People are often surprised when they learn the range of illnesses that a pet urinalysis test can indicate.

A urine test for dogs and cats can show indications of some of the most common illnesses that affect our dog’s and cat’s health, including: diabetes, kidney infection, kidney disease, urinary tract infection, bladder disease, autoimmune diseases, bacterial infections, hepatitis and other liver diseases, and prostate diseases.

Of course, there are many illnesses that are revealed through other methods of testing: heart conditions, tumors, skin diseases, arthritic conditions, and many cancers for example. No one test can test for everything that can happen with our pet’s health.

Still, a urinalysis test for dogs and cats is an important foundation of the yearly health checkup, so I always encourage people to have a urine test done at the veterinary clinic every 6 or 12 months (and, of course, use ThePetCheckup at home on a monthly basis!).

We received another testimonial from a customer who was able to detect diabetes in his dog at a very early stage of the illness by using ThePetCheckup monthly. His vet thinks he will be able to treat the dog just with a special diet as it was caught so early.

I love to hear feedback like this.

There is no doubt that early detection is the key to helping us keep our dogs and cats healthy.

Many of our customers are already pretty proactive with their animal’s health care, but I wonder how many other pet owners out there would be too if they knew that there was such an easy way to monitor their animal’s health.

I just read that one of Oprah’s dogs tragically died from choking on a toy ball. It reminds me, once again, of how fragile our dogs’ and cat’s lives are.

Being the owner of a pet health care company (www.thepetcheckup.com) I get to speak with very caring and involved animal caregivers all the time. I remember one man called to thank me for our product and told me that one day his dog was in seemingly perfect health and the next day she fell off the couch in a coma. It turned out she had advanced diabetes and, within a short time, she became completely blind.

Life by nature is uncertain as we all know, but when I hear stories like this, I am so happy to be involved with a product that can so easily help people to protect and extend their pets’ lives.