Bella's Actual Blood Work Results.

[diggy4]

Thought this might be interesting to some and even educational.

This is Bella's blood work AFTER the clostridium was in her system from Bully Stick. Very scary. Maybe someone on here knows how to read the blood work and can explain it all to us.

The vet explained it all but I was in such a state of shock I didnt hear much she said

Hope this helps some people in their decision of what to give their babies.

The other stats that might help when reading this

Bella is Spayed, 5 pounds, vomitted once at around 4-5 pm, started vomitting every 10 minutes around 6pm this test was ran at 8:39 pm. That's how fast this hit, and how damaging this is in a VERY short time.

If anyone can explain this blood work to us that would be great I want to do everything I can to help educate us on these dangers!

[ARCHIE]

I can't help you Mandee but glad your babies are doing well after
that terrifying incident.

[wengaroni]

omgosh. paula! i just read through your other thread and how frightening. it's good to know that bella is doing much better and diggy as well. i stopped giving mocha bully sticks a month ago, because every one i bought seriously STANK up the house. now she probably won't ever get them because i'm OCD when it comes to sanitation and cleanliness.

i hope everything goes back to normal soon.

[PrincessLila]

Hi Bella's Mom,

I'm not a vet, but I am in the medical profession so I can help make sense of these labs.

WBC (white blood cell)are high meaning that your baby was fighting off an infection (or could be from inflammation, steriods but we know she had c. diff). But the number isn't too high so maybe your baby is improving.

EOS: are eosinophils, a type of WBC which fights allergies and parasites. The number is low but I wouldn't be concerned because it isn't too low and that maybe her normal value.

HCT: hematocrit which is a number that (and I'm simplifying this) basically tells how packed your blood is with cells, proteins etc. Because your baby is probably dehydrated, the number is high. (It's like if you take you take salt water and suddenly remove most of the water and leave the salt it will be very salty.)

RBC: Red blood cells. They carry oxygen in the blood. The number is high for the same reason above. I'd be concerned if they were low because that would suggest your baby is anemic.

Hg: Hemoglobin. They are the proteins on RBC's that carry the oxygen. Same reasons as above.

MCHC: Mean corpscular hemoglobin concentration. Basically tells how much hemoglobin in a certain amount of blood. High for the same reasons as above.

Lipase: It's an enzyme made from the pancreas that helps digest fat. Can be high if your baby had pancreatitis (inflammation of the ancreas).

Otherwise, your baby's liver function tests were normal which is good!

Overall, the tests are pretty normal. they basically mean that your baby had an infection, and because of vomitting/diarrhea became dehydrated.

[yorkiecrazy]

How scary all this was for you. Glad Bella is doing better.
PrincessLila- Thank you for explaining the report.

[moosie's mom]

Originally Posted by PrincessLila

Hi Bella's Mom,

I'm not a vet, but I am in the medical profession so I can help make sense of these labs.

WBC (white blood cell)are high meaning that your baby was fighting off an infection (or could be from inflammation, steriods but we know she had c. diff). But the number isn't too high so maybe your baby is improving.

EOS: are eosinophils, a type of WBC which fights allergies and parasites. The number is low but I wouldn't be concerned because it isn't too low and that maybe her normal value.

HCT: hematocrit which is a number that (and I'm simplifying this) basically tells how packed your blood is with cells, proteins etc. Because your baby is probably dehydrated, the number is high. (It's like if you take you take salt water and suddenly remove most of the water and leave the salt it will be very salty.)

RBC: Red blood cells. They carry oxygen in the blood. The number is high for the same reason above. I'd be concerned if they were low because that would suggest your baby is anemic.

Hg: Hemoglobin. They are the proteins on RBC's that carry the oxygen. Same reasons as above.

MCHC: Mean corpscular hemoglobin concentration. Basically tells how much hemoglobin in a certain amount of blood. High for the same reasons as above.

Lipase: It's an enzyme made from the pancreas that helps digest fat. Can be high if your baby had pancreatitis (inflammation of the ancreas).

Otherwise, your baby's liver function tests were normal which is good!

Overall, the tests are pretty normal. they basically mean that your baby had an infection, and because of vomitting/diarrhea became dehydrated.

Very good post! Excellent explanation.
I too am in the "medical field" (people) and know some about human lab work. When I first saw these labs....I was like...yes Bella is doing GREAT!! Well, if she was human that is. I would absolutely say that Bella is on the road to recovery. It would be interesting to see her lab results when she was first diagnosed.

[diggy4]

Originally Posted by PrincessLila

Hi Bella's Mom,

I'm not a vet, but I am in the medical profession so I can help make sense of these labs.

WBC (white blood cell)are high meaning that your baby was fighting off an infection (or could be from inflammation, steriods but we know she had c. diff). But the number isn't too high so maybe your baby is improving.

EOS: are eosinophils, a type of WBC which fights allergies and parasites. The number is low but I wouldn't be concerned because it isn't too low and that maybe her normal value.

HCT: hematocrit which is a number that (and I'm simplifying this) basically tells how packed your blood is with cells, proteins etc. Because your baby is probably dehydrated, the number is high. (It's like if you take you take salt water and suddenly remove most of the water and leave the salt it will be very salty.)

RBC: Red blood cells. They carry oxygen in the blood. The number is high for the same reason above. I'd be concerned if they were low because that would suggest your baby is anemic.

Hg: Hemoglobin. They are the proteins on RBC's that carry the oxygen. Same reasons as above.

MCHC: Mean corpscular hemoglobin concentration. Basically tells how much hemoglobin in a certain amount of blood. High for the same reasons as above.

Lipase: It's an enzyme made from the pancreas that helps digest fat. Can be high if your baby had pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas).

Otherwise, your baby's liver function tests were normal which is good!

Overall, the tests are pretty normal. they basically mean that your baby had an infection, and because of vomitting/diarrhea became dehydrated.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!! How VERY educational your post was.

Ok 1 more question....her stool was PURE blood shortly after these blood work results came back. My confusion is on the Lipase.

They did what the paper calls a Canine Pancreatic Lipase Test results Normal?? But the blood work says its high??? how do the know its normal if its high?? And what on here indicates her liver function is normal? I have had her liver tested before but always reassuring to hear its STILL normal

Thanks again for taking time and making sense of this for me

[PrincessLila]

Hi Bellas' Mom,

Since I'm not a vet, I can't really speak for the Canine Pancreatic Lipase Test. For humans, if docs are thinking of pancreatitis we will only get the blood form. So I'm not sure what the canine test is. What I can say about lipase is that when the pancreas is inflammed, and the cells are dying it will release lipase into your blood. Lipase may stay elevated for a while even if the pancreas is back to normal. So maybe this is why the blood levels were elevated but that test was normal? That's a question for your vet.

The bloody stools were from probably from the inflammed colon. How are her stools now? Are they obviously bloody or black like tar (means she might still be bleeding.) Humans get C. diff colitis but we usually get it when we're on antibiotics that wipe out the normal bacteria in our colons allowing the c. diff to overgrow and make us sick. We see it a lot in the hospitals and it's a s**tty (no pun intended) thing to have. And it's easily transferable to other humans. So be careful! The treatment is another antibiotic called flagyl or metronidazole.

Ok, so anyway Bella's Liver function tests are normal. One is Albumin, which tells us that your dog's liver is making proteins which is one of its many jobs. If the liver is sick it will have a lot of trouble making the very important proteins she needs. And that will cause a bunch of problems on its own.

ALT is an enzyme made by the liver and when the cells die, they release the enzyme into the blood (much like lipase in pancreatitis). This tells us that there is inflammation of the liver or hepatitis.


I hope this helps. Sorry for making it long!

-Lila's mommy

[diggy4]

Originally Posted by PrincessLila

Hi Bellas' Mom,

Since I'm not a vet, I can't really speak for the Canine Pancreatic Lipase Test. For humans, if docs are thinking of pancreatitis we will only get the blood form. So I'm not sure what the canine test is. What I can say about lipase is that when the pancreas is inflammed, and the cells are dying it will release lipase into your blood. Lipase may stay elevated for a while even if the pancreas is back to normal. So maybe this is why the blood levels were elevated but that test was normal? That's a question for your vet.

The bloody stools were from probably from the inflammed colon. How are her stools now? Are they obviously bloody or black like tar (means she might still be bleeding.) Humans get C. diff colitis but we usually get it when we're on antibiotics that wipe out the normal bacteria in our colons allowing the c. diff to overgrow and make us sick. We see it a lot in the hospitals and it's a s**tty (no pun intended) thing to have. And it's easily transferable to other humans. So be careful! The treatment is another antibiotic called flagyl or metronidazole.

Ok, so anyway Bella's Liver function tests are normal. One is Albumin, which tells us that your dog's liver is making proteins which is one of its many jobs. If the liver is sick it will have a lot of trouble making the very important proteins she needs. And that will cause a bunch of problems on its own.

ALT is an enzyme made by the liver and when the cells die, they release the enzyme into the blood (much like lipase in pancreatitis). This tells us that there is inflammation of the liver or hepatitis.


I hope this helps. Sorry for making it long!

-Lila's mommy

Oh no not too long I could read about it forever!!! Very interesting!!! I appreciate your time and knowledge

Her Stool is close to normal....a little loose but not black or bloody at all.

The antibiotic she is on is the metronidazole. We have a compound here so they had it special made for her and Diggy. As Diggy has the same thing she does but its not affecting him the way it has her. He did not get NEAR as sick just the watery stool. SO they are both being treated with the same meds. Well Im SO happy to hear liver function is good and I will def. ask the vet about Lipase. Thanks so much for your responses and help!

[Ladymom]

This is a great guide to understanding bloodwork. I printed off a copy for my first aid kit:

http://www.bichonfriseusa.com/caninebloodwork.htm

[katelin]

Does anyone know what it is about the bully sticks that caused the problem?

Katelin