Your dog's or cat's bloodwork, explained in plain English
A page of numbers, arrows and abbreviations came back from the lab — and nobody had time to walk you through it. Here's what your vet was actually looking for, and what those values mean for a dog or a cat like yours.
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Why your vet ran bloodwork
A blood panel is the cheapest, fastest look inside your pet. Most reports are ordered for one of four reasons — and knowing which one yours was changes how you should read it.
A routine wellness check
A baseline while your pet is well. The real value comes later: it gives every future result something to be compared against.
Something seems off
Drinking more, eating less, vomiting, losing weight, low energy. Bloodwork narrows a long list of possible causes down to a short one.
Before anaesthesia
A pre-surgical panel checks that the kidneys, liver and red blood cells can handle an anaesthetic safely. Usually reassuring, occasionally the reason a procedure gets postponed.
Monitoring something known
Kidney disease, diabetes, thyroid trouble, or a medication that needs watching. Here the direction of travel matters far more than any single number.
What's actually on the report
Almost every veterinary blood panel is two tests printed on one page. Dogs and cats get the same two — the difference is in how the results are read.
Complete Blood Count
Counts the cells floating in the blood — the ones that carry oxygen, fight infection and stop bleeding.
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Red blood cells RBC, HCT, HGB
How well oxygen is being carried around the body. Low is anaemia; high often just means dehydration.
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White blood cells WBC and the differential
The immune system's headcount. Raised with infection, inflammation — and, very often in pets, plain stress.
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Platelets PLT
The cells that form clots. A low count is worth a recheck, because they clump in the sample tube and read falsely low.
Chemistry panel
Measures the chemicals dissolved in the blood, which is how you check on organs without touching them.
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Kidney values BUN, CREA, SDMA, PHOS
How well waste is being filtered out. SDMA is the early-warning one — it moves before creatinine does.
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Liver values ALT, ALP, GGT, bilirubin
Enzymes that leak out of liver cells when they're irritated. They flag that the liver deserves a look, not what's wrong with it.
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Sugar, protein & electrolytes GLU, TP, ALB, Na, K, Cl
Blood sugar, hydration and the mineral balance that keeps nerves and muscles — including the heart — working.
Often added on
A thyroid value (T4) for older cats and many dogs, a urine sample to read alongside the kidney numbers, and species-specific tests such as FeLV/FIV screening for cats or a pancreatic test when pancreatitis is suspected.
Same test, different story
This is the part a printed reference range can't tell you. Dogs and cats are measured with the same panel, but the same number can be routine in one species and a red flag in the other.
In dogs
- A raised ALP is common and often harmless — it climbs with age, steroids, dental disease and a growing puppy's bones. On its own it rarely means liver disease.
- Cushing's disease and hypothyroidism are the classic hormone problems, and both leave fingerprints on a routine panel long before you'd guess them.
- Breed changes the baseline. Sighthounds naturally run high red cells and low white cells; Miniature Schnauzers run high triglycerides. Healthy, just not average.
In cats
- A raised ALP is the opposite story — cats make far less of it, so even a mild rise is taken seriously and usually gets followed up.
- Hyperthyroidism and chronic kidney disease dominate feline results after about seven years old. T4 and SDMA are the values worth watching over time.
- A car ride and a waiting room can push a cat's blood sugar and white cell count up all by themselves. Stress on the report is real, and your vet expects it.
True for both
Reference ranges are set by each individual laboratory, for an average adult animal. Puppies, kittens, seniors and pregnant animals can sit outside the printed range in perfect health — which is why context beats the little H and L flags in the margin.
Four things owners misread
Most late-night panic about a lab report comes from one of these.
One value is flagged high, so something is wrong.
A result just past the edge of the range is usually the least interesting thing on the page. Vets read values in groups — kidney numbers together, liver numbers together — because it's the pattern that means something.
Everything is in range, so my pet is fine.
A normal panel is genuinely good news, but bloodwork doesn't see everything. Early kidney disease, many cancers and most pain don't show up in the blood at all.
The number is the number.
A non-fasted meal, a stressful car ride, a slightly haemolysed sample or a different analyser at a different lab can all shift results without anything changing in your pet.
This result is the same as last year's.
Trends beat snapshots. A creatinine that has doubled inside the reference range can matter more than one sitting quietly just above it.
Get your own report explained
Everything above is general. This is the part that's about your dog or your cat.
Tell us about your pet
Species, breed, age and weight — so every value is read against what's normal for an animal like yours, not an average one.
Upload the report
The PDF your vet emailed, or a photo of the printout taken on your phone. Blood panels, urine results and X-rays all work.
Read it in plain language
Every value explained, colour-coded so you can see what's in range at a glance, plus a list of questions worth asking at your next appointment.
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Was an X-ray taken too?
Blood panels and X-rays are usually ordered together, and each answers a different half of the question. Our companion guide covers when a pet needs a radiograph and how to make sense of the light and dark areas.
Questions owners ask
What does a full blood panel test for in dogs and cats?
A standard panel is two tests. The complete blood count (CBC) counts red cells, white cells and platelets, which covers anaemia, infection, inflammation and clotting. The chemistry panel measures substances in the blood that reflect how the kidneys, liver and pancreas are working, plus blood sugar, protein and electrolytes. Many practices add a thyroid value (T4), especially for cats over seven, and often run a urine sample alongside it.
Do dogs and cats have different normal blood values?
Yes — the tests are the same but the reference ranges differ by species, and so does what an abnormal result usually means. A mildly raised ALP is common and often harmless in dogs, while in cats it is uncommon enough that it is usually investigated. Cats are also prone to hyperthyroidism, which is rare in dogs, and dogs to Cushing's disease and hypothyroidism, which are rare in cats. Reading a cat's results against canine expectations is one of the easiest ways to worry about the wrong thing.
Can I understand my pet's blood test results myself?
You can understand them well enough to have a much better conversation with your vet, which is the goal. What you can't do from a lab report alone is diagnose — that needs the physical examination, your pet's history and your vet's clinical judgement. Coming in already knowing what SDMA measures and which of your pet's values moved since last year makes the appointment far more useful.
What does it mean if one value is slightly out of range?
Usually very little on its own. Reference ranges are built so that a small share of perfectly healthy animals fall outside them, and every laboratory sets its own. A single value a fraction past the line, with everything around it normal and a pet who feels well, is rarely the finding that matters. Your vet is looking for patterns across related values and for changes since the last panel.
Does my pet need to fast before bloodwork?
Often, yes — many practices ask for 8 to 12 hours without food, because a recent meal can raise blood sugar, triglycerides and make the sample cloudy enough to interfere with several tests. Water is normally fine. Follow whatever your own clinic tells you, since it depends on the tests they've ordered, and never fast a very young, diabetic or unwell animal without asking first.
How long do results take?
In-house analysers can produce a panel in roughly 15 to 30 minutes, which is why pre-surgical bloodwork is often run while you wait. Samples sent to an external laboratory typically come back in one to three days, and specialised tests can take longer.
Is this a replacement for my veterinarian?
No, and it isn't designed to be. Read Your Pet's Lab is an educational tool that explains what your report says and helps you prepare for your appointment. It cannot examine your animal or diagnose anything. Any result that concerns you belongs in a conversation with the vet who has actually seen your pet.
Stop squinting at abbreviations
Upload the report your vet gave you and get every value explained for your own dog or cat — in minutes, in language that makes sense.
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