Which patients should I offer veterinary genetic screening to?

All dogs can benefit from genetic screening as this allows you to rule out risk factors and be more proactive in providing personalized patient care.

When getting started generally, puppies and mixed-breed dogs are a great place to start!

Puppies:

• New puppy owners are often the most excited
• Results return in 3-4 weeks making this process fit very well into a puppy vaccine schedule

Mixed breed:

• Testing a mixed-breed dog to identify their genetic ancestry allows you the opportunity to provide breed-specific and personalized care.

Purebreds:

• When a dog with known ancestry is tested, genetic testing can still be a valuable tool to inform on breed-specific care and identify the risk of known breed health risks.

Breeding dogs:

• Genetic screening for patients being considered for a breeding program, allows you to identify carrier status, and ultimately be another tool in the breeder's arsenal when making decisions for their breeding program.

Even if a result comes back clear, this is also useful as it can be a tool to identify rule-outs of potential disease and can even narrow down your list of potential differentials.