Baffling Medical Condition

I have been communicating directly with a few people on Dogweb regarding
the following. But I thought I would put this out there in the hopes that
someone may be able to offer some information.

A couple of weeks ago, my dog vomited 5 times in a 4 day period and lost
her appetite. Of course I rushed her to the vet and he did bloodwork.
A few things were slightly abnormal. Her white blood cell count was
very elevated and her blood protein level was low. He put her on
meds to stop the vomiting and she hasn't vomited in almost 2 weeks.
Her appetite has returned and she seems back to her old self, although
she seems to be drinking a bit more than usual. She's going to the
bathroom on a regular basis.

As a precautionary measure, I took her to the vet a few days ago for
repeat blood work and a urinalysis. Although she's acting fine, her
white blood cell count has gone up, and the protein level is still too low.
The urinalysis came back normal.

My vet is baffled. He consulted a specialist about this, and the specialist
is baffled. They don't understand why she's not acting sick even though
the WBC is very high. He is now recommending that I have a chest
X-Ray done and an ultrasound to make sure this is not a kidney infection
or disease or any other internal organ problem.

Does anyone out there have any ideas or suggestions? I'm so frustrated
by this.

aww leslie i am truly sorry that they still havent found out whats wrong with luck im baffled now as ive run out of ideas on what could be causing her to be ill by having an xray and an ultasound it will show up any abnormalities and this way they will be able to see what they are dealing with,sending you and luck plenty of big big hugs cos you both deserve them hang in there mate

Sorry to hear about your dog, I know how frustrating it can be, there are a couple of things that come to mind, kidney problems as you mentioned, liver problems, intestinal problems, although usually if the problem is liver or kidneys, if its significant then with the liver the ALT and albumin levels would be off, if its kidneys the creatnine and BUN would be elevated....or at least the creatnine, sometimes a high white count can be due to a lot of stress, sometimes if the dog has eaten shortly before the blood tests you dont get an accurate count...there are just to many 'ifs and maybe's' though and Im not a vet so anything I could say would just be guesswork pretty much.

I really think that you need to go with what your vet says, x-rays definately and an ultrasound should let you know if there is any problems with internal organs, if nothing shows up there then maybe biopsies and further blood tests, smears, more specific tests as opposed to the standard intial tests.

Needs further investigation by your vet.

Thanks Jen and Flipper. I am simply beside myself. I am praying that my
vet figures out what the problem is and that it's nothing serious and can
be rectified quite easily.

I'm off of work tomorrow and Monday, so I get to spend 4 days with her.
I'm so happy about that.

And Flipper, you may not be a vet, but you certainly have the knowledge
of one. Maybe you should consider a career change.

I'll keep you guys updated.

I wish you all the Leslie and please keep us posted

Thanks Trixy. Keep fingers and paws crossed for me!

Thankyou.

I was just lucky in the animal hospitals I worked at, one was a teaching hospital and there was a lot of encouragement from the vets for the techs there, there was some schooling as well and a genuine interest in the work. I dont think I know any more than the average tech whos been doing the job as long as I have. I wouldve loved to have gone to vet school but it was never a possibillty before and now I think its a bit 'late in the day' at my age.

Let us know what you find out with your dog, hope everything is okay.

Thanks Flipper!

My biggest fear is Cancer. But I am trying to console myself with the
knowledge that if it was something serious, she wouldn't be acting
normally as she is. If I'm not mistaken, a sign of cancer is a low
WBC, not an elevated one. What do you think?

This is not going to be of help in putting your mind at rest, only further investigation with your vet will help you there.

Some cancers will show low WBC and elevated Total Portein however you have to keep in mind that if there is cancer present that in itself can cause other problems that will affect the blood results, for example a splenic mass may show aneamia and slightly elevated WBC's. When my own dog had bone cancer, which usually shows low WBC her WBC showed normal on her tests although we found it pretty early.

A basic blood panel is generally used as a guide, it can suggest cancer but it really needs to be investigated further. Different diseases will show up similar blood results, for example, the last hospital I worked at, we used a blood diagnostic machine that was computerized, whatever results we got, we could hit a button and it would print out a list of what the potential diagnosis were. We would get things like male dogs that had got into something toxic....and the results would say that one of the possibilites going by the results is that the dog could be pregnant which of course would be impossible.

Sorry I cant help you more than that, there are just too many things that also need to be taken into account.

Thanks Flipper. I am just sick about all of this. I need answers or a
hypothesis from my vet and he's not giving me any. I need to know
so that I can deal with whatever it is. Whenever I talk to him on the
phone, he makes me feel as if I'm bothering him.

I am just so confused, because if she were really sick, the vomiting would
not have stopped, the appetite would not have returned, and she wouldn't
be back to her happy self. She is definitely not acting sick!