Let me guess...or not!

I see patients of all shapes and sizes with presenting complaints as individual as they are.  Although I can make an educated guess about what is going on with my non-verbal patients, if I do not perform basic diagnostics, it is still only a guess. There are certain points I want everyone to remember about a sick pet.  1. If your pet is sick, please see a veterinarian. 2. Once you see the veterinarian, please authorize as much testing as you can afford, so that he/she can get maximum information and not have to guess.
Gone are the days when a vet can declare a mass non-malignant without a biopsy or with any certainty at all, say for sure that a puppy has parvovirus without a test to prove it.  We know so much more now and new pathogens are developing every day. Guessing is like Russian roulette. Every now and then there will be a bullet in the chamber and the pet is the one who suffers from it.