With the number of people owning pets increasing year on year, veterinary practices are striving to continue to meet the demands of their clients. Many veterinary practices, even very small ones, who have continued to develop and increase the level of care they are providing are now offering services provided by an ‘’in-house lab’’, but what does this mean?

Having an ‘’In-house lab’’ means the veterinary practice has a laboratory within their building in which they are able to perform diagnostic tests. This might be in its own dedicated room, or it might be in the prep room or workstation area. But it will allow the vets and nurses to carry out a wide range of blood tests, microscopy, faecal analysis, and urinalysis. In-house laboratories commonly have haematology machines, biochemistry machines and microscopes. This makes further investigation of disease processes quicker and much more simple. 

What tests can be carried out in-house?

The range of different tests a practice can perform within their own veterinary building will vary from practice to practice; depending on the machines and professionals working within the building. Different machines can perform different tests on samples, providing us with a host of results. The team at the practice will be trained on how to work these machines correctly to produce rapid results (often in less than 30 minutes). 

The team will also be responsible for completing tests such as microscopy; which could include looking for parasites under the microscope, analysing blood smears, performing blood cell counts for specific blood cells or counting the number of eggs within a faecal sample. Different veterinary professionals will feel more confident with different skills. Therefore the inhouse services provided by individual practices may vary. 

What are the advantages to running tests in the practice rather than sending them away?

In-house tests are quicker to run

For example, for a blood test at a practice without a lab, the sample will need to be packaged up and sent away to an external laboratory by post or courier. Then the tests will be performed, the results analysed and then sent back to the practice. Only then can we notify you of what the results are. With an in-house lab, the blood sample can simply be collected from the patient into the correct blood tube, spun down and the test run immediately. This will mean you will get your results back much sooner. The machines usually process a sample in less than 15 minutes. Although if there are lots of samples queued up, it may be a little longer before the vets get your pet’s!

Having analysis machines within your building, as well as professionals able to interpret the results speeds up the entire process as many steps are missed out. As a clinician, finding out your patients test results sooner means you can triage patients and act much quicker upon the results for animals who are critically ill. Getting test results sooner allows clinicians to start a medical plan that we know is accurate and safe. The sooner you start medication, the better the prognosis is for your pet. 

In-house testing will be cheaper

This is because you are eliminating postage, external professionals interpreting the result and reporting it. These factors are out of the veterinary practices’ control, and therefore controlling the prices for them is challenging. 

Sometimes the results are more accurate

Artefacts may arise during transport, affecting the result. Although veterinary professionals do their utmost to try to prevent this from happening. 

However, there are also sometimes advantages to using a big external or referral laboratory

There should always be the option to send the bloods away should owners request it. And sometimes your veterinary professional may suggest using this option due to the type of test or for improved accuracy of results. An example would be the cPLI and fPLI tests for pancreatitis. While we can test in-house, the more complex and difficult tests that an external laboratory can do are more accurate.

Sometimes in-house tests are limited, so practices may need to send off for further results or to confirm results.

Basically, not every test can be done on the machines in every practice! Some very specialised tests, or those where additional expert interpretation is needed, may be better sent away. For example, bacteriology is rarely done in-house nowadays, because interpreting the growth of many different types of bacteria from a wound or an infected ear is a very specialised job. Likewise, biopsies are often sent away, so that special stains and dyes can be used to examine tissues in more detail than is possible in most laboratories.

Who will do the test

Larger vet practices may have Lab Technicians – staff who specifically work within the lab only. This means they will be able to offer a greater range of services in-house. This means they could be cheaper and quicker to get results.

However, in most practices, it will be the wondered veterinary nurses doing the tests, and your pet’s vet who will interpret the results and decide how to treat your pet accordingly.

To conclude, having an ‘’in-house lab’’ is a bonus to any veterinary practice. It allows vets to run speedy, cheaper tests allowing clinicians to provide a more efficient and effective service to clients. If your veterinary practice does not have an in-house lab, do not panic, they will still be able to interpret test results, they may just have a slightly longer turnaround time.

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