Bingo's blood test

[Vally]

At the vets today.  The teeth will stay for now.  Feels since they’re not causing him an issue, we’ll leave things alone.

Now, full blood test showed fairly normal everywhere except for:

High – ALT – 229 (10-100)

Low – CREA – 32 (44-159)H

We’re going to retest in 6-8 weeks and see where the ALT is – if it’s higher, probably do an ultrasound on the liver.  Oh let’s hope it goes down.

Love Vally & Bingo

 

[admin]

Hi Vally,

obviously your vet is not too concerned about these values? I am sorry I don’t understand it all, Patrice can probably give you a much better answer. ALT would be the liver so my thought would be giving milkthistle and possibly even Sam-E. Maybe Bingo is already on these? CREA is creatine and shows what is happening with the kidney? This is a big question mark, I really don’t understand this one.

For the teeth I had an idea of a home remedy that might work for a bit. Try and rub some coconut oil on them. Just take a little piece and rub it on his gums. I am sure after a few times he will love it, it tastes soooo good and it can help with infection/inflammation. if it does not help it certainly will not hurt. I know people who have used it and it really helped with all kinds of tooth problems.

Best wishes,

Brigitte

[Vally]

Hi Brigitte, yes Bingo already uses SAM-e and he gets some milk thistle drops (not much because it upset his stomach). I may up the dose a little.

I may do Dr Dodd’s liver cleansing diet for a bit too.

Can anyone tell me what a white potato is? Would it be a pontiac? There are so many varieties here but nothing is called a white potato as such.  Also sweet potato – I think that’s a kumara? Actually the potatoes scare me a bit. Isn’t there a chance of poisoning with potatoes? As long as they’re cooked it’s okay right?

He gets coconut oil in his food, but I’ll rub a bit on his teeth. They aren’t hurting him, but as you said, it’s not going to hurt so I’ll do that.

Regards

Worried and Bingo

[admin]

Hi Vally

Good news that those teeth aren’t too much of a problem. I think Brigitte’s idea of coconut rubbing is brilliant – got to be worth a go.

Please don’t worry too much – neither of these blood results are all that “bad” & if the rest are fairly normal, that’s great!

The low creatinine might be because of low muscle mass – do you think he’s still fairly under-muscled compared to before he got the AIHA? Highly muscled dogs have high creatinine levels naturally, so the reverse must be true. Can you increase the protein in his diet? If you can, hopefully the level might come up. Low creatinine is a sign of malnutrition in dogs without other underlying problems, but because of the AIHA treatment (the prednisone is catabolic & “eats muscle”), I personally think it’s still the drugs causing it. I know for sure that little boy of yours is certainly not malnourished!

Have a look at the AIHA term on ALT – I hope what I’ve written will help you. These drugs do have an adverse effect on the liver, especially in the long term- do you have the results of any other liver enzymes? Increasing the milk thistle (I used powder from capsules) helped Worzel’s ALT come down dramatically, but he definitely had tummy ache after his doses. I started putting in his food & he tolerated it much better. I have taken it myself & it gives me terrible heartburn on an empty stomach. I know it can cause dogs to have loose stools too.  I sympathise with Bingo not tolerating it too well, Vally – so difficult.  Maybe a liver scan would put you mind at rest if it doesn’t come down – the liver is an amazing organ, capable of regenerating & recovering from serious problems. Have a look at the bit about steroids in

https://ahdc.vet.cornell.edu/clinpath/modules/chem/alt.htm

So my friend, please don’t get too stressed out over this – give that amazing boy of yours a big cuddle from his Aunty Sheena. I think he’s done brilliantly, considering how long he’s had to take the drugs.

Loads of love from Sheena, Worzel & Ollie

[Vally]

Sheena my computer isn’t playing at the moment. I’ll post the rest of the results tomorrow.

<span style=”line-height: 1.428571429;”>Thanks heaps for this.  His vet said it wasn’t too way out but when I saw 100 as the top figure and his result was 229 I did freak out somewhat.</span>

Love slightly less freaked and sleeping beauty.

[admin]

No worries – sounds like Bingo couldn’t care less anyway if he’s fast asleep! The other liver enzymes would be AST aspartate aminotransferase & CK creatine kinase (not creatinine). If they tested SDH Sorbitol dehydrogenase that would be good too. The link I gave explains it a bit. Have a good sleep bedside your beloved Bingo. Speak tomorrow!

Sheena & the boyz

[Vally]

Sheena, this is the rest of them. I can’t see an AST or a CK reference:

ALB – 37 (22-39)

ALKP – 121 (23-212)

ALT – 229 (10-100) – HIGH

AMYL – 498 (500-1500) – LOW

UREA – 6 (2.5-9.6)

Ca – 2.45 (1.98-3)

CHOL – 7.67 (2.84-8.26)

CREA – 32 (44-159) – LOW

GCT – 4 (0-7)

GLOB – 38 (25-45)

GLU – 5.79 (3.89-7.95)

LIPA – 657 (200-1800)

PHOS – 1.96 (0.81-2.2)

TBIL – 18 (0-15) (HIGH) – I misread this as the TP being high so I didn’t mention before.

TP – 75 (52-82)

ALB/GLOB – 1

BUN/CREA 43

Note he wasn’t fasted.

I haven’t included the ProCyte Data which all fell into the normal range, or the Chemistry Data (IVT) which was practically normal too.

When I asked his vet about the result and whether it was the likely the effect of the prednisone, he said no.  That the test which would show the prednisone effect came out normal – I’m not sure which test result that would have been.  That’s why I’m a bit more concerned.

Love Vally & Bingo

[Vally]

Reading more, I do think it’s possibly steroid related.

With milk thistle, I don’t think I can use capsules as the dose may go to high.  I’m currently using a liquid milk thistle (but it’s actually in alcohol – maybe that’s not a good idea – although he only gets 4 drops a day).  I may change to a tablet.

Can anyone help with the dosage – I hate working these out as I’m scared I’ll overdose or underdose.  Tablets are milk thistle extract 100mg – adult take 1 tablet 3 times daily. So by Dr Dodds, Bingo should take 20% of an adult does, so I work out ROUGHLY half a tablet twice a day???

Sheena, Bingo wouldn’t admit it but he is very wimpy in the hind leg department.  I normally give him the yellow of an egg every third day. Now I know the white of the egg has more protein, so I’ll cook the whole egg and give it to him more often.

Vally