Diagnostics & monitoring.

Standard "wellness panels" your vet runs by default are usually a basic CBC and limited chemistry. Sufficient to catch acute issues; not sufficient for healthspan tracking. The panel we recommend annually for any animal over 5:

• Complete Blood Count (CBC) — red cells, white cells, platelets. Catches anemia, infection, immune issues.
• Full chemistry panel — liver enzymes (ALT, AST, ALP), kidney markers (BUN, creatinine), electrolytes, glucose, calcium, phosphorus.
• SDMA — early kidney function (covered in our cat kidney article). Catches kidney decline at ~25% function loss instead of 65–75% with creatinine alone.
• T4 (thyroid) — particularly for dogs (hypothyroidism common in middle age) and cats over 9 (hyperthyroidism common).
• CRP (dogs) or SAA (horses) — inflammation markers. Most vets won't add these unless asked. Worth requesting.
• Urinalysis with USG (specific gravity) — kidney concentration ability, urine pH, protein, glucose. Often skipped; high-value cheap test.

Total cost typically CHF 180–280 for the full panel. Plus members get this protocol included in care planning.

You will not become a veterinarian by reading a blood panel. You will become a much better partner to your vet. The goal of this lesson is pattern recognition and asking smart follow-up questions.

Three patterns to learn:

Pattern A · The "everything in range, but trending" picture

Each value within reference range — but creatinine drifting upward year over year, or ALP creeping up. This is the longevity-relevant pattern most basic vet visits miss. Trends matter more than single values.

Pattern B · The mild-but-multiple anomaly picture

Small flags across several markers, none individually concerning. CBC slightly off. CRP mildly elevated. Mild proteinuria. Pattern suggests low-grade systemic inflammation that needs investigation, not "everything's fine."

Pattern C · The single big flag

One value substantially out of range. Usually obvious. The work here is the differential diagnosis with your vet.

The key skill: save panels and trend them. A spreadsheet, the PETVITY dashboard, even a simple notebook. Year over year, you'll see things a single annual visit can't.

Increasingly available, increasingly worth knowing about:

• Microbiome testing — 16S rRNA sequencing of gut bacteria. Useful when GI issues persist; less useful as a healthy-baseline screen at current price points.
• Epigenetic age — covered in detail in our deep article. Most useful tracked over time.
• Cardiac biomarkers (NT-proBNP) — early signal for cardiac decline, particularly in predisposed breeds.
• Allergy panels — useful when symptoms suggest, less useful as routine screening (high false positive rates).
• X-ray and ultrasound baselines — particularly hip and elbow X-rays at age 2 in predisposed dog breeds; cardiac ultrasound at 7+ in predisposed cat breeds.

What we still consider speculative or not worth routine cost: full genome sequencing (interesting, not yet actionable for most pets), most "wellness DNA" panels (oversold), continuous glucose monitors (niche use cases only).

Recommended cadence by age:

• Puppy / kitten / foal — initial baseline panel post-first vaccinations.
• Adult (1–6 yrs) — full longevity panel every 2 years.
• Mature (7–9 yrs) — annual longevity panel.
• Senior (10+ yrs) — every 6 months for cats and senior dogs; horses adjust by workload.
• During interventions — pre-, mid-, post-protocol panels measure response. Don't change three things at once and not test.

1. When was your animal's last full panel? Did it include SDMA + inflammation markers + urinalysis?
2. Do you have past panels saved in a way you can compare year over year?
3. Looking at age and species, what's the right testing cadence for your animal — and are you on it?
4. What's one diagnostic you've been "meaning to do" that this module makes more concrete?