Many clients wonder why we recommend laboratory testing for many different reasons.  While many of you are lucky to have results come back within normal parameters, negative or without any parasites seen, there are too many that come back abnormal.  You know that saying that a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch, well it works the same way here.  We can not just assume that every pet we see is healthy just because they look like it or they do not have an adventurous lifestyle.  So we thought that we would give you the monthly results of some of our testing.  We hope you find it as interesting as we do.  Any finding highlighted in red represents a zoonotic disease.  Zoonotic diseases are those diseases that are shared by animals and humans.  The diseases can be transmitted from an animal or vector to human under natural conditions.  A vector is a disease carrier (ticks for example) that spreads the disease from an infected animal to an uninfected animal or human.  The diseases can be caused by bacteria, viruses and organisms and parasites. There are approximately 150 zoonotic diseases known to exist and there is a long history, going back to the plaque. Findings in green are not zoonotic but are highly contagious among other felines.