In May of 2000, Buddy was a happy and apparently healthy 6 month old kitten that came to Westside for his neuter. The owners agreed to have pre-anesthetic blood testing done before surgery to ensure that his major organs were functioning well. This choice was not just a smart choice, it literally saved Buddy’s life. His platelet count was severely low at 1 (normal values for cats are 175-500). Platelets are blood cells that are involved in the blood's clotting process. With a platelet count of 1, Buddy's ability to clot his blood was critically impaired. We postponed Buddy's surgery and repeated the platelet count at a later date. One week later the count was only 2. We performed a bone marrow biopsy in order to determine why the platelet count was so low. The results were fascinating. Buddy has a rare condition called Megakaryocytic Hypoplasia. This essentially means that Buddy is unable to produce adequate numbers of platelets and is therefore unable to clot his blood normally.
In summary, had we performed the neuter on Buddy that day without testing his blood there was a very good chance that Buddy could have bled to death. Instead, we neutered him at a referral institute with a laser unit that clots blood automatically. There are over a dozen other cases of perfectly normal young animals that have been diagnosed with severe life threatening abnormalities here at Westside. We encourage all pets to undergo pre-anesthetic testing before any surgical procedure.