Emergency Vet & In-House Diagnostics

​Emergency Care

Our team is dedicated to providing your pet with the care they need, whether it be routine or emergency care. When you come to Yorktown Vets seeking an emergency vet in Yorktown Heights, we offer a full scope of in-house diagnostic services. We make high-quality animal care available to your loved one so that they may have the best chance at a long, happy, and healthy life.

A pet emergency may occur when your loved one experiences an accident, illness, or other threatening situation. In these moments acting quickly is essential for the sake of your pet’s wellbeing. Being able to access the needed medical diagnosis and care, can make all the difference to your pet’s survival. At Yorktown Vets, our team will be at your side, every step of the way, to carefully assess your pet’s condition and determine the appropriate treatment plan to get them back on their feet.

​Internal Medicine

At Yorktown Vets, we provide medical services that include Gastroenterology, Endocrinology, Dermatology, Ophthalmology and Cardiology. When required, we can help provide access to specialists in individual fields or medicine.

​Diagnostic Imaging

We have the latest in digital X-ray technology. Using digital imaging reduces the amount or radiation received by your pet and allows for the highest quality images just seconds after shooting. Digital images also allows us to email images to referring veterinarians and specialist all over the country with just the click of the mouse.

Diagnostic Laboratory Tests

Veterinarians have many different diagnostic tools available to them today. Technology has improved vastly in recent years, making it easier than ever to provide the best care to your pet. Generally, your vet will start with the least invasive test that will provide the answers needed. Many of these tests cause no or very little discomfort to your animal.

Blood Work

One of the easiest and quickest ways to find out what’s going on inside your pet’s body is blood work. Blood is obtained from a vein, usually from your pet’s leg. Your pet will only feel a tiny prick of the needle, for just a second.

Blood cell counts can be done quickly and reveal quite a lot. High white blood cells may indicate a bacterial infection, while low white red blood cell counts could mean a virus or an immune system problem. Low red blood cell counts indicate anemia.

Routine blood tests include feline leukemia and heartworm. These tests should be done during your pet’s first wellness visit. If the tests come back negative, cats can be vaccinated for leukemia and dogs can be placed on monthly heartworm prevention.

For older pets, blood analysis can measure how well the kidneys and other organs are functioning. These tests should be done during regular wellness checks. The first test will be used to establish a baseline to compare to if your pet is sick later. Pets should be brought in for wellness checks, once or twice a year, depending on their age and health status.

Fecal Analysis

Much can be learned from examining your animal’s feces. The color and consistency of the feces will yield clues to the pet’s health.

The fecal sample will be examined under a microscope to determine if parasites are present and if so what course of treatment to pursue. Other things the technician will look for include blood in the stool, mucous, and other things, such as pieces of plastic or other non-food items that indicate your pet ate something they should not have eaten.

Urinalysis

Examining your pet’s urine can uncover many problems before your pet even shows any symptoms of disease or disorders like diabetes. First, the technician will look at the color, consistency, clarity, and other visual characteristics. Then they will check for the presence of protein, blood, crystals, and other things that should not be found in a healthy animal’s urine.

During your visit or when you make the appointment, ask the veterinarian or staff member how to collect a urine sample from your pet. If you can’t collect it yourself there are other methods for obtaining the urine, depending on the type of animal.

Other lab tests

The veterinarian can examine swabs taken from ears or skin scrapings to examine under the microscope. Problems such as ear mites, ringworm, infections, even some cancers can be quickly diagnosed.

Radiology (X-Rays)

Radiography is a valuable diagnostic tool in veterinary medicine. As we continually strive to offer the highest quality medicine and diagnostic testing, we are pleased to offer radiology services as a means of providing excellent care to our patients.
A radiograph (sometimes called an x-ray) is a type of photograph that can look inside the body and reveal information that may not be discernable from the outside. Radiography can be used to evaluate almost any organ in the body, including the heart, lungs, and abdominal organs, as well as the bones.

Radiography is painless, safe, and completely non-invasive, and it uses only very low doses of radiation. Because the level of radiation exposure needed to perform radiography is very low, even pregnant females and very young pets can undergo radiography. Radiographs can be used to evaluate bones as well as the size, shape, and position of many of the body’s organs. The size of organs is important because some medical conditions—such as kidney, heart, or liver disease—can alter the size of these organs. The shape and position of organs can be altered or distorted by certain medical conditions, including intestinal blockage or cancer. Tumors, depending on their size and location, can also sometimes be detected using radiography. Radiography can also be used to diagnose bladder stones, broken bones, chronic arthritis, certain spinal cord diseases, and a variety of other conditions.

Radiographs are an important tool that can help us make a correct diagnosis for your pet. Our radiology service is staffed by caring, skilled professionals who will provide state-of-the-art care with compassion and expertise.

Ultrasound

Although humans and animals are different in many ways, some advances in human medicine are also very useful for veterinary patients. One of these advances, diagnostic ultrasound, has proven to be a powerful tool in veterinary medicine. As a practice, one of our goals is to offer state-of-the-art medicine and diagnostic testing; so we are pleased to offer ultrasound services as a means of providing a higher level of quality care to our patients.

Ultrasonography is a type of diagnostic technique that uses ultrasound waves to produce an imaging study. This means that when we perform ultrasonography, we can see internal images of the patient’s body. Unlike some other imaging studies, like x-rays, ultrasonography does not use radiation. Instead, ultrasonography uses high-frequency sound (ultrasound) waves to create a picture of what is inside your pet’s body. Ultrasonography is a completely non-invasive, painless way to diagnose and evaluate many common diseases.

An ultrasound machine generates ultrasound waves. The machine is connected to a small probe that is held gently against your pet’s skin. The probe sends out painless ultrasound waves that bounce off of structures (for example, organs) in your pet’s body and return to a sensor inside the ultrasound machine. The ultrasound equipment collects these reflected “echoes” and uses them to generate images that are viewable on a screen. Ultrasound waves can generate excellent images of abdominal organs, including the liver, spleen, gallbladder, and kidneys. It is also useful for assessing fetal health and monitoring pregnancy in breeding animals, and it can help us diagnose and stage (determine the severity of) some forms of cancer.

Because ultrasound images are produced in real time, this technology can be used to evaluate the heart as it beats. This can help us detect abnormalities in the motion of heart valves, blood flow through the heart, and contractions of the heart muscle. It can also be used to assess the heart for defects. As we strive to provide our patients with the highest quality medicine and diagnostic testing, we are pleased to offer ultrasound as one of our diagnostic capabilities.

Endoscopy

Although humans and animals are different in many ways, some advances in human medicine are also very useful in veterinary patients. One of these advances, endoscopy, has proven to be a powerful diagnostic and therapeutic tool in veterinary medicine. As a practice, we consider it a goal to offer state-of-the-art medicine and diagnostic testing; so we are proud to offer endoscopy as a means of providing a higher level of quality care to our patients.

A fiberoptic endoscope is a long, narrow tube with a tiny camera at the tip. An endoscope can be rigid or very flexible, depending on what procedure it is used for. It can also be sterilized so that it can safely be inserted into the body. Endoscopic equipment can have many uses in veterinary medicine. For example, with a patient under anesthesia, an endoscope can be inserted into the mouth (to examine the esophagus, stomach, and upper intestine), nose (to examine the trachea [windpipe] and main airways), or anus (to examine the colon and lower intestine). An endoscope can be inserted through a small incision into a body cavity to permit us to examine the surface of organs, such as the liver or kidneys, or to look inside a joint, such as the knee. We can even use an endoscope to remove small objects that dogs and cats sometimes swallow or to perform biopsies of internal organs.

Endoscopy provides us with a full-color, magnified view of the area of interest. Additionally, endoscopic procedures are usually non-invasive or minimally invasive. We strive to offer our patients the highest level of medicine, and we are glad to be able to offer endoscopy as one of our diagnostic procedures.