My dog's blood test has low potassium and high NA/K. What should I do?

Hello and thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. The BUN and CREA are the most worrying symptoms indeed. It means that Pushka's kidneys are not working very well. A urine test should be the next step of investigation to rule in/out kidney infection and intoxication. Also, ultrasound scan of the kidneys may help to make the final diagnosis. Other blood parameters that are abnormal could be related to the kidney problems or not. High RBC, HCT, HCT could be due to dehydration, but it may be caused, for example by kidney problems. I don't think the abnormalities are due to stress. I hope it will help but if you have any further questions, please let us know.

Hello, & thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. ALT is an enzyme that is released when liver cells are damaged. The normal values are usually less than 100. Unfortunately, the presence of the enzyme does not indicate the cause or reversibility of the damage, nor does it tell us if this is recent, but temporary damage, or on-going problems with the liver. Toxins, including plants, medications, such as steroids, viruses, & endocrine diseases can all cause increases in ALT. If Kobee is not having any problems, then I would recommend retesting in 6 weeks. If Kobee is sick, there are many more diagnostic tests that can be conducted to try & get to the cause of the problem. Often, we actually never find this out, & dogs do very, very well with moderately elevated values. We actually do not even get concerned until the values are at least 3xs normal, or there are other parameters that are abnormal. If Kobee is well, then all I might recommend is discussing with your vet about putting him on a neutroceutical called Denamarin. It can help with oxidative changes in the liver. I hope he does well. Take care.

I assume your vet is concerned about Addison's disease. This disease requires life-long medication, but they tend to live long and well with treatment. It's difficult to know how suspicious this is without evaluating the dog or records, but I wouldn't be too concerned until a diagnosis is made. Even then, it's not a terrible disease to live with when treated appropriately. For more information, I recommend you read the article at the link below. https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/addisons-disease-in-dogs-overview I hope that helps and all is well with Tony

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. So a bit of clarification- Having a somewhat increased protein level on bloodwork is uncommonly a problem and usually ignored - it usually just indicates mild dehydration. So maybe they were just mentioning that change? Severe protein increases on bloodwork could signal an infection or even certain types of cancer but I would expect her to be SICK if that were the case (fever, limping, weight loss, etc.) Regardless, dietary protein actually has little to do with blood protein so I wouldn't necessarily recommend changing her diet at all. The only times I really care about dietary protein are if the protein level is too low or for special cases like kidney failure. Now there are things on bloodwork like high triglycerides or cholesterol that ARE more responsive to diet change, so maybe there was a misunderstanding/miscommunication about what was actually too high. In closing - I can't be sure without seeing the bloodwork myself, but in general, I don't change diets for healthy young dogs because of protein elevations. Hope this helps and best of luck to you and Nikke!

Hello and thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. The blood results show that Finn definitely has some problems with the liver. Some of the liver enzymes and bilirubin are mildly elevated, which is never normal. What is more, ALP and GGT results could not be determined. It means that there was a machine fault when measuring these parameters, or these values were too high for the machine to read. I would suggest to run bile acid stimulation test, ultrasound scan of the liver and repeat the blood test that was run at your vets on the 7/15/20. You may consider running ACTH stimulation test to check for Cushing's disease, but it is unlikely that Finn has this problem. Based on these results, it can be decided what to do next.

Blood results always have to be interpreted with the results of a hands-on exam and medical history in mind. Numbers alone cannot give a diagnosis. Your veterinarian should have explained those results to you as he also did a clinical exam and knows why you went to the vet with your dog. That said I can give you a general idea: The lab was looking for blod parasites, but did not find any. This can mean that your dog is blood parasite free or just that in the sample they had, there were no parasites visible. This is not proof that your dog is parasite free, it just means they did not find any. The PCV is high, that means your dog is likely somewhat dehydrated. He also has too many neutrophils and too few lymphocytes which is most often a sign of infection. Your veterinarian should explain to you what he suspects your dog is suffering from. The blood parameters alone are just a small part of diagnosis and in your dog's case not very specific.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Tony. I agree that he is in the early stages of kidney failure based on the lab results you have provided. Kidney disease can cause low levels of potassium so it is good that you are supplementing him. Kidney values can fluctuate up and down a bit, but you want to assess trends over time to see how he is doing. SDMA and creatinine are more sensitive indicators than BUN. I would ask if his phosphorus level is in the target range for his degree of kidney disease (based on the IRIS staging) and make sure he has had his blood pressure measured recently. I hope this information helps!