Welcome, Pet Cancer Prevention Vet™ listeners
Better questions.
More insight into your pet’s health.
Discovered VDI through Tracie Hotchner’s podcast? Explore specialty testing that helps you and your veterinarian make informed decisions about your dog or cat.
VDI Laboratory is a founding sponsor of Pet Cancer Prevention Vet™. We’re pleased to help bring conversations about pet health to more families. Here, you can learn about VDI’s testing services and find information to discuss with your veterinarian.
Specialty testing complements your veterinarian’s examination, routine lab work, and recommended care.
The right tests for the right decisions®
A specialty lab on your pet’s care team.
Your regular veterinarian and routine laboratory tests provide an essential foundation. VDI adds focused testing when there are more specific questions about cancer, nutrition, inflammation, digestive health, or selected environmental exposures.
Founded in 2006, VDI develops and provides veterinary diagnostic testing to expand the information available to your veterinarian. Our reports support clinical decisions, and our team can discuss findings with your veterinarian.
Whether your pet receives conventional or integrative care, the goal is the same: useful information that helps your veterinarian build a plan for your individual pet.
Continue the conversation with your veterinarian
Which testing might help your pet?
A podcast can introduce questions worth exploring. Choosing a test starts with your own pet’s needs. Your veterinarian can help prioritize testing based on age, symptoms, history, medications, and existing results. You do not need every test.
Cancer screening & care
Is cancer screening appropriate?
VDI’s Cancer Risk Assessment™ is a blood-based screening option for apparently healthy dogs and cats. It uses markers related to cell division and inflammation to help your veterinarian assess risk and consider whether further evaluation is appropriate.
For pets with suspected or diagnosed cancer, VDI offers separate panels to support the diagnostic workup and monitoring.
Nutrition
What do your pet’s nutrient levels show?
VDI offers blood testing for vitamin D, vitamin B12, folate, and magnesium. These measurements give your veterinarian information about specific aspects of your pet’s nutritional status.
Results can guide discussion of diet, supplementation, and follow-up testing. Review supplement changes with your veterinarian.
Wellness & inflammation
Could there be inflammation to investigate?
VDI wellness panels can include blood markers of inflammation: CRP in dogs and haptoglobin in cats.
These findings can help your veterinarian decide whether additional investigation or monitoring is appropriate. Your veterinarian interprets them alongside the rest of your pet’s health information.
Digestive disease
Why do digestive problems keep coming back?
For pets with ongoing vomiting, diarrhea, weight loss, or other digestive concerns, VDI’s Advanced GI Panel combines blood markers related to inflammation, pancreatic health, nutrients, and other digestive disease processes.
It can support your veterinarian’s evaluation of conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease and intestinal lymphoma.
Gut microbiome
What’s happening in your pet’s gut?
VDI’s GI Microbiome Panel examines bacterial and fungal findings in a stool sample. For pets with chronic digestive signs or unresolved concerns, results can add context to a veterinarian-led care plan.
Stool can be collected at home using the kit instructions.
Environmental exposures
Is there an exposure worth discussing?
VDI offers urine testing for selected mycotoxins and glyphosate, plus fur analysis for mineral and toxic metal patterns.
These are focused options to discuss when your pet’s history raises a specific question. Your veterinarian can help determine what a finding means and whether follow-up is needed.
Putting testing in context. Laboratory testing is one part of your pet’s care. Results can inform decisions, but no test or prevention plan can guarantee your pet will remain cancer-free. Your veterinarian brings together examination findings, medical history, laboratory results, and appropriate follow-up.
From listening to your next visit
A good conversation
starts with a good question.
Bring your curiosity—and your pet’s individual needs—to your veterinarian. Together, you can decide whether specialty testing would add useful information.
“I heard about VDI on Tracie Hotchner’s podcast. Based on my pet’s history and current care, would any specialty testing add useful information?”
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Choose testing together.
Share your concerns and existing results. Your veterinarian can help prioritize the most useful next step.
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Arrange the right sample.
Blood-based testing requires a veterinary blood draw. Some stool, urine, and fur samples can be collected at home. Follow the selected kit’s instructions.
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Turn results into a conversation.
Review findings with your veterinarian before changing treatment, diet, or supplements. VDI can discuss results with your veterinarian.
For ordering and sample collection: (805) 577-6742 or office@vdilab.com. VDI discusses clinical results with veterinarians and does not provide medical consultations directly to pet parents.
Before you get started
A few common questions
Does VDI replace my veterinarian or regular lab?
No. VDI provides specialty testing that adds to your veterinarian’s examination, routine blood work, and other recommended diagnostics. Your veterinarian directs your pet’s care.
Can I order a kit myself?
Some test kits are available directly to pet parents; others require veterinary ordering. Check the selected product page and coordinate with your veterinarian before purchasing a blood-based test. Visit Working with VDI for the process.
My pet already has symptoms. Should I start with screening?
Contact your veterinarian about the symptoms first. VDI’s cancer screening for apparently healthy pets serves a different purpose from a diagnostic workup. Your veterinarian can select the appropriate tests.
Will the results tell me exactly what to do?
Results provide information to interpret alongside your pet’s history, examination, medications, and other tests. Your veterinarian determines next steps, which may include further testing, treatment, or monitoring.
What if something I heard differs from VDI’s information?
Podcast speakers may discuss different perspectives, emerging research, or approaches that apply to particular situations. VDI’s website describes our services and testing recommendations. Bring the specific question to your veterinarian, who can help you understand how it applies to your pet. For questions about a VDI test’s intended use or sample requirements, contact our team .
Keep listening
Pet Cancer Prevention Vet™
With Tracie Hotchner
& Dr. Kendra Pope
More to explore
Let your next question
start here.
Continue exploring pet health with Tracie Hotchner and board-certified veterinary oncologist Dr. Kendra Pope.
Hear different perspectives, discover topics worth discussing, and bring your questions back to your pet’s care team.
More conversations for pet parents: Visit Tracie Hotchner Pets
About our sponsorship. VDI Laboratory is a founding sponsor of this podcast. The podcast is independently produced, and VDI does not control its editorial content. Views and recommendations expressed by hosts and guests are their own and may differ from VDI’s information or testing recommendations. Sponsorship does not mean VDI endorses every statement or recommendation. This page provides VDI-specific information to help you continue the conversation with your veterinarian.