I think for young animals, unless there is a problem, it is not necessary to run routine bloodwork. For older animals, it probably is wise to run a panel every couple of years. Is your vet charging this amount for in-house lab work or does he send the blood out? That makes a difference in price. And also if it's a full panel. Naturally before you put an animal under anesthetic, you should let them do an in-house blood check.

Jan

Good point about in-house. This is sent out. I think they do have an in-house option. Here are the details. :

Laboratory Services
530 Bact. Culture, discounted
Laboratory Services - Sent Out
1490 Baseline Testing Profile
461 Blood Collection-Venipuncture
71 Blood Pressure with exam
1233 Chemistry Profile(17)
1331 Complete Blood Count
201 Intraocular Pressure
498 SPECIAL DISCOUNT
1263 T4 (Marshfield)
320 Urinalysis/Sediment Exam
462 Urine Collection
Total for Bo: $ 225.64 - $ 249.24 (Difference in price is the bacteria culture - I have to ask the vet about that)

I forgot to mention. This cat is 7 years old - his last blood/baseline testing was 3 years ago. No health problems.

For my animals that have health problems I try to do a yearly blood test, but I've never paid that much for a profile. The most I've paid is $125 and that included an additional test not usually done.

Intraocular Pressure, blood pressure and urinalysis would not be included in an annual 'blood test'.

The last time I had a blood profile done I didn't pay that much either. I do believe it was in the $125.00 to $135.00 range. I think this is something that only you can decide if you need. The $600.00 for the dental (I am guessing this is teeth cleaning with no gum/tooth problems) sounds very high to me. Last dane whose teeth I had cleaned, with flouride treatment, was $145.00 including in-house blood work and anesthetic.

Jan

I can't have cats because of my husband's allergies, but I do have 4 dogs. I get a CBC and chem panel run on all of them every 6 months. K'Ehleyr is 8 years old, Max is 7, Ana is 4.5, and Tatya is almost 2. If I didn't get a killer vet student discount, I'd do Ana and Tatya only once a year, but Max and K'Ehleyr still every 6 months. They are both healthy. If they were sick and needed monitoring, they'd get more frequent bloodwork done. I do complete physical exams on my pets every month; most people can't do that at home.

My discounted price is $20 for the full CBC and Chem panel, $45 for the T4, and $15 for the urinalysis. The place I used to work charges $150 for the CBC, Chem, urinalysis and T4 for cats. If the cats go outdoors, the price goes up to $180 because you'd want to test for FeLV, FIV, and heartworms too once a year (not every 6 months).

At 7, a cat is considered middle aged, and should be monitored at least once a year with a chem panel, CBC, T4, and urinalysis. Twice a year is even better. After all, I get my CBC, chem, and T4 done every year. Considering that a cat or dog ages much quicker, doing labwork on them once a year is like doing it in a person every 5 years, which I would consider inadequate.

When you consider both how quickly dogs and cats age, and how well they hide medical conditions, doing bloodwork every 6 months doesn't seem unreasonable in a middle aged or older animal to me. But you have to decide what you can afford and what your priorities are. If you'd have to start feeding a total crap diet to afford bloodwork every 6 months, I'd say forget it- do it once a year.

I hope that when your vet changed to doing semi-annual physical exams, s/he also stopped recommending annual vaccinations.

Both our cats get annual blood work as part of their wellness package at our vet. Costs $195 Cdn. and includes the full blood screen that includes kidney, liver, T4; vaccinations; weight check; nutrition consultation; physical exam; nail clipping and 15% off vet services and meds. My boys are 17 and both have health issues - one is hyperthyroid and the other is in chronic renal failure. Their annual bloodwork confirmed the hyper-t diagnosis and found the early stage CRF and a bacterial infection. A straight geriatric blood panel at my vet is $125 Cdn.

The boys had their teeth done when they were 7 or 8 and I remember the vet wouldn't do it unless they'd had complete blood work done - the anesthetic can do a number on kidneys if there is reduced kidney function already - so the vet needs to be careful about that.

Getting blood work done every 6 months is way too excessive unless your cats have health issues. My hyper-t cat gets a T4 done at the half year and my CRF kitty also gets his rechecked for kidney function at the half year. But if they were healthy they wouldn't need that.

tess

My cats are considered "seniors" at 10 and 11, and our vet recommends a yearly blood panel, which runs about $150. I figure it's worth it, since they might catch something important. If my cats had health issues, then obviously I would want to do it more often, but in otherwise healthy animals, I don't see a reason to do it more often than that. When they were younger, we did it every other year, and that was fine.

Thanks everyone for your responses. Regarding the dental work, the extraction is what makes it so expensive. After the holiday I'll have to go back and review all the various prices.....

regarding vacinations, they were recommended every three years. We do not do feline leukemia as our cats are never outside and we do not like the risk with this shot. The other 'shot' is actually given every three years as nose drops so not a real vaccine. They were doing rabies every three years but now indicate they prefer to use annual as there is less risk for 'cancer' at the shot site with their annual vaccine.

Well, since Bo has not had blood work since 2003 and is getting the dental work done, I decided I will go ahead and do the blood work. I did ask the vet for a quote for in-house and it was WAY more expensive and also fewer tests done (In house we can do 13 blood chemistries, i.e. BUN, creatnine, ALT, etc. as opposed to 17 that Marshfield can do.) They also mentioned that the T4 has to be sent out anyways.

The vet indicated that the blood pressure ($25.70), eye pressure ($18.69) and T4 ($43.05) are not required for the dental work but recommended. Regarding the bacteria culture, that is only done if there are issues with the urine.

If I subract the blood pressure and eye pressure from the quote, the total for blood, urine and T4 is $181.25. That compares to the $150 meghane has below. If I subract out the urine test, then it is $119.95 and Tess mentions $125. So, sounds as if my cat only vet is probably a little on the high side, but not too far off. Tess - you get a good price on the whole package!! Some of the others are hard to compare to since I don't know if they are comparing apples to apples. I.e. what exactly is included in the blood test.

Since Bo is 7 and gettng dental work, will go ahead and do it. And then, if he doesn't get dental work again next year, will probably go a couple of years before doing the full blood work again. Regarding doing it every 6 months, that sounds like too much unless there is a known health issue. I only go in for a physical once a year myself, and DH never does.

We may look into a closer, less expensive vet next time we have to take a cat in. I just worry since Cougar has specific health issues (IBD) - would like to find a vet that offers the same food. I do keep a copy of all the vet records so that is good at least.

Thanks everyone for your responses!!