Kildare lab is dedicated to your pet's health
Katie O'Neill examining a sample under a powerful microscope
Pets can't talk. They can't tell you when they're feeling off. But a perceptive owner will know. Then there's the matter of finding out why. Something obvious like cuts and bone breaks will easily be dealt with by a vet, but when it's something internal, then tests have to be done. The trouble can often be a bacterial issue in the gut. Just like humans, dogs and cats can have tummy trouble.
Pet Vet Lab, an offshoot of the Irish Equine Centre in Johnstown, Co Kildare is playing a growing role in using science developed for the horse industry to improve the health of dogs, cats, pet birds, even alpacas, all of which are among the extraordinary variety of domestic pets.
The process analyses samples of fecal matter from the animal, from which bacteria that beneficially affect that pet's health is identified and a specific probiotic solution is produced directly tailored to deal with any gut issues that may have been discovered. "The probiotic contains the live bacterial organisms that will benefit that particular animal's health," says Kerrie Kavanagh, the senior microbiologist who leads a team of 10 scientists at Pet Vet Lab. A resident of Kilcullen, she has worked at the Equine Centre for 24 years. The pets division was established about two decades ago, and it's probably not accidental that Kerrie and all of her colleagues are dog owners.
"When we get in a fecal sample from, say, a dog that has been showing symptoms — maybe digestive or skin issues or behavioural problems — we can determine if there's an imbalance in the gut health that might be causing it. Then we target specific bacteria from the animal that would help fix that, providing it as a probiotic solution."
This kind of work was initiated in the parent Irish Equine Centre, established 41 years ago to help the high-value Irish horse industry, on what has become today a campus of wide-ranging science disciplines. Kerrie sees no difference in the idea of applying the equine industry techniques to domestic pets. "Pets are part of family to their owners, to whom they're just as high value," she says.
The range of expertise available in the labyrinthine Irish Equine Centre and its 60-plus staff underpins many related sciences which can be applied to the Pet Vet Lab work — biochemistry, haematology, a pathology clinic, and the forensic department among them. “There’s a wealth of expertise here, for many purposes. We probably analyse 40,000 samples every year in our Microbiology lab, for equine, canine, all pets, all species of animals. We do environmental work too, including checks of water quality, disinfectant trials, and research for the food and pharmaceutical industries.”
Though the Pet Vet Lab has been going for 20 years, Kerri feels that there’s still only a small percentage of pet owners who take advantage of the service. “We’re a small business within the IEC, and we don’t have big budgets for marketing. But we get a lot of referrals by word of mouth, and we also go out to places like Maxi Zoo where we can chat to people as well as holding worming and gut health events.”
Pet Vet Lab does considerable work for veterinary practices and for animal shelter charities, but also encourages pet owners to access them directly where appropriate. It's more than probable that there are many pets out there whose general health is not as well as it might be simply because their owners don't know that they can be checked out in a simple way. “We always emphasise that issues which require veterinary services should be done through your vet, but for general health analysis we have a samples service available through our website.” The site at petvetlab.ie provides very clear instructions for contact and sending in samples.
Recent excitement at the laboratory had nothing to do with spotting an unusual bacteria in a sample, but was the fact that Pet Vet Lab have made it as one of the finalists in the Irish Country Magazine's Irish Made Awards, in the Petmania category. "It would be great to spread the word, and get our local communities to support us in this," says Kerrie. Public voting at irishcountrymagazine.ie/vote24/ is open until 12 September.
