Blood Drug Testing

How reliable are blood tests on dogs?

Like testing them for cancer etc. Basically, my dog had tests for cancer (which came back as negative)... but my dog was still having problems so the vet opened him up and had a look. He removed what he THINKS is a cancerous tumour (but which could be scar tissue [my dog is a rescue dog so we don't know his past]) What I want to know is because the blood test for cancer came back negative, what are the chances that what the vet removed is or is't cancer? sorry I don't really know how to word this very well.

Public Comments

1. ur dog is rescue dog or rescued dog?nyway blood test for dog is same as humans they are helpfull
2. Answered this once.
3. blood test are reliable,i took my dog to the vet they took his blood and came out that he has diabetes,so he get insulin now,i don't know why its came out negative he opened him up,you should when to another vet and have a second opinion.
4. The blood test does not give a positive or negative for cancer. It will show the various enzyme levels in the body and certain elevated levels MAY indicate cancer. It is not a definite diagnosis, just an indication. The only way to know for sure if the mass your vet removed from your dog is malignant is to send it away to histopathology. That is the only way you will know for sure. Did your vet suggest sending the tissue away to pathology?
5. Generally, they're just as reliable as human tests (which also have a margin of error). The tests look for antigens in their blood. If your dog either hasn't had a cancerous tumor very long, or an immune system that doesn't respond as vigorously as other dogs, it's possible that the test would come back negative. There's also false negatives on those tests for other reasons. The only way to be sure if this is cancerous is to actually test the cells from the tumor itself. I'm sorry that you have to even ask this question though.