dobes4us

Riggs had his annual bloodwork (cbc/smac) done today. His total bilirubin was 1.1, normal is .2-.6 and his hematacrit was 37%, normal is 37-55%. His alt, alkphos, sugar, kidney and every other levels were fine. The Dr suggested a liver ultrasound or just to wait 3 months and repeat the cbc. My Chessie has CAH and I know what her bloodwork was, do I am not thinking that, but the Dr says he is a doberman....I am kind of thinking to go the wait route and retest in 3 months since all other liver values were OK. Just need some advise. Thank you!

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Sue & Crew
Chessie, Riggs and Kylee

Retta

Maybe one of the vets on this forum will answer you.
I agree with you on retesting at a later date. Alot of things can affect blood values, from stress to food. But one thing, your vet probably wants to check for is a possible liver shunt. A dog is born with that (it is a congenital thing, not genetic). What happens is the blood vessel that bypasses the liver during gestation, doesn't shut off, and start supplying the liver with blood, for the puppy's liver to start filtering it's own blood. The mothers liver did that in utero. Thus why your vet wants to do an ultrasound. The ultrasound will tell where or if there is a shunt. A shunt can be corrected, and sometimes, depending to what degree, can be managed by meds. and diet.
Your vet is on top of it, so I would just wait and see what Riggs next testing shows, and go from there. Sometimes a shunt may not be discovered until the dog is older too.

Murreydobe

When Rush's bloodwork first showed slightly elevated liver enzymes, we waited 30 days, then re-tested. After that we did a bile acid test. It was only after the bile acid test that we went to ultrasound.

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CH. Birchrun Who's On First, aka Razzle
Foxfire N KO Simply Madness WAC, aka Connor

reddobes

Was the bilirubin run in house or sent to a reference lab? Was the sample hemolyzed - this can affect certain tests including bilirubin and give a falsely elevated level.

Bilirubin can also be elevated in hemolytic anemia (where the body is destroying red blood cells)
I'd recheck a PCV/TPP and blood smear in week or so and make sure it is not dropping. They can look at the color of the plasma and see if it appears yellow at all and check a blood smear to see if there are signs of regeneration, abnormal blood cells seen w/ IMHA (spherocytes), etc. It may well be nothing, but if this were very early IMHA, far better to catch it early than when they are really sick with it.

dobes4us

The blood work was run in house.

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Sue & Crew
Chessie, Riggs and Kylee

reddobes

Some of the in house lab equipment gives false high results (either high when it's normal or higher than it really is) we stopped running them in house for the most part because of this.

I would recommend sending a T.Bili to a reference lab (make sure the sample is not hemolyzed) and checking a PCV/TPP and blood smear in a week - I'd also watch his gums if they start to look pale at any point, I'd get him in sooner.

Good luck w/ you boy!