Bosco's Fund & Preventative Care: How Bloodwork Can Detect Early Stage Illness & Infections

Pets are vital members of our families. In addition to the love and laughter they bring to our homes, dogs and cats help keep us fit and active, lower our stress levels, and teach empathy, compassion, and responsibility, especially in children. Having a dog or cat is an invaluable addition to a family. Yet as bills, groceries and day-to-day expenses pile up, their preventative care can quickly get overlooked, potentially leading to later health problems or, at worst, the loss of a cherished family member.

Bosco’s Fund hopes to change that by covering the cost of preventative veterinary care for 140-150 lower income families in Bucks and Mercer counties. Opening in Fall 2026, local agencies working with these families can refer them to Bosco’s Fund, which will allow them to access important preventative veterinary care.

Bosco, the inspiration behind our fund.

This program is also made possible with the help of our veterinary partners, including Nottingham Veterinary Hospital in Hamilton, NJ and Flowers Mill Veterinary Hospital in Langhorne, PA.

Lacey's Story & Diagnosing A Serious Illness Early

Preventative care is crucial because it can help catch health issues early, before they become serious. In this way, we enable our pets to have the best quality of life possible.

Amy Cymanski, the practice manager at Nottingham Animal Hospital, spoke to us about the importance of their partnership with CAS Bosco's Fund and the impact of preventative care for our pets.

An example was a mixed breed dog named Lacey. Higher than normal liver values in her preventative care bloodwork revealed Lacey had Cushing's Disease.

Cushing’s disease causes the adrenal glands to overproduce cortisol, a steroid, which can develop into serious symptoms. Luckily, because the disease was caught at an early stage, Lacey was successfully treated with medication. Now, Lacey continues to thrive.

Why Preventative Bloodwork Is So Important

Changes in bloodwork can identify a disease process, allowing treatment to stop it or slow it down. For example, changes in kidney or liver values may indicate a number of problems, such as leptospirosis, a bacterial infection caused by contact with contaminated water.

Tickborne diseases are another example of illness that can also be identified with bloodwork. Other examples include autoimmune anemia, Addison’s disease and any number of infections revealed by an elevated white blood cell count. Including bloodwork as part of an annual preventative checkup can often diagnose these problems in their early stages, resulting in a better prognosis.

Having seen numerous pets like Lacey where preventative care stopped a serious infection and pets whose lack of preventative care might have led to a serious infection, Amy believes that if pet-owners could do one thing for their pet, it should be to bring their pets in for annual check-ups.

Our Pets Can’t Tell Us When Something Is Wrong

They usually keep their signs of illnesses and pain hidden. By investing in preventative care, we give our pets a voice through veterinarians who can often speak to any pain they may be in.

As Amy points out, our pets age much faster than us which many people don’t realize, “even doing blood work once a year, twice a year on some of these pets is like doing blood work once on ourselves every six, seven years.”

Similarly, missing just one annual checkup can mean missing the opportunity to catch a disease. Preventative care and routine checkups give families the best chance to catch issues early and help their pets stay healthy for as long as possible.

Through these types of partnerships with veterinarian practices, Bosco’s fund extends the possibilities for more pets to have such care.

By removing financial barriers for many families, Bosco’s fund protects our pet’s health today in hopes for a healthier tomorrow.

For more updates on adoptable pets, our veterinary funds, and more, sign up here.