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In Depth:  Why Blood Work?

By Diane Dianora, D.V.M.

You have just been informed that your cat needs to undergo an anesthetic procedure, and that “preoperative blood work” is recommended beforehand.  So what does that mean, and why is it important to you and your cat?

Complete Blood Count

This test tells us about your pet’s red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.  Red blood cells are necessary for oxygen transportation throughout the body.  White blood cells are crucial for your pet’s immune response to infectious agents (such as yeast, bacteria, fungi, and viruses).  Platelets allow the blood to clot.  Decreases in any of these cell lines can be a cause for concern before surgery, since blood loss and infection are two potential complications of surgical procedures.

Chemistry Panel

Multiple parameters are covered in this test.  The two major organs that are evaluated with the chemistry panel are the liver and kidneys.  The BUN (blood urea nitrogen) and creatinine are enzymes that are regularly filtered by the kidneys.  There are multiple liver enzymes (with long names I do not like to spell) that can be evaluated.  Liver and kidney function are essential for proper metabolism and excretion of anesthetic agents.  Other parameters that can be measured are glucose, calcium, phosphorus cholesterol, total protein, and albumin.  Glucose provides energy for metabolism; calcium and phosphorus are primarily involved in bone buildup and breakdown; cholesterol is a product of fat metabolism; protein is involved in regulating fluid balances in the body, as well as in the immune system.  These blood values can give a complete picture of your cat’s health before surgery.

Electrolytes

Some chemistry panels include measurements of the electrolytes: sodium, potassium, and chloride.  Potassium is located primarily within cells, while sodium and chloride reside in the fluid outside of cells.  The exchange of these electrolytes into and out of the cells helps the body to maintain fluid balance (so that your cat is neither bloated nor dehydrated).  These parameters are of primary use in management of conditions requiring intravenous fluids, but are helpful to further point out metabolic abnormalities or dehydration.

Summary

These tests help to give us a wide range of information about your pet’s health status.  It is far better to detect health problems before your pet is ever anesthetized, to avoid unnecessary anesthetic complications. 

But the use of these tests is not only limited to presurgical screening.  They can be used periodically in geriatric (8 years of age and older) patients to detect the beginning of health problems before the patient is obviously ill.

For additional information, please e-mail kpercival@cathospitalofaustin.com.

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