When your pet is sick, one of the first things you do is take him/her to the veterinarian.

At Concord Chapel Animal Hospital, your ill pet will see Dr Gale Kerr or Dr Elizabeth Lauron. The veterinarians have a moral, ethical and legal obligation to help you find out what is wrong with your pet.

Wouldn’t it be terrible if you took your pet to the vet … and they did not offer any diagnostic testing and only offered you an option of taking your pet home and keeping him/her comfortable.

What if your veterinarian decided not to mention diagnostic testing to you because she assumed you wouldn’t want to spend that kind of money on a pet, or that you couldn’t afford it? What if your veterinarian decided to guess at what was wrong instead of doing diagnostic testing and guessed wrong because those symptoms could have been for several different illnesses?

What if you chose all of the possible testing available which helped the veterinarian make a diagnosis and a treatment plan that might save your pet’s life or could help your pet life a healthy and normal life? What if this treatment plan was reasonable, affordable and easy to do to treat your pet? What if this treatment plan was really expensive?

A veterinarian is under a moral, ethical and legal obligation to offer to you every thing that she knows is available that may help your pet when he/she is sick. It would be irresponsible to not inform you of all of your options to help your pet.

Diagnostic testing is a tool to help veterinarians determine the problem with your pet who cannot talk and describe pain, discomfort, feelings or symptoms. The veterinarians and staff only know what the pet parents see, witness and can explain. Pets can get as many different illnesses as humans. Diagnostic testing is a great tool to help veterinarians provide quality care to your pets.

It is your decision to do what is best for your pet, your life, your situation and what you are capable of doing. You know what you can do and cannot do for your pet.