SpotOn blog

COVID-19: The Impact

Health officials across the U.S. and all over the world are working hard to combat COVID-19. For veterinarians, this work includes providing care for pets: horses, livestock, laboratory animals, aquatic, exotic, and wild animals – all work that is essential and helps protect both animal and human health. Practices have had to put plans in place to protect their team, minimize exposure for staff and pet parents. They have had to scrounge to find personal protective equipment that even human medical professionals have struggled to find. But recent clinic data has shown some positive indications that leave some cautiously optimistic about the state of the industry.

Spectrum Veterinary – A Year in Review

Spectrum Veterinary’s vision for 2019 included expanding our sales leadership team across the United States, launching a new Group Purchasing Organization partnership and closing out the year with the acquisition of another allergy diagnostic laboratory. It was an exciting year for us and we are excited to announce that we accomplished all our 2019 company objectives. 

We also tested 31,086 patients in 67 different countries in 2019. That is all made possible because of clinics like you who are committed to treating the source of allergy not just the symptoms. Kudos to you!

When it comes to diagnosing allergies, pet parents (and subsequently veterinarians) are faced with an increasing number of options. Intradermal testing, serum based assays, hair and saliva assay offerings can make it confusing for everyone to figure out which option is right for the patient's unique scenario.  The popularity of hair and saliva assays has also been increased through websites like Groupon and Amazon by advertising directly to pet parents. 

Does pollen season bring in more and more allergy patients each year? Based on a new study from The Lancet Public Health, this could be true.

Allergy testing is the first and most crucial step in treating allergy conditions. While the test can be performed year-round, some seasons are better for testing than others.

Any breed of dog can have allergies – from terriers to sheepdogs and everything in between. In fact, more pups are affected than you might expect. For starters, more than 30% of all skin irritations in dogs and cats can be attributed to allergies. And last year we allergy tested more than 27 thousand pets from 59 different countries.