, increased appetite, poor coat quality, or recurring infections, it might indicate possible Cushing’s disease.

In such cases, an ACTH stimulation or low-dose dexamethasone suppression test is used. Check out this self-explanatory article about Dexamethasone Suppression Tests from VCA Animal Hospitals if you want to know more.

There comes a time when a veterinarian has to perform invasive surgery on a senior patient. As dogs age, problems accumulate, and this is normal.

If you haven’t already had your routine checkup before the surgical procedure is scheduled, the doctor will be required to perform a lot of checks, as any major intervention involves anesthesia.

Extra checks and anesthesia

Often, vets perform chest X-rays on older dogs before administering anesthesia to examine their lungs, airways, and heart size.

This is necessary because drugs used during a surgical operation may have a negative effect on the aging internal organs.

A responsible vet will definitely run pre-operational checks, and adjust the list of drugs accordingly. Some of them are more expensive than others, but are also more gentle on the body.

Others may be suitable for senior patients, except those with a diagnosed liver disease, or with a heart deficiency.

If a dog is likely to have an Apnea (it’s when the lung muscles stop working for a while), a veterinary anesthesiologist would have to be extra careful.

In the end, the decision on how to progress is always in the hands of the vet.

An abdominal ultrasound, on the other hand, helps in identifying diseases related to the spleen, pancreas, urinary bladder, and more.

Regular checkups greatly enhance a dog’s quality of life as they age. If a disease sets in, it might cause irreversible damage, reducing your pet’s lifespan. However, routine tests could extend their life by a few years, and it’s not just about the numbers.

Dogs that get early, proper treatment often experience less pain and fewer complications in their old age. After all, it is our, the owner’s, concern to provide them with a quality, full-fledged retirement.

One way to do this is not to skip checkups.

Additional Tests Your Veterinarian May Recommend

In an ideal world, routine tests performed during regular check-ups would be enough.

However, you already know it’s not always true. Occasionally, you will need to take additional steps.

Even if we tried our best to give you an exhaustive list of all the “extras” that could happen, we couldn’t. There’s just too much that can go wrong.

Let’s look at it from the perspective of arthritis.

If your pet is showing signs of arthritis, it’s common practice to do X-rays or joint fluid analysis to evaluate the severity of the condition.

There are also various tests for roots and causes of inflammations. Did you know that allergies and arthritis have a connection? 

The link between them partly stems from common inflammatory processes. They happen when your pet’s immune system goes into overdrive, reacting to an allergen — and triggering inflammation.

It doesn’t happen often, but pet owners may sometimes need to go the extra mile and pay for allergy testing. Allergy testing can include blood tests, and intradermal tests, and those can get costly.

Fortunately, there’s also a free “test” called an elimination diet. It’s when you remove certain foods from your pet’s diet to see if their symptoms improve, or get rid of all the sources of protein but one.

At the same time, there are other causes for allergy beside food. 

Thus, your aging dog begins to struggle to walk, and the expense of finding the cause can quickly become prohibitive. Of course, you can resort to symptomatic treatment, but this is not recommended in all cases and situations.

Realizing this, your veterinarian will always try to consider the reasonable economic horizons of your situation and tailor treatment to the each individual case.

But don’t forget: although more research may incur extra costs, without them, nobody can promise adequate treatment for your pet.

Help your veterinarian by following their recommendations and performing these tests when needed. This way, you can keep your pet healthy and happy for as long as possible.

Bottomline: there are just too many conditions that need specific testing before treatment. There’s ultrasound, MRI or CT scans, endoscopy, echocardiography, etc.

Whenever there’s an organ dysfunction, there’s a way to check it. We recommend reading our guide: Types of Veterinary Lab Tests for more information.

Bonus Tip: When You Adopt A Rescue From Abroad

Sometimes pet lovers opt for adopting rescues from abroad. While it’s a commendable choice, it’s also a big endeavor. Make sure you know all the potential pitfalls before diving in.

That said, you should probably consider asking for additional disease testing for the rescue of your choice (we assume the dog has already cleared commonly required tests like rabies). The tests may vary depending on the dog’s country of origin, but typically, they should include checks for Giardia, Babesiosis, and Brucellosis. 

It’s crucial to carry out the examinations before adoption. These diseases can spread through tick bites, mating, and contact with contaminated urine, posing a risk to other pets.

Please note that Brucellosis is often a lifetime infection in dogs, and it can spread to humans.

Another angle you might want to consider is this unsettling question: Is the dog shelter you’re adopting from trustworthy? Has it been implicated in questionable breeding or illicit importing activities?

Not all shelters in the world operate under ethical principles. Some may be involved in shady practices such as puppy mill operations or illegal smuggling of breeds.

These actions not only harm the animals involved, but they can put potential adopters at risk as well.

Unethical practices may result in dogs that are unhealthy, improperly socialized, or even aggressive. Moreover, if it is discovered that you’ve adopted a dog from a shelter involved in illegal activities, you could face legal repercussions. 

So, it’s crucial to do your homework on any shelter you’re thinking about adopting from, making sure they have a good reputation and are dedicated to animal welfare.

This approach makes conducting extra checks on your newly rescued pet less of a hassle. The local team will understand it and figure out the next steps together with you.

Instead of Conclusion

If you live in Armenia, don’t miss our Preventive Care Package deal. It’s perfect for regular check-ups for healthy pets and also for dogs or cats suffering from various conditions.

With preventive care, you can quickly address any irregularities and save on future vet visits if your pet encounters any issues.

For instance, the annual primary diagnostic cost at Vet Express Veterinary Care is 53,000 AMD with an applied yearly discount.

In comparison, the cost to treat the aftermath of undiagnosed CRF in cats ranges from 200,000 to 300,000 AMD, typically for about 10 days.

Let’s not even discuss the harm to the pet’s body — it’s something money can’t fix.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the costs associated with a dog’s health check in Armenia?

The cost varies depending on the type of tests, the condition of the animal, prices at the veterinary clinic, and discounts. Typically, you will see charges for a consultation, physical exam, and tests that the veterinarian prescribes. There may be costs for skin parasite and worming treatments, vaccinations and – treatment if a disease is diagnosed.

What is the best way to track my dog’s health between vet visits?

Your pet’s health relies on steady exercise, proper diet, and environmental vigilance. Involve your canine in routine workouts, watching for changes in behavior. Watch your pet’s diet for balance and make adjustments as needed. Observe your pet’s surroundings for potential dangers.

Are vaccinations necessary for all dogs, regardless of age?

All dogs need vaccinations for disease prevention, but the ultimate routine for your pet depends largely on its breed, age, and even a specific immune response. Consult your vet for a tailored vaccination strategy.

Are there any risks associated with veterinary diagnostics?

In general, no, but there are theoretical risks in any procedure. For example, an inexperienced veterinarian may not be able to get into your pet’s veins for the first time, especially in anemic dogs. Your dog may be stressed if they don’t like the clinic – and so on. Always get to know the staff ahead of time to avoid unforeseen circumstances.

What is the best way to prepare for a vet visit?

As you prepare for your dog’s visit to the clinic, carefully observe your dog’s behavior.

The smallest detail (how he behaves, where he looks, scratches, etc.) can tell you a lot. This is especially important if you suspect there is cause for concern. Read online for information about diseases specific to your dog’s breed, size, and health status. Always let your veterinarian know your concerns before your appointment, and listen carefully and follow their instructions. If the veterinarian says you need to starve, then you need to starve.