Our pets are susceptible to tick-borne pathogens that can cause a wide range of symptoms, and those symptoms overlap quite a bit between different diseases. It is often very difficult to pinpoint the cause of illness until molecular analysis identifies the exact pathogen.
As pet guardians ourselves, we know the value of the best care and treatment for our beloved animals. We recommend tick identification and testing as a part of that quality care.
Why Test Ticks?
Tick testing can directly assess a pet’s risk of pathogen exposure after a tick bite. Tick testing utilizes real-time PCR to quickly and accurately test for tick-borne pathogens present in the tick.
VetVector tests individual ticks for the presence of pathogens. This allows you, as the veterinarian, to determine the most appropriate treatment if or when symptoms appear.
Common veterinary diagnostic tools are based on the ELISA platform. This technology is easy to use and interpret, but has some limits due to their reliance on antibody detection. First, the timeline required for seroconversion and detectable antibody levels can lead to false negative results if testing takes place too soon after a bite. Secondly, because antibodies linger in the bloodstream indefinitely, even after treatment, it is difficult to distinguish between old and new infections. Tick testing does not replace antibody testing for diagnosis, but can offer valuable exposure information immediately following a bite.
VetVector is built on trusted protocols
VetVector pathogen tests have been developed over many years in the TickReport testing lab. VetVector samples are tested alongside TickReport specimens with the same assays by the same professional microbiologists and the same attention to detail that has earned the trust of over 75,000 users since 2006.
VetVector has a few variables that help us reduce costs for the veterinarians who use the service. First, we customize the list of pathogens to focus on those that are most relevant to common companion animals like dogs, cats, horses, and rabbits. The same panel of VetVector tests can be ordered through TickReport along with an additional 12+ pathogens that are relevant to humans for $200.00 in the Comprehensive testing package. By eliminating some of the pathogens that are less important for companion animal infections (and use additonal expensive reagents) and providing users with pre-labeled tubes that allow us to process the sample faster, we can focus on veterinarians’ needs and reduce the costs of testing to $100.00 (2022 price).