Lab & Diagnostics

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) uses a powerful magnetic field, a computer, and radio waves to provide your veterinarian with high-resolution, detailed images of your pet's soft tissues such as the brain, spinal cord, ligaments, tendons, and abdominal organs.

When it comes to many soft tissue injuries or diseases, veterinary MRI often provides a more detailed picture of your animal's body than other diagnostic imaging tools are able to provide.

Our veterinary specialists will view these images on a screen to assist in the diagnosis and treatment planning for your pet's condition.

Some conditions that MRI can help to diagnose and treat include spinal issues such as tumors, herniated discs or stenosis; brain tumors and inflammation; strokes; musculoskeletal diseases and injuries including cranial cruciate ligament injuries; and abdominal conditions including organ enlargement or tumors. 

CT Scans, or computed tomography, combine X-ray images and computer technology to help us identify and diagnose numerous diseases and disorders in your pet's body. This is one of the most valuable tools in modern veterinary medicine thanks to its diagnostic capabilities.

Using a radiograph (digital X-ray), we can get a better view of what is happening within your pet's body.

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. 

Our specialists use radiographs to evaluate bones and organs, and diagnose conditions including broken bones, chronic arthritis, bladder stones, spinal cord diseases and some tumors. 

While some dental issues such as cavities can be seen just by looking in your pet's mouth, others like periodontal disease hide below the gumline until they are more advanced.

Digital dental X-rays can give your veterinarian a detailed view of the tooth roots, jaw bones and internal anatomy of your cat or dog's teeth. These digital images are displayed in real-time on your veterinarian's computer screen, allowing your vet to fully evaluate the condition of your pet's oral health.

With digital X-rays, the risk of radiation exposure for your pet is significantly lower than with traditional X-ray technology. 

When our specialists perform ultrasounds, they expose part of your pet's body 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. 

If your vet is concerned that your pet is experiencing a heart condition then they may refer you to the cardiology department at our hospital. Once in our care, our vet specialists will perform chest X-rays and an electrocardiogram (ECG/EKG) to help with determining the precise problem.

An ECG tells your vet several things about your pet's heart. It gives the rate and the rhythm of the heartbeat along with an understanding of the electrical impulses that are going through each section of the heart.

Fluoroscopy is used to diagnose diseases that involve motion, such as collapse of the trachea during breathing, or disorders of swallowing. With fluoroscopy, the vet will take multiple, quick pulse X-rays of the area of concern which can then be used to get a two- or three-dimensional image.

An endoscope is comprised of a very tiny camera with a light attached to the end of a flexible tube.

When we perform an endoscopy, a long, thin tube is inserted directly into the body to observe an internal organ or tissue in detail.

Minimally invasive endoscopes can be inserted into the openings of the body such as the mouth or anus rather than creating a new opening.

Cold laser therapy (also referred to as low-level laser therapy or Class IV laser therapy) uses focused light to increase blood circulation and stimulate the regeneration of cells.

This non-invasive, drug-free treatment is used to treat inflammatory conditions. More recently, it has been used in conjunction with traditional medical treatments to treat soft tissue or tendon injuries and arthritis. It can also be used to encourage wound healing.

A surgical laser is a device that uses a focused beam of light energy at a specific wavelength to perform the surgical procedure.

There are some notable advantages to veterinary laser surgery when compared to traditional surgery, which are:

• Reduced Pain
• Decreased Bleeding
• Improved Tissue Healing
• Decreased Inflammation.

Wireless telemetry is a tool used in veterinary care to monitor the vital signs of a pet using radio frequency.

This allows veterinary specialists to track an animal's movements, behaviors and vital signs in real-time while the animal moves around naturally either in a clinical setting or in their regular life. The vet specialist will use the data collected to gain valuable insight into the internal systems function allowing for an accurate diagnosis and ongoing monitoring of conditions.

During certain cardiac procedures, the veterinary cardiologist may insert a catheter into the blood vessel of your pet in order to treat various conditions or deliver devices to assist in managing conditions.

This allows the specialist the opportunity to treat issues with the heart and cardiovascular system in a less invasive manner, with little to no downtime or side effects compared to major surgery.

Long-term ventilation is the use of a mechanical positive pressure system, which includes anesthesia and intubation, which, regardless of the cause, may be necessary and life-saving.

This system will be used with the goal of gradually reducing the amount of assistance that your pet receives from the ventilation system until your pet is able to fully function on their own.

Just like humans, animals may experience kidney disease or failure. In these cases, their kidneys are unable to filter toxins from the blood and so hemodialysis is used to perform this process.

The good news is that hemodialysis does not cause any pain for your pet and they will be able to rest comfortably while receiving treatment, without the use of anesthesia.

LINAC, or linear accelerator, is a highly accurate machine that focuses radiation directly on cancer tumors. This allows for the healthy tissue surrounding the tumor to be unaffected by the treatment.

At VMCLI we use the Elekta Infinity HD which has a built-in CT scanner. This allows our team to verify that our patients’ tumor shape and position exactly match the computer-generated plan for every single treatment. This level of accuracy is critical when treating brain, heart, nasal and bladder tumors where surrounding, non-cancerous tissue is delicate.

At our vet lab on Long Island, we are able to perform and process a number of different types of 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 is a common and frequently performed diagnostic test that allows us to view both the physical and chemical components of your pet's urine allowing for valuable insight into their health.

While we mainly use urinalysis to assess the health of your animal's kidneys and urinary tract system, 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. 

A fecal exam is the microscopic examination of your pet's feces, which can be done at our on-site vet lab on Long Island.

The ultimate goal of a fecal exam is to identify and treat any GI infections that could be compromising your pet's health and even the health of your family. Fecals allow your vet to determine if your pet has intestinal parasites such as roundworms or hookworms. 

Not only can these conditions cause serious discomfort for your pet, but in some cases, they can also be transmitted to the people they come into contact with.

Since these parasites live in your pet’s gastrointestinal tract, they are often hidden from view. The only way to detect them is with a fecal exam.

Annual fecal examinations should be a vital part of every pet's routine wellness exam.