CHENNAI: Just like you stroll into a diagnostics centre and get a bevy of tests done, your dog or cat can now get tests their doctors ordered done at an animal lab. The Veterinary Healthcare Company in K K Nagar deals with samples collected from animals and returns computerised results. Aside from the Madras Veterinary College’s lab, this is one of the first such diagnostic centres.
Covering everything from a ‘urine culture test’ to a ‘master healthcare checkup,’ the lab is equipped to handle six kinds of animals — dogs, cats, cattle, pigs, goats and horses. The average cost of a test is between `50 to record your pet’s haemoglobin count and `4,000 for more rare tests like infertility indicators.
Most animals require blood tests to check for infections, while lung and liver tests are carried out to check organised function. Biopsy exams in animals suspected of having cancer have also been increasing steadily.
Chennai-based Bharath Sekar (33) and wife Divya Bharath (29) recognised the need for such an enterprise when their elderly Doberman was suffering from severe pain and bleeding through the anus. “We went to our vet as usual,” recalled Bharath. “When we got the results, there was no official printout of the results given to us because the test had been done at a lab for humans.”
Apart from it being illegal to process animal samples at a lab for humans, the accuracy of such results is questionable. “As there are no animal appropriate reference values at a human lab, we realised the results aren’t always accurate,” explained Bharath, who used to work for Medall, a diagnostic service.
The couple consulted vets at the Tamil Nadu Animal and Veterinary Sciences University (TANUVAS), Vepery, which has an elaborate diagnostic setup of its own, before investing in their own clinical infrastructure. “We have everything from fully automated haematology analysers to read blood components to biochemistry analysers to check imbalances,” says Bharath. “Often, when cattle have an infection, by the time a culture sample is sent and results received, few more animals are sick,”he adds.
Targetting a turnaround time of six to eight hours for test results, the centre aims ti never to reach an animal ‘too late.’
Veterinary Healthcare Company opens on Monday, but will begin official operations on September 1. Contact 7550060900.