Veterinary Technology

Veterinary Diagnostic Lab

At Shane Veterinary Medical Center, we have advanced tools to help accurately diagnose your pet's medical issues. We offer a variety of diagnostic services including blood and urine analysis, digital radiology (x-rays), abdominal ultrasound, ECG and more.

With the help of these diagnostic tools, we can obtain accurate information about your pet's condition and provide immediate treatment options.

Our On-site Diagnostic Services

With our in-house veterinary diagnostics lab, we are pleased to offer advanced diagnostic testing to allow our vets to provide an accurate diagnosis of your pet's medical issues.

• Radiography (Digital X-rays)

  Using a radiograph (digital X-ray), we can examine your pet's internal systems to reveal information that may be invisible from the outside. 

  Radiography is safe, painless, and non-invasive. It uses only very low doses of radiation. Because the level of radiation exposure required to perform radiography is very low, even pregnant females and very young pets can undergo this procedure. 

  Radiographs can be used to evaluate bones and organs, and diagnose conditions including broken bones, chronic arthritis, bladder stones, spinal cord diseases and some tumors. 

  We also have the ability to send images out for further interpretation by a board-certified radiologist for an additional fee. The radiologist will send us a detailed, written interpretation of the imaging study based on your pet’s medical history and presenting complaints.

• Abdominal Ultrasound

  The use of diagnostic imaging allows our team of veterinary professionals to create extremely detailed images of your pet's internal structures.

  With ultrasound imaging, we expose abdomen to high-frequency sound waves to produce images of the inside of the body. 

  Because we capture ultrasound images in real-time, we can see the structure and movement of your pet's internal organs, as well as blood flowing through the blood vessels.

  Having this valuable technology available to our vets in our in-house lab means that your dog or cat's condition can be diagnosed quickly and treatment can start sooner. 

• Bloodwork

  At our vet lab in Marina del Rey, we are able to run a number of common and specialized blood tests to determine the health of your pet and to diagnose illness.

  Some of the most common veterinary blood tests we do are CBC (complete blood count), white blood count, hemoglobin and MCHC (mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration), hematocrit, platelets, eosinophils, and blood serum profile. 

• Urinalysis

  Urinalysis is a key diagnostic test that provides your vet with essential insights into the physical and chemical properties of your pet's urine.

  Urinalysis is primarily used to assess the health of your animal's kidneys and urinary tract system, but it can also be helpful in detecting issues in other organ systems and is important for diagnosing metabolic diseases such as diabetes.

  This is a valuable diagnostic test for both healthy and sick animals and should be included in any comprehensive evaluation of your pet's overall health. 

• ECG / EKG

  If your veterinarian performs a physical examination and suspects your pet may have a heart disorder, we usually take chest X-Rays and an electrocardiogram (ECG / EKG).

  This procedure can be completed easily and quickly. It reveals data that may be integral to your pet's diagnosis. In other cases, a cardiac ultrasound may be required to identify disorders in the chambers of the heart.

• Digital Dental X-Rays

  If your cat or dog is suffering from periodontal disease, much of this damage occurs below the gum line, where it can't be easily seen. Digital dental X-Rays help our veterinarians assess your pet's oral health.

  Digital X-Rays are safer for your pet. They allow our team of veterinary professionals to examine roots, bones and internal anatomy of your cat or dog's teeth.

  With digital X-Rays, the risk of radiation exposure for your pet is significantly lower than with traditional X-Ray technology. We are able to see below the surface of your pet's gum line to fully evaluate each tooth.

  This technology allows your Marina del Rey vet to see results immediately, then project them onto a computer screen to review.