Pet Diagnostics
Veterinary ServicesYour pet’s health is our top priority, so we take great care in diagnosis and prevention.
Diagnostics Services at
Tustin Legacy Animal Hospital
Our team of veterinarians and veterinary technicians use state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment to ensure your pet’s condition is accurately and confidently measured.
Laser Therapy, X-Rays, & Ultrasound
Laser Therapy
If your pet experiences a soft tissue injury, chronic pain, or a wound that needs some more help healing, our doctors may add laser therapy to your pet’s treatment plan. Therapeutic laser is the application of light energy to areas of the body to stimulate and accelerate healing. Therapeutic laser reduces pain by decreasing inflammation, as well as by decreasing tissue chemicals that stimulate pain and by affecting nerve conduction. The therapeutic laser also enhances healing by increasing microcirculation (blood flow through the body’s smaller blood vessels), stimulating cellular activity, and increasing growth factors.
Ultrasound
Ultrasonography is a type of diagnostic technique that uses ultrasound waves to produce an imaging study. This means that when we perform ultrasonography, we can see internal images of the patient’s body. Unlike some other imaging studies, like x-rays, ultrasonography does not use radiation. Instead, ultrasonography uses high-frequency sound (ultrasound) waves to create a picture of what is inside your pet’s body. Ultrasonography is a completely non-invasive, painless way to diagnose and evaluate many common diseases.
X-Rays
With the advances in digital x-ray technology, we can now manipulate the digital images that we take off a pet’s systems to see what is wrong. This has allowed us to detect things like hairline fractures and orthopedic conditions that were previously not visible. We share these digital images with specialists who consult with us on difficult cases.
Radiology (x-rays) is routinely used to provide valuable information about a pet’s bones, gastrointestinal tract (stomach, intestines, colon), respiratory tract (lungs), heart, and genitourinary system (bladder, prostate). It can be used alone or in conjunction with other diagnostic tools to provide a list of possible causes for a pet’s condition, identify the exact cause of a problem or rule out possible problems.
Bloodwork & Diagnostics
Bloodwork is usually a combination of a complete blood count (CBC) and a blood chemical analysis. Blood work is a basic evaluation tool. Pets, particularly those in their senior years, should have a CBC at every annual examination. Blood work allows a veterinarian to monitor the progression of a pet’s disease.
Routine blood tests are run before anesthesia and surgery to make sure that your pet does not have a disease or illness that would make anesthesia or surgery a significant risk. This lab work is very similar to the “pre-op labs” that your doctor would recommend before you have any procedure performed on yourself.
