Are These Blood Levels High?

[Guest TonyB2014]

Hi. Having lost one dog to kidney failure, I've become a little cautious with my remaining dogs and now have annual blood tests done as a precaution. My rescued (ex-racing) greyhound has a CREA (creatinine) level of 186 umol/L, which I know is high for ordinary dogs, but is this high for a greyhound? I'm having urinalysis and BUN done next week (I was surprised he didn't do BUN at the same time). My vet didn't even want me to do a blood test at all - because Sally the greyhound is only 6yrs old, but thankfully I insisted.

[macoduck]

The unit of measurement you use in the UK is different from the US. Dr Stack's site http://www.greythealth.com/blood.html can show you the values but you'll have to convert to your measurement. She has creatinine as .8 - 1.6 and Dr Couto has them as 1.0 - 1.7.

 

Hopefully tbhounds will see your post and help you with the measurement conversion.

[Guest TonyB2014]

Hi. Thanks. Dr Stack's site is interesting, because it puts normal greyhounds CREA at about 1.6 times normal values for other dogs, which would put Sally's well within normal values. It's a tricky one, because I certainly don't want to miss the chance of treating any kidney disease early, but also don't want to expose her to a diet change and potential medicines if there's no need. It's quite tough finding scientific/veterinary advice that's not either misleading or contradictory when it comes to the bloodwork of greyhounds.

[TinyMityMo]

186 umol/L Creatinine = 2.1 mg/dL so it is a bit on the high side.

[Guest TonyB2014]

Thanks. Good to know. I'm still hoping the BUN and urinalysis works out ok. We took her on a long walk to the vets when she had the blood taken, which may also have played a part, I'm guessing.

[tbhounds]

Just as a reference my boy's creatinine runs anywhere from 2.1-2.3. He has a normal BUN and a very concentrated urine so we have accepted his values to be normal for him. Sometimes the creatinine will run on the higher side with raw feed or higher protein fed dogs too.

Thanks. Good to know. I'm still hoping the BUN and urinalysis works out ok. We took her on a long walk to the vets when she had the blood taken, which may also have played a part, I'm guessing.

Usually the BUN will change with dehydration.

[RedHead]

Hi,

I just went through a similar situation. My vet had no idea about greyhound creatinine levels and called to say he might have kidney disease. His level was 179 umol/L (around 2.0-2.1 range). According to my sheet, "normal" for dogs is 24-140 umol/L.

 

That level is slightly high for a greyhound, but the wonderful folks on GT reassured me that a good percentage of greyhounds actually have a "higher than average" level, even for greyhounds. From what I understand, as long as the BUN and urinalysis are normal (that turned out to be the case here), you shouldn't really need to worry. I know how hard it is to wait for results though!

 

 

Sometimes the creatinine will run on the higher side with raw feed or higher protein fed dogs too.

 

Just curious, but if a dog is fasted for 12 hours before the bloodtest, does the diet still effect blood levels?

 

[tbhounds]

Fasting shouldn't effect the creantine greatly.. The BUN can vary and certainty the Urine specific gravity will change with dehydration. Watching a trend of the creatinine will give you a more accurate renal representation.

[RedHead]

Thanks, I thought I had read somewhere that fasting the dog ensured that diet (e.g. high protein) didn't effect the bloodwork. I wasn't sure if it was true or not.

 

 

[NeylasMom]

Hi. Having lost one dog to kidney failure, I've become a little cautious with my remaining dogs and now have annual blood tests done as a precaution. My rescued (ex-racing) greyhound has a CREA (creatinine) level of 186 umol/L, which I know is high for ordinary dogs, but is this high for a greyhound? I'm having urinalysis and BUN done next week (I was surprised he didn't do BUN at the same time). My vet didn't even want me to do a blood test at all - because Sally the greyhound is only 6yrs old, but thankfully I insisted.

So if she's 6, I'm assuming you've had her for at least a few years? What do previous blood work results show? Is her level increasing or stable over time. That would be the first thing that I would look at.

[Guest TonyB2014]

Hi. Thanks everyone for your input. In fact, no, although she's 6yrs, we have only had her for 2 yrs and this is her first blood panel check. She is a rescue, as usual, cast aside after 3yrs racing. We took her from the Greyhound Trust. I am the Chronic Kidney Failure in Dogs administrator on MedHelp, and the experience and knowledge there taught me to get bloodwork done annually after 5yrs of age - I also lost a lurcher to kidney disease before we got Sally, which began my research into it much more deeply than ever before. Like all things, a little knowledge is useful but can be confusing, especially when you are emotionally involved. I know if you can catch kidney disease early enough, there's a lot that can be done to prolong life and improve the quality of health via diet, etc., despite there being no cure. Her diet is good now, but I have no idea what it may have been like while she was racing (though she was almost certainly kept in kennels during her first 3 yrs of life, as she had no idea about stairs or home rules when we took her in).

 

[Batmom]

The relevant normal ranges for BUN and creatinine will vary depending on your laboratory. For example, Dr. Stack's article might list 1.6; your lab's normal range might top out at 1.9. The important part to understand is that ghs can run a bit above the high end of normal.

[Guest TonyB2014]

Hi. Urinalysis test results are back, which show no trace of protein at all. This is good news and both the vet and I agree this is the best confirmation of there being no kidney disease we could have hoped for. It seems Sally just has a very high normal creatinine. She is very muscled, probably due to her early racing career. The blood results also give us a base to compare with when we next do blood tests, which makes this a valuable piece of info for the future.

[duncan41]

If you follow up with 2 more blood tests and urinalysis 30 days apart, you will have an excellent baseline. That's the advice a registered Veterinary animal nutritionist gave me after one of my angels recovered from acute renal failure.