Blood Work worries
 

Hi guys, new poster here. I would like to share and get some advice please, google is giving me too much information right now.

Ruger is 7 months, 4.5 pounds. We planned on getting him fixed so I took him for his blood work today. Got a call saying his results are a little worrisome so we need to do the bile acid test.

I don't think remember if he ate or drank before we went - but it's possible.

I just wanted to post the results of his testing and get some opinions if that's okay. I'm just posting the bolded, abnormal ones.

ALT - 71 (5-60 normal)
RBC - 7.2 (3.8 -7.1 normal)
Hemoglobin - 170 (85-167 normal)
Platelets - 500 (170- 490 normal)

While I'm naturally worried about liver problems, each result is pretty close to the normal ranges given.

I've also looked around the forums and it seems from what I can see ALT results are a lot higher then his.

Also I've seen the list of different symptoms, I would say the only one he would have is vomiting. He has a couple times over the last couple months, but either was normal right after or within a few hours.

I feed him RC mini puppy, and My Mighty Wolf treats - which are all natural protein.

So, questions? Comments? I'll phone the vet tomorrow - I was a bit overwhelmed when they called today and didn't have any questions, so if you have questions I should ask that would be great.

Thanks in advance!

ALT is a super sensitive enzyme and I've seen it go from 117 to 395 from a simple diet change in my own dog who has liver problems. It seems your dog had other liver values w/in normal limits, so why the BAT test? I would probably want to repeat the chemistry first if it were me before rushing into BATs. As for the RC puppy, that's a good choice, I feed two of my adult dogs RC foods with excellent results.

I wouldn't be too concerned. The BAT should be done. The CBC should be watched to make sure those values don't go any farther outside of reference range. No clumping or hemolysis occurred with the sample, right? Some of these may be off due to stress at the vet's office...

This made me think of something. Was this blood work done in house or sent out to a lab?

Same day - so it must have been done in-house.

Original Poster - in the future you might want to ask your vet to send it out. In-house bloodwork is fine in urgent situations, but it tends to be less accurate than when the blood is sent out to a lab.

No clumping or hemolysis is mentioned on the report. Would it be a comment or number?

The comments at the bottom state:
Hemotology - Unremarkable
Chemistry - No significant or diagnostic findings.
ALT moniter any vomiting? Given breed might want to check bile acids.

He does get stressed out. Remembers his needles I assume. He refuses treats from them and whines and shakes a bit.

According to the header it's from a lab across the city. We went in before 10AM and I got the call at 530PM. Slow day maybe?


Thanks so much for the replies.

Okay, I missed the hemolysis on the report. It's mentioned as the first thing under biochemistry and the results say "++".

Is that good or bad?

He's going for a bile acid test tomorrow morning, so I can get a chance to talk to the vet more about his results.

I've been researching more and from what I understand, the "normal" results for a BAT are low first results and slightly higher second results? What numbers are considered the norm?

Any questions or concerns I should bring up with the vet tomorrow?

Hemolysis destroys blood cells and can lead to inaccurate results. Your vet will be able to tell you if the results were likely affected by this. It could be a good thing in that maybe the results that were off aren't really off...

Bile acids testing gives a look at how the liver is functioning. Pup is fasted for a variable period of time depending on the vet - usually 12 hours. Blood is drawn (pre meal - called preprandial). Pup is fed a food high in protein and/or fat depending on vet preference. Then two hours later blood is drawn again (post meal - called postprandial). There are different reference ranges depending on the lab used. Usually preprandial will be 10 or under and postprandial will be 15-20 or under. Anything over 25 becomes more worrisome.

Just wanted to share his results (we had to fast twice - the first time we were leaving for the vet and he got in his crate and the people at the vet had left treats in from Monday).

Hemolysis - normal
Icterus - normal
Lipemia - normal
Bile acids - 5.8 (reference 0- 7.0)
Post Bile acids - 22.5 (0- 22.0)

So post bile acids are slightly increased, but the vet just wants to test again in 6 months to keep up on it.

We're definitely excited about the news!

Thanks for all the advice, it really helped out.

This is really great new's.