What lab tests are the most accurate and why?

That's a great question. I think that most lab tests that we would choose to run, we would choose them because of their accuracy. We know that other factors can also call some values to be high when they're not. For instance, the heart test for cats, the BNP test—we know that if they have thyroid disease or something else going on, that could elevate that superficially or inadvertently, and it may not necessarily be an abnormal value.

We're looking at the physical exam combined with the history, clinical signs, and blood work. Let’s say we have a cat that's running a high fever, and they are dehydrated. We’re going to expect certain values, like perhaps some of the kidney values, to be elevated when this doesn’t necessarily mean kidney disease. But it is affecting the kidneys because of other problems. We would interpret that with everything else going on.