Do puppies need pre-neuter bloodwork if mom has liver/kidney issues?

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Penelope. It is good that her ultrasound came back normal. I typically recommend blood work such as a bile acids panel (liver function test) and even a coagulation panel prior to surgery in the case of elevated liver values. These blood panels will help to ensure that it is safe for her to go under anesthesia. I hope this information helps!

I think the best prevention is routine monitoring of bloodwork and urine. Kidney values can be trended yearly. If they start to become abnormal, your vet can recommend diet change and supplementation as needed. If your dog is not sick, bloodwork may not be covered unless you have wellness coverage.

If the liver enzymes are elevated but liver function is normal there is probably not a significant increased risk under anesthesia. You could talk to your veterinarian about checking bile acids if it seems like this might be helpful; bile acids can help determine whether or not the liver is functioning normally. Sometimes a biliary mucocele is surgically corrected so you also may want to talk to your veterinarian about rechecking the mucocele if liver enzymes are still elevated.

Bloodwork is typically done around 6 months of age before anesthesia for a spay or neuter. There is no set time that it should be done. Typically, if a dog is ill or requires sedation/anesthesia, then bloodwork is done to diagnose or to make sure the pet can undergo anesthesia. Some owners choose to have bloodwork done yearly as part of the physical exam. If Bruno has never had bloodwork, you can have your vet do it if only to obtain a healthy/normal baseline for comparison in case Bruno ever gets sick.

In-house blood work is very expensive as we have to buy very expensive laboratory equipment, ie little diagnostic plates or rotors that can only be used once. So using in house labs is only useful when we need results right away. As your dog's surgery is next week there is enough time to send out the blood and receive a result in time for the surgery, and so have a less expensive way of doing bloodwork. Presurgical bloodwork is usually done in older animals as they could have some health conditions that make an anesthesia or surgery itself risky. By taking presurgical bloodwork we can evaluate liver and kidney function and other imbalances or problems with vital organs. It protects your dog as we can tailor the anesthesia to your dog.

Actually this is true in the case of kidneys. It take up to 75% of the nephrons to fail in kidneys before symptoms are seen of kidney disease. It's always good to have blood work done on any dog, even healthy ones. Because our dogs cannot tell us if they are feeling sick or not, these tests are needed to make sure everything is healthy. In addition, many dogs will show no sign of illness until they are extremely sick. You can't know for sure if your dog is healthy without these tests, so if your vet is recommending doing the blood work, I suggest going along with your vet's recommendation.

It depends on what exact illness the sire has. If you can find out exactly what disease he is suffering from we may be able to help more. Some liver issue may be from toxin ingestion but other may be hereditary. I would make sure both male and female have been screened by a vet prior to breeding. .