A revolutionary new blood test is able to diagnose early stage kidney disease in cats and dogs. This means your pet can be treated earlier and given a longer life.
The kidney’s function is to filter toxins from the blood but if a kidney is damaged by disease it can’t perform. Until recently vets diagnosed kidney failure by measuring toxin buildup but this was usually only detectable when the kidneys were already approximately 75% damaged (stage 3 & 4 renal failure). It’s only at this late stage that pets show clinical signs of kidney damage like nausea, vomiting, listlessness and seizures. Animals in stage 1 & 2 renal failure usually don’t show any clinical symptoms.
The new blood test, Idexx’s SMDA screening, can detect stages 1 & 2 as early as 17 months before clinical signs start showing up in cats and 10-11 months before clinical onset in dogs. With earlier detection, your pet could live up to three times longer given the correct treatment and disease management.
Country Animal Clinic is now offering this blood test. Call us today to find out more. For more information on kidney disease scroll through our news pages
