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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - High white blood count?
| Thanks to all of you who have been asking about Lucy. You can' imagine how much your help and concern means to us. Started a new thread because something new has come up which is confusing me. Lucy is doing pretty well with the anemia - last hemolytic was 34. However her white count keeps fluctuating and is now 34,000. It has been above 30,000 since Lucy was diagnosed in August. For the first time since the AIHA was diagnosed I'm not getting clear answers from my vet about this. Lucy has finished her round of three antibiotics (one intravenous the other two oral) and continues with topical antibiotics & topical ciclosporine for her eyes. Eye infections are under control and abcess in the blind eye has drained. Other eye the cornea continues to be ulcerated but other than a film over the eye, the oozing and pus have also stopped. She is on: 5 mg pred 1X a day 25 mg AZA 1x a day 1/2 precid 1X a day 1/2 baby aspirin 1x a day She weighs about 20 pounds. I thought the high white count was good because it meant she was fighting the infection, but all vet says is that it is way too high and should have started to come down. Has anyone else had issues with very elevated WCT and were you given any specific meds for it? Any suggestions or questions to ask vet would be appreciated. |
| Maris New York |
| Hey Maris, Yep, we've had elevated total WBCs the entire time Bentley has been ill with IMHA....his count has varied from 15000 ish to 38000 or so. Right now, he's at 22,000. From what I've learned from my vets and specialists, there are different possible reasons for this. It could be an underlying infection going on, like a UTI. It can also be an increase in neutrophils, with a low level of lymphocytes, which is not a big cause for concern. OR it can be a result of the inflammation of the illness....Our specialist saw this in the morphology of the WBC in Bentley's lab work, as there were toxic bands present. So it kind of depends.... Lucy has had alot of infection with her eye....If the vet feels the WBC should be down from that, then the culprit may just be the inflammation from the illness itself, or just that the neutrophils are high. Ask for a copy of the WBC report, and post the breakdown of the types of cells found and their percentages, along with any comments in the morphology. This will give everyone a better idea of what might be going on. For Bentley, as we've gotten the anemia under control, the inflammation has lessened and the WBC has come down a bit...still elevated, but lower. But it has taken quite awhile. Talk soon, Sally and Bentley |
| Sally Louisiana |
| I don't have much time today. There is a situation where the automated analyzer can sometimes see young red blood cells as white blood cells. It can elevate the WBC count abnormally. This may be one of many different reasons why this is showing up like this. However, all that said, yes infections can drive anemia in this way. It can be referred to as anemia of chronic disease. It simply means that there is some disease condition that the body is trying to fight and part of the tactic is to make the environment as inhospitable to bacteria as possible (inflammatory response). Unfortunately it may do it in a way that also hampers the bone marrow's ability to make red blood cells. But in many cases, sometimes it is best to ask for a one-time manual slide morphology evaluation by a laboratory specialist. The automated analyzers are really great and do catch many things of importance, but they are machines and when there are many different unusual cell inclusions, they can make small errors of recognition. It will reassure you and your vet that what you are seeing on the tests are the real thing. my best patrice |
| Patrice NYS |
This thread was discussed on 27/09/2011
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