Why Blood Work is Important for Senior Dogs
by Christy Caplan
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August 10, 2018 Shermie is 11 and Bruisy is 14. So my dogs are SENIORS. They also just started taking Galliprant which is an NSAID to help with arthritis. So naturally, we need to do blood work to check out the various organ systems and to ensure this new drug hasn’t had a negative impact.
This time around, we did see some abnormal findings on Sherm’s blood work so we’re exploring this further with more blood work. Typically with my guys, we do a CBC or Complete Blood Count.
Unfortunately, Shermie’s ALT is high and we’re now going in for an ultrasound Monday to rule out scary things. The ALT is a liver enzyme and if it’s elevated it is best to rule out disease and to make sure their liver is functioning properly. Fortunately, as you can see from Sherm’s below Bile Acids test – his liver IS functioning as it should. But an ultrasound is now the next step. And then we’re hoping that is super boring and we manage this through medication over time.
With this in mind -without this routine blood work we wouldn’t have seen this elevated ALT!
Don’t Forget About Regular Blood Work Panels for Seniors
If this example wasn’t enough to convince you, here are some reasons to make sure you’re getting your senior dogs into your vet for regular blood work:
- Your vet will always ask to run a chemistry pre-anesthetic panel before a dental or surgery which is something that should ALWAYS be done. It’s important the kidneys and liver are functioning properly before you move ahead with anesthesia. (seniors should have dentals too!)
- There may be a hidden problem so you should always talk to your vet about bloodwork – if your dogs are like mine, they’re stoic and I’d never know there is a problem
- It’s easy to toss a bunch of symptoms (e.g. stiffness, sleeping a lot) into the “old age” category but your old dog may be having some issues with dementia or kidney issues leading to incontinence
- Let’s face it – older dogs are unfortunately more prone to certain illnesses (just like us as we age) so you should consider an annual wellness exam which will include bloodwork too (ask your vet if it doesn’t)
When you do receive the results your vet will walk through all the basics but if you’re interested in geeking out – here’s a great article diving deeper.
Always make sure you get a copy too.
This is the results from Sherm’s Bile Acids test:
We want seniors, Sherm and Bruiser, to have wellness appointments twice a year to ensure outside of existing issues there isn’t anything we don’t know about!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmMVJXkAbUL/?taken-by=wagandcluck
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Questions about blood work? Please shoot me a note or comment below!
Hi! When Shadow’s liver enzymes first shot upwards of normal, our vet originally mentioned Galliprant and a few other options. Due to the cost involved at the time, we hesitated and went instead with Gabapentin and CBD oil, plus Tylenol 3 when the arthritis was more bothersome. That seemed to help tremendously. Months later, during a time when Shadow was having a harder time, I asked the vet about the Galliprant, specifically if the cost had gone down any. He said it was about the same but that the drug itself was not as liver-neutral as originally thought, so he preferred to not use it for our sweet girl. So, I increased her CBD oil and that really helped a lot. Now that she’s almost two months out from the stem cell infusion, she’s doing GREAT. The arthritis in her left knee seems to bother her just a little bit from time to time, but that’s where it was the worst anyway. I have a new brand of CBD oil to try for her, starting tomorrow. We’ll see how it works. I’m hoping it will also work on her super-sensitive emotions.
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this! I discontinued the Galliprant yesterday and we’re going to recheck bloodwork in 2 weeks. I AM convinced this is why he has an elevated ALT. His ultra sound didn’t show anything remarkable and this is the only net new drug we’ve added. AND I love that your vet had this knowledge –my vet said that the drug is new so we should assume this and rule it out after I added this to the discussion. AND certainly before I do a liver biopsy! I’m going to try CBD oil again as I’ve tried it for anxiety and I’m going to research stem cell too. SO glad Shadow is doing so well and this comment was really helpful – thank you!
This is such a great reminder, blood work is really important to see what is really going on with your pets. Phoebe got blood work when she had her teeth cleaned last year and at Icy’s wellness and vaccination exam a few months ago I requested bloogwork for her. It’s so worth the peace of mind and if there’s an issue you can catch it quickly. I hope Bruisie and Shermie are ok even though a few of their values were of some concern Seniors have health issues, that is life but if you catch any issues early that will provide the best outcome. Thanks for sharing your dogs’ health assessments with us, it’s very educational!
Love & Biscuits,
Dogs Luv Us and We Luv Them
Thank you! Totally agree – it’s better to know than to be in the dark. And since they were on a new nsaid it seemed worth doing and I’m so glad I did given I wouldn’t have known about Sherm’s high ALT. It’s still a mystery but we’re taking him off the nsaid and testing labs again as I think that’s the culprit. Thank you for commenting and sounds like you guys had fun last week!!
Christy, I’m going to send you a copy of our vet’s white paper on the stem cell treatment Shadow received. It’s still in the clinical trial stage, so your vet may not have heard of it yet. I have some errands to run first, but I’ll get it to you today or tomorrow.
Thank you so much!!
Ruby gets blood work twice a year. She’s on Phenobarbital for seizures so we always need to keep an eye on her blood work to make sure the medication is not having negative effects. So far, she tolerates it pretty well.
Adding all this medication into the mix as they get older always makes me a little nervous -I’m so glad the Phenobarbital is working well for Ruby and she’s tolerating that – Normally we stuck to twice a year until we added these new NSAIDs!
Our vet always recommended a “wellness panel” at their exams for our senior dogs, and we were happy to have that done. Our beagle Kobi showed markers for Cushing’s Disease so we always knew what to watch out for there (he never got it).
I like the idea of a wellness panel and think that’s a good idea probably for all seniors – we’re going back in two weeks to do labs on Sherm again now that we’re holding Galliprant. Good grief.