Two reasons why veterinary clinics need to have their scales calibrated regularly

Virtually every veterinary clinic has at least one large weighing scale, which can be used to weigh dogs, cats and other animals.

Heavy-duty weighing scales that are used on a daily basis need to be calibrated at least once a year by a professional who specialises in calibration services. Periodically calibrating a set of scales ensures that they provide consistently accurate figures.

Here are two specific reasons why a clinic of this kind should have its scale calibrated on a regular basis.

To diagnose conditions

Many health conditions that cats, dogs, rabbits and other animals suffer from can cause them to lose or gain weight. Regularly weighing an animal enables a veterinarian to detect changes in its body weight, which might be indicative of a disease. This, in turn, makes it easier for them to treat and potentially save the animal's life (depending on the nature and severity of the condition that they have been found to have).

However, if the weighing scales the veterinarian is using are inaccurate because they have not been calibrated in recent months, this could lead to two serious situations. Firstly, it might result in the veterinarian failing to detect (and therefore treat) a condition that an animal has developed.

Secondly, in instances where the scales falsely show that an animal has lost or gained a significant amount of weight, the veterinarian may end up wasting time and money performing additional diagnostic tests to try to determine if the weight changes are a sign of the animal having a condition. Going through the process of unnecessary medical tests could also be very distressing for both the animal and their owner.

For accurate record keeping

Much like with humans, animals need to have detailed medical records. Having access to information about an animal's past health issues can provide a veterinarian with insight into what might be causing their current problems.

Additionally, as veterinarians are legally required to keep accurate records for all of their patients, keeping incorrect medical information on file could result in the clinic being fined, if the inaccuracy of an animal's records were brought to the attention of the relevant authorities.

As such, if the scales on which an animal is periodically weighed are uncalibrated and are, therefore, providing erroneous results, the animal's health records could make it harder for the veterinarian to treat them and may even result in the clinic receiving a fine.