Salamander

This is her CBC from a couple days ago.
Lots of stuff is "low" and "high".

Should I freak out?

The complication here, beyond her general health, is that she is due to be cropped sometime in the next 3 weeks.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I have to get her cropped because of my control freak father.

He owns this house and since he got pushed into selling his mountain property a few months ago, he's been even more of a dictator than usual.

Since he isn't happy now, nobody can be happy and my so-called inheritance hangs on the 'law' that I never get another dog unless all my other dogs have died.

My mom said ignore him and then the sudden, unexpected issue of 'Halla came up and put me in a corner.

So, even though he's too dog ignorant to tell two Dobes apart, he will notice the cropped ears versus natural ears.

If it weren't for him being a jerk, I'd leave her ears be.

But, I can't afford to lose my home or the 'inheritance', such as it is because that's what's paying off her already outrageous medical bills.

Based on the CBC, is it safe to crop her ears, if we're waiting until the 'last minute'?

Also, what does all that stuff mean?

The vet only mentioned the calcium/phosphorus and potassium as "concerns'.

But seeing it for myself, it all looks pretty scary.

I'm sorry to burden you with my extremely dysfunctional family issues but things are what they are.


[and yeah, if I had the deed to this house, which is being held hostage by him, I'd move so far away he'd never find me...but I don't so I can't]

Salamander

MUCH more readable version of her CBC results.

http://www.walagata.com/w/the-salamander/hallacbc.pdf

Adnohr

Due to low RBC and hemoglobin, she's definitely anemic. But that's all I know from my program for now.

vivienne00

You should be asking a Vet these questions, not us. There is no way I would comment.

If you want to look up the meaning of each item on the CBC and what it could mean, then go here:

Broadway Veterinary Hospital / Laboratory Assessment Descriptions

Good luck.

__________________

Cato, Emerald's Black Onyx, Emerald's Black Quartz (r.i.p.)
Owned by Enid, Jill (kelpie) and Lana.

Shell81

I'm surprised the vet didn't go over it with you! At any clinic I've been a tech at the vet always goes over bloodwork with patients. Heck, when my own pets had bloodwork my boss always went over the blood results with me, and I know how to read them lol.

I noticed in your other thread you mentioned the vet that took this blood was a new vet, I would definitely go back to your old vet with the results, and go over all of this. Blood results only say so much, your vet will also know her complete history which plays a part in blood results, and whether or not she should be having anesthetic (for her ears) at this point.

Good luck, and I read about her in another thread....bless you for taking her, and helping her. She has done amazing so far

Salamander

Thanks very much for that great page, Vivienne!

To answer you and Shell, yes, you'd think the vet would've gone over these things with me, wouldn't you?

I called early Thursday to find out if the results were in and they were but was told the vet would call back later.

In the meantime, hubby, who, you might remember having the 3x bypass 3 years ago recently bothered to mention chest pains and shortness of breath for a couple of months so we were in the doctor's office when she called and I had simply dozed off from emotional exhaustion when my cell phone rang.

I couldn't get it out of my bag fast enough to answer it when she called at 6:01 PM and by the time I hit call back at 6:02, she was "gone".

So I sat that night worrying extra because I knew she would've left a message stating that everything was 'fine' if it were.

The next day brought a rerun but I did finally get a call giving me a really brief recap that only mentioned the calcium/phosphorus/potassium as being issues for which I was told to go buy large breed puppy food, which I did.
[Origen]

We only go there because they accept Care Credit.

The only reason I got the good quality PDF of the results is because of Rebecca, a wonderful lady who works the reception desk.

Our regular good vet is looking into taking it but CC apparently charges him a lot for the 'privilege' of letting his patients use their services.

With the obscene rate of interest they charge me, you'd think they'd give away their services to vets, free.


And yes, thanks to everybody's support [and a lot of miracles] she's doing better than I could have even hoped she would.

Shell81

Wow, not cool at, and in my opinion totally unacceptable for a vet to not thoroughly go over it with you. I'm sorry, definitely see what your regular vet thinks about it. Anything I am going to tell you regarding the high/low levels you likely already know, and not knowing her full health history I can't really give you an opinion on what I think (nor do I really feel comfortable knowing that this pup and you have both been through hell and back). I hope you get some answers soon.

I also hope your hubby is ok, that's scary.

Salamander

Thanks, Shell.

I have a copy of the results to give my regular vet next week when she goes to him for her leg to be looked at before we get into the orthopedic ordeal.

He'll take the time to tell me what it all means.

And yeah, it's scary.

He's my whole world and I don't know if I could go on without him.

Which means I should really find somebody to take my dogs in case something happens to me, too.

My parents would just have them killed before my body was even cold.

I'll be so happy if/when everything eventually works out okay and I can finally collapse for a nice long rest.