My dog's low WBC increased on antibiotics. Is bone marrow failing?

This may be a good case to choose a Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach Consult as there are a lot of variables we would need to know to help you the most. Causes for low white cells could be severe, overwhelming infection, viral, or even something like cancer. Many medications would take longer than 5 hours to see a positive response, but it varies based on the presumptive diagnosis your vet has made and the particular medication. Some medications can be dual purpose and treat pain. There are many diagnostics I would recommend based Kent he bit of information you gave us, like other tick testing, blood chemistry, urinalysis, x-rays, ultrasound, fecal testing, etc.

I'm glad to hear that Missy's incision is healing well. White Bood Cell (WBC) counts can change quickly in the blood stream for a variety of reasons including even stress. Depending on the lab, her value in September may have been slightly high, but I suspect her value last month was likely within the normal range, so would wait for the results to come back from the biopsy testing and determine that to do from there. Her WBC count might not be a major concern at all. We often see VERY low WBC counts with cancers in the bone marrow (less than 1.5), so I would not be particularly worried about a value of 7.47. Good luck! I hope that was helpful and answered your question. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

With a white count that keeps getting higher despite antibiotics I would be concerned there is cancer hiding somewhere. An ultrasound would be my next test as it can look at the intestine, lymph nodes, liver and spleen. The spleen makes the red blood cells, and if it has a tumor then that can cause that count to drop. An immune disease can also cause a low red count.

Hello, the elevations of the cells is very mild. It appears that she may have a mild infection, given that his eosinophils are high, the most likely cause may be associated with parasites. The medications should not cause the white blood cells to go up, instead, it should help decrease their number. Speak with your veterinarian about checking his stool for parasites and consider deworming him as well. Also check for heart worm disease. Hope this helps and best of luck.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. There can be multiple causes of low RBCs and WBCs. I would make sure that all possible infectious causes are ruled out such as tick borne diseases. A chronic infection can cause low RBCs and low WBCs as well. Bone marrow could still be diseased and be leading to the low RBC and WBC count and a bone marrow biopsy in this case would prove to be useful. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Hello. Those blood results indicate that there is a low red cell count, low white cell count and low platelets. This COULD indicate leukemia as all three cell lines are low, however it could also be due to a systemic infection and the platelets being low could be due to clumping. The first next step would be to send the blood away to an external lab to look for regeneration, as well as platelet clumps. If your dog is acting sick your vet may want to start on antibiotics in case of a systemtic infection. I suggest you go back to your vet and discuss these results, and discuss what the pathologist comments were if the blood was sent away externally. If bone marrow disease is suspected they can do a bone marrow biopsy.

In looking at the bloodwork you attached, I would not be concerned about the total White Blood Cell value being slightly lower than normal. After the total WBC value, the bloodwork breaks it down into individual white blood cells, like neutrophils and lymphocytes, none of which are too low. In fact, neutrophils, the body's first responders to infection or inflammation, are a little higher than the normal range. White blood cells are the fighters of the immune system, and it appears that Mary still has plenty in case she needs them. There is nothing you can do raise them other than keep her in good health. However, I do see that both BUN and Creatinine are also elevated. This can happen for many reasons, including severe dehydration, kidney insufficiency or failure, kidney infection, among others. These are the more concerning numbers that I see, and I am sure your vet has discussed a plan of action for these values.