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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Lola's latest cbc
| Hi friends! Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days, this little girl is keeping us quite busy! Lola went back for bloodwork this past thursday (8/4) and we received her results on friday..good news and not so good news.. so this time i insisted on getting an actual number for her platelet count..and we paid extra for them to send it elsewhere to do so..but still did not get a # !! The only silver lining to this is that her platelets are no longer "decreased", but instead, "adequate"!! That allows me to breathe a little. I would still like to know the number though. Her reticulocyte count rose again, up to 10.5 which crushes the reference range of .5-1.5 % ! Her absolute reticulocyte also climbed higher at 280,350, which is on a range of 0-60,000 (very high!!) --Her corrected reticulocyte is 4.9% and her retic production index is 2.5 which is high on the scale of 0-0.9. So all of this news is very good being that an absolute reticulocyte count of greater than 60,000/mm3 of blood is considered evidence of regenerative anemia (as opposed to her original diagnosis of non-regenerative anemia) We were told that her blood count and PLATELET EVALUATION was determined by the presence of a clot in the tube---which i guess is good news. also, no parasites seen, and it also said that the ratio of blood to edta is low and that excess edta may affect the rbc, hgb, hct, mcv, mch, mchc, and cell morphology. GREAT lol. The bad news is that her RBC went from 3.16 down to 2.67, her HGB from 7.8 to 7.2, and her HCT from 24.2 to 21.0. We are hoping that since she is regenerating rbc that they will make it to maturity so that these levels climb. I am so worried that her HCT (PCV) is going to dip too low and I won't get her a transfusion in time. Her absolute neutrophil seg rose from 1426 to 2695 which is still low on the scale of 3000-1150/uL- her absolute lymphocytes rose from 437 to 490 (scale of 1000-4800 /uL) Her WBC rose from 2.3 up to 3.5 (reference range of 5.7-16.3 thous./uL) --still low but improving :-) So we have an appointment with Dr. Cheng from American Animal Hospital on tuesday (she practices traditional as well as homeopathic medicine) --I am going to see if they have a lab there that they can process lola's bloodwork in so that we can have them take a look at it (since every lab has different reference ranges) - thanks everyone, and once again any advice would be amazing! Love to all, Christina and Lola |
| christina new jersey |
| Christina, I would think that's definitely some good news in there....she is regenerating, and that's a great number. Mr. B's is always so-so at 110,000-115,000, so Lola is waaayyyy ahead of that! I'm still wading through the WBC types, but I know Lola's were low, and you want to see them go up....So yay!! (we have the opposite problem...B's are HIGH due to the IMHA, and we need them to be lower!) From what the vets have told me, they really start watching closely at PCV under 20....When Mr. B was at 17 at our vet (15 at LSU) at diagnosis, and 17 at LSU two weeks later, he got transfusions. My memory isn't the best on when you had her checked last, but depending on how quickly Lola is sliding downward, you may want to check her PCV a bit more often. I took Bentley 2x a week while he was at that stage. Or have a 24 hr place on standby if you should need them for weekend or after hours, if you see her in distress. Lola is so blessed to have such a great guardian! We're sending you biggest of HUGS, saying prayers, and Mr. B sends Lola great, big, sloppy puppy kisses :) Sally |
| Sally Louisiana |
| Chritina, Excellent news! Congratulations!!! The percentage of reticulocytes is very high (this is considered a high level of regeneration) and that kind of bumps down the percentage of red blood cells (statistics...) so in about 3-5 days when those reticulocytes mature there will be a large rise in the number of mature red blood cells (and the other values like hemoglobin and hematocrit/PCV will rise also.) You can probably expect the numbers to move around a lot for up to 4 weeks while Lola's body adjusts. She has been very very ill and still needs lots of recuperation time. The lymphocytes are the white blood cells you are trying to suppress right now, they should be on the low side. Don't worry about the platelets. They are difficult to measure because of their tendency to clump. Lab techs are able to evaluate them in spite of this. EDTA is an anticoagulant used in test tubes used to gather blood samples for testing. Its job is to keep the sample from clotting. So yes, too much can alter the numbers. All these things are just part of the trials of routine lab work. They are dwarfed by the significant rise in reticulocytes. I have no doubt in my mind that this was nearly the same autoimmune condition that happened to my dog. Treated with the same protocol, it was inevitable that there would be a regenerative response. *You are the person responsible for making this happen.* my best patrice |
| Patrice NYS |
This thread was discussed between 06/08/2011 and 08/08/2011
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