I have a kitten who received Revolution but who just may have other intestinal parasites not covered by Revolution, so I took her to a new vet two days ago. I’ve taken fecal samples for other cats in the past, and they’ve always just checked the poop under a microscope in the vet’s office. This is a nationally-affiliated vet hospital, but they told me they would send it out and call me yesterday with the results. Well, they didn’t call, and when I called them at the end of the day, they said they hadn’t gotten any results in. So this was the second weirdness, as I’ve never had fecals done out of office and definitely have never had results on a simple test be unavailable the next day. I did pay for it, and the vet was very gentle and helpful with this kitten. But don’t you think this is unusual?
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Vet Hospital Sending Out Fecal Sample. Thought This Was Always Done In-house. Is This Kosher?
Posted on April 15, 2011.
Absolutely kosher. It is quite possible that your vet could be looking for giardia cysts. Giardia is very difficult to spot on simple fecal floats under a microscope in office. It is generally ingested through infected food or water supply. Most veterinary offices do not have the equipment to test for giardiasis. It is very often missed ( even in laboratories).
I think you should be glad that your vet decided to test for it. Most vets misdiagnose giardia. I would say he is being very thorough.
Depends on what parasite the vet suspects.
With some parasites, ordinary microscopy isn’t reliable enough. Vet could have sent it to a lab for direct immunofluorescent microscopy which is nearly 100% accurate.
You needn’t be at all suspicious of your vet. No clinic lab can have everything and he is being extra thorough sending it to a lab with better diagnostic capabilities.