Diagnostic Services

We strive to provide a wide range of diagnostic capability to accurately diagnose problems quickly and affordably within our own Practice

Having the right tools to make diagnostic decisions accurately and promptly can make a significant difference to outcomes in many cases. Waiting until the afternoon for a blood test result or days for an ultrasound exam and delaying the treatment plan is no longer required in most cases now.

Laboratory

Our in house laboratory is the cornerstone of our diagnostic service. Being able to evaluate a blood sample from an unwell patient is essential. To be able to do this immediately whether it is in the evening, weekend, just prior to surgery or in an acutely sick patient is something we could not do without.

At East Coast Bays Veterinary Clinic we were one of the first Clinics to adopt an in house laboratory service. We have taken this a step further with a major upgrade to a full set of the latest technology from IDEXX Laboratories, the IDEXX Vetlab In House Analysers. In fact we are the first Veterinary Clinic in New Zealand to be able to offer this to our clients.

Not only can we provide accurate and comprehensive blood chemistry and blood cell analysis but also electrolyte and hormone levels when required, all in a few minutes.

Your pets details and any tests required are placed via a convenient touch screen into the system which links all the equipment and produces a single report for all the tests run for your pet. This report is also simultaneously added to your pets computer file for accurate future reference.

The equipments accuracy is constantly checked and is even remotely monitored in America for the slightest problem for results we can trust.

Ultrasonography

Ultrasound is a pain free, totally non invasive technique that uses high frequency sound waves to produce a real time movie of your pets internal organs. It can look inside organs and detect things like the individual layers of the intestine, internal parts of a kidney or the beating valves of a fetus's heart for example.

Ultrasounds are typically not stressful for your pet and take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes to perform. Ultrasound guided biopsies can sometimes be done avoiding the need for surgery.

At East Coast Bays Veterinary Clinic we have invested in a high quality Veterinary specific ultrasound machine the Esoate Mylab 30Vet Gold (www.esoate.com). This produces beautiful images that can be recorded and saved to a disc or USB if required.

We have three Veterinarians with skills to operate the equipment in Doctor Peta Norris our primary ultrasonographer and also Doctors Emma Guy and Sarah Pemberton.

Endoscopy

Endoscopy allows us to look inside a pets body with a camera in a relatively noninvasive way. This can help solve mystery illnesses in areas like the nasal cavity, throat, airways, oesophagus, stomach, bladder, middle ear and more

VIDEOENDOSCOPY: With the advance of technology we now have videoscopes.These long flexible scopes have a camera chip on the tip like a smartphone camera to take high quality digital video. This is displayed on a large screen for the Vet to view. Now the scopes have miniaturised enough to be valuable for our small pet patients.

Our smallest videoscope is an amazing 3.7mm in diameter with a tip that can bend 210 degrees and also has a working channel. The Pentax EB-1170K. We also have a small 8mm videoscope with additional features. The Pentax EG-2470K.

We have high quality digital processing for this video output and a powerful xenon light source to illuminate our way.

RIGID ENDOSCOPY: Many procedures require the use of a rigid endoscope which can be even smaller in diameter. Being smaller requires great optics so we have invested in the famous Storz 2.7mm Multipurpose Veterinary Endoscope and a tiny 1.9 mm Storz endoscope both with its patented Hopkins 2 optics. This is matched up with a high definition camera and digital processor. The Stryker HD 1188. We also have an endoscope just for ears. Many ear problems in dogs persist because the long ear canal can't be properly visualised or cleaned effectively with standard equipment. Having a large magnified image and being able to flush and use instruments while viewing that image changes everything. Better outcomes and much less chance of causing damage during a procedure.

IMAGE CAPTURE: The last part of the picture is to capture the videos and images of the things we see to share with you. We can do this easily with our high definition Stryker SDC HD image capture device.

Radiology

Good quality X-rays are extremely helpful for diagnosing and monitoring many medical and surgical conditions. X-rays are useful for examining your pets heart, lungs, bones, abdomen and oral cavity. They can help diagnose many conditions such as heart failure, tumors, obstructions, bladder stones and much more. With abdominal problems they work well in conjunction with ultrasound examinations.

We have a powerful new Xray machine and an automatic processor for dry films for immediate viewing. We have variable intensity LED viewing screens in each consultation room to go through film findings with pet owners.

Blood Pressure

Monitoring of blood pressure is a relatively recent thing in companion animal medicine. It is valuable during surgery to ensure blood pressure doesn't drop too low and for measuring high blood pressure with age related illness as in people.

Hypertension is especially common in aging cats and can result in serious problems with the eyes, brain, kidney and heart if untreated. The risk of high blood pressure is very high if your cat has kidney or thyroid disease. These cats should have their blood pressure checked at least annually.

We have a HDO blood pressure machine that allows us to obtain quick and accurate blood pressure readings in small pets like chihuahuas and cats to large dogs.

Cytology

We routinely stain up samples from pets and examine them under the microscope. This can tell us such things as, is there yeast or bacteria growing in a dogs infected ear or does that lump contain mast cells and require larger surgical margins for example.

ECG

We have an ECG machine that sends data by blue tooth to a computer where software can help us interpret a pets abnormal heart rhythm.

Urinalysis

This is the evaluation of a urine sample which can be a quick and cheap way to help detect many illnesses and is important to include in any medical work up

We can spin samples of urine down in our centrifuge to check if bacteria are present in a urine sample and we have also invested in the IDEXX urinalysis machine to improve reporting and accuracy of our in house testing.