I think it's a good idea. And I'm faced with this question a lot because they'll come in for a yearly checkup on a, I don't know, let's say 10-year-old dog, and he's perfectly fine. Well, I get it. You wonder—does he need it? I don't know yet, to be honest with you. Do I recommend it? Yeah. You bet I do. Why? Because he's 10. If I catch something early, then I have a much better chance to treat it effectively. If I don't look, I'll never know. Maybe he's a dog that comes in two weeks after he was just here, and now his kidneys are greatly impaired. He's in kidney failure. Something like that. Would I have had better results knowing that two weeks prior and addressing it then? Heck yeah, I would have. So if given the opportunity, yeah, I will always choose for the side of being cautious and more proactive when I can. But the word "need" blood work is an interesting word because it's, like I said, if you don't look, you'll never know. So it's my job to be the advocate for the pet and recommend things earlier if possible so we can catch them earlier and have a better treatment outcome.

Depending on what test we run and if we do the lab in the veterinary clinic, I would argue to tell you between five and 10 minutes you'll have them back. And again, when we say lab results, we're talking about fecals, urine analysis, CBCs, chemistry, maybe a coag panel. Most clinics, including ours, has in-house equipment that allows for point of care blood work, such as that, or lab work, I should say. In the cases of those tests I just rambled off, I’ll have the results in 5-10 minutes. Some tests that have to be sent off, like phenobarbital, certain thyroid panels, ACTH, or various endocrine type panels that we're screening for, those likely have to be sent off to an outside lab. And that might take anywhere from one to maybe even two, three days to get back.