Ellie's blood work is not good.
 

Ellie had her wellness check the other night and the vet just called.
Her ALT, BUN, etc. are normal. Her urinalysis and T4 are perfect.:)

Her lipase is up to 907 (high normal is 750). She did have pancreatitis and apparently it may have gone chronic. We will do more blood testing now and probably lower the fat in her diet.

Now to what really concerns me.
Her hemoglobin is up slightly which the vet isn't really concerned with.
Her platelets are 94,000 when they should be between 164,000 and 510,000. There could've been an issue with the blood sitting around and going to the lab and the people at the lab said the platelets looked okay, but this may not be good. Something else that is crossing the vet's mind is that Ellie took a long time to stop bleeding after her blood draw the other night. She wants her rechecked in less than a week.:(

Her titers aren't back yet but I told the vet that I am refusing all vaccines until the CBC is normal. With low platelets we have to start talking about tick-bourne illness (she went down South this year but I saw ZERO ticks on her) and immune mediated diseases. It may not be this because I think the vet said hemoglobin usually drops first if that were the case but we just don't know.

Now Ellie is sick. She threw up last Friday and then seemed fine. A couple days ago she started getting diarrhea and still has it. She has had a bit of a cough but nothing major. The vet is going to be out of town for a couple days and said if she gets worse, go to our back-up vet. It sounds like she is concerned.:(

I can't believe we might have more problems.:(:(:(

We are just hoping that the CBC will go back to normal and that a diet change will bring the lipase down.

Aw! :( Poor baby Ellie. I'll keep you both in my thoughts & prayers that everything will turn out ok. You're such a great knowledgeable furbaby mommy so I'm sure everything will be alright.

Oh no! Sounds like you have a great vet and you have a lot of information-how great they share all of that with you! I'm glad your vet wants to retest soon and hopefully that will help you make the best decisions about how to care for Ellie. We will be sending our positive thoughts and prayers for both of you. Hugs to you both as well.

Prayers coming out from Utah for both of you!

Oh, ELLIE :(!!! So, it's wait, adjust diet, and check again? Oh, gosh - how stressful. I mean the bleeding thing kind of stands alone - but I wonder if *some* of the other levels were off due to some combo of issues (her current bout of something) - so maybe, like you said things could potentially normalize....

You probably already looked up lab result anomalies and all of that? I wonder what else this long bleed time could be about.

I'm so sorry Ellie is sick, I hope you find out what's bothering her soon, and wish her a speedy recovery. Not knowing is so hard.

Oh poor Ellie I hope she get better soon. Nothing is worse than not being able to fix our babies when they are sick.
Praying for a speedy recovery.

Thanks Everyone.

Yes, it is wait a few days, redraw for pancreas testing and CBC and then decide what to do. I'm sure the pancreas number will be high and in that case I will have to talk to her nutritionist about lowering her fat intake. If the CBC is normal, great. We will then probably blame it on platelets clumping together. If the numbers don't normalize I don't know what the vet is thinking is next and I don't think I want to... I mean, if it is immune mediated, the most prevalent treatment is steroids. Well, Ellie can't
be on steroids because of her liver. The last resort would be a spleenectomy and that may not even work. Low platelets can also mean a tumor. I don't know what to think. The low platelets may be connected to the extended bleed time and then we really would have a problem... I am seeing platelets and pancreatitis connected on Google. Anyone know if pancreatitis can lower them?

Now with her not feeling well I am all the more concerned.

Crystal - we'll keep you and Ellie in our thoughts and prayers. It sure seems like pancreatitis is on the rise!! Good decision about her vaccinations as well. Keep being a great mommy!!

I am keeping Ellie in my thoughts and prayers. I hope her numbers are down at the retest

I soooo agree.:(


I just canNOT calm down.
It is going to be a loooooooooooooooooong weekend.
Now with her cough the the low platelet count, my thought is heartworms?
But she has been on something for that and tested clear this Spring.

Now my head is going in circles.

I'll keep Ellie in my thoughts and prayers. I am hopeful for a speedy recovery. Hopefully, her blood redraw will have better results and you will be able to find an explanation for the abnormalities.

My Julz is going through similiar sounding medical issues. I assume your vet is doing a PLI test to determine the pancreatitis? 0-200 is teh norm, Julz was 337 on Monday. As for teh connection w/ low Hemo???? Because, looking at her CBC report as i type the range indicates 12.1-20.3 and her's wwas 9.3 (LOW) so with that being said it;s sounds possible. But we also learned she anemic (sp) too, REgenerative at that.
I hope things turn out ok for you at your furbaby.
I jsut started SQ today so i hope that helps and get julz back to wanting to eat *fingers crossed*:)

OH NO ~ Little Ellie get better soon!

What the heck is going on Crystal with our babies?

....I am so sorry that she's not feeling well again :( I will be watching this thread for more updates :(

Yes, the vet is going to do a PLI.
Ellie has already been diagnosed with pancreatitis by her internist. It showed up on ultrasound. We decided to not do any blood testing at the time because we already had the diagnosis but it appears to be chronic, so further testing has to be done now. Ellie's hemoglobin wasn't low, it was high.:confused: I really do wonder if the abnormal CBC could be from pancreatitis. The vet is about to get a lot of questions.:rolleyes:

I don't know but it is frustrating.
So it looks like on top of lower protein, Ellie now needs lower fat than she is already getting. What is she going to eat? All vegetables and carbs probably.

Maybe you could feed her Roxy's diet :confused:

Isn't the protein cottage cheese?
I think dairy is questionable for pancreatitis.:(

What's another $160 for Ellie's nutritionist anyway???:rolleyes:

If the numbers don't come down on the CBC and treatment needs to start (which hopefully isn't the case), I might see if I can talk to/email Dr. Dodds since she runs a blood bank and I'm sure she has extensive experience with this and she might know how to treat without damaging the liver.

Yeah - Roxy does eat Cottage Cheese...

hmmm....I like the Dr. Dodd plan :thumbup:

You and Ellie will be in my prayers!

I am so sorry, will keep you in my prayers.

Now to what really concerns me.
Her hemoglobin is up slightly which the vet isn't really concerned with.
Her platelets are 94,000 when they should be between 164,000 and 510,000. There could've been an issue with the blood sitting around and going to the lab and the people at the lab said the platelets looked okay, but this may not be good. Something else that is crossing the vet's mind is that Ellie took a long time to stop bleeding after her blood draw the other night. She wants her rechecked in less than a week.

I went back and checked on Max's last lab work, his platelets were also a bit low, the vet did not pay much attention to it, and faxed this, I'm sure it will put your mind at easy some
***Platelet clumping may be reduced by the use or larger gauge needles, jugular venipucture, or collection of blood directly into the vacutainer***

I am so sorry to hear that Ellie has more medical concerns and I'll say a prayer that this turns out to be nothing serious. How scary for you. Sending you hugs and get well wishes and kisses to Ellie!

Has Ellie had an ultrasound done resently? it would show if her spleen is enlarged or mottled. If a dog is acting sick and has these symptoms this is what we'd do. platelet count is related to bleeding time. have the done a coagulation test (PT/PTT) to is if that is normal?

Her abdominal U/S was done in January. Everything looked pretty normal except her pancreas. No coagulation tests have been done yet since these are new test results. If they come back abnormal again, I guess they will have to be done.:(

Any idea what the problem could be?

Just want you to know i will keep you and your Ellie in my prayers

not really sure but if she stays this sick and depressed when your vet comes back and the blood work is still off i'd request an ultrasound. alot can happen very quickly. You mentioned a splenectomy. i've seen and scrubbed in on many of these surgeries. The dogs usually do fine after surgery and if its not cancer then they bounce back rather quickly. Unfortunately, and i don't really want to say this, more then half the time its the big C.

I hope this is not ellie's problem and the test results come back better.

Thanks for explaining that.
I'd rather people be honest so I know what might be going on.
She is perfectly fine right now...no coughing really since last night and only one time of diarrhea earlier. Other than that she is acting like her normal self.:)

Oh Crystal I completley understand. I was you last weekend.... panicked and sick to my stomach with worry. I hope you get answered quickly. I can't thank you enough for everything you have done for Layla and I and I wish i had information so i could help you. I'm glad Ellie is feeling better. Chances are it isn't related and she just had an upset tummy. Please keep us posted....

Ellie,
I so hope that all her numbers normalize with the next test, but if they don't, she couldn't have a better Mama than you to take care of her.

Ellie is in our prayers :hands:

:hug:
Tammy, Abby and Daisy