Can anyone interpret blood results for me?

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little_pink_piggies

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Hi,

Our local vet basically told me not to worry about these results, but these are two event horses (one inermediate the other prenovice) and they are both really lethargic and not right XC at all!

They both came back with slight anaemia and raised CK levels (neither have shown any signs of tying up) and they both have slightly low organic phosphorus... one horse is a TB (with a very slight touch of arab) and the other is a warmblood (think gelderlander type!). Neither horse had had any strenuous exercise in the days keading up to the tests.

Am going to send results up to Willesley on Monday but in the mean time would like to have a rough idea of what possibly is going on here... this is really weird as the same thing happened this time last year and we had bloods done (only had the warmblood horse) and we were told he was anaemic and probably has ulcers... but this is the same vet who told me that these sets of results were normal?

Theyre both on good diets and have adlib forage and are worked properly etc. Just would like to get to the bottom of what is going on with these horses...

Thanks any opinions valued!

M x
 
I think that the low organic phosphate levels could be do with low levels of electrolytes in the blood, therefore making it a little harder for the cells to connect haemoglobin with oxygen.. therefore this this would cause the anaemia. Are they regularly getting electrolytes?

Whats the news on the mare?
 
Low levels are usually associated with the poor absorbtion of phosphorus in the diet, which could indicate that your horses are lacking in Vitamin D and magnesium as both these aid absorbtion. Its worth noting that if the level of blood phosphorus has been low for a while this could cause muscle weekness. This may be indicated by the raised CK level if the horses have still been in work.

Get the results looked at for your peace of mind, I would be interested to hear the outcome.
 
They get plenty of electrolytes and the sodium potassium ratios and levels came back normal?

The mare has just tweaked her check ligament thank god (what a wussy mare
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she came in not wanting to put weight on it, initially we were thinking along the chipped bone/fracture lines!), but theyre gonna shoe her next time (she was really badly shod when we had her, so our farreir has been concentrating on the heels to help the corns, but they think the toes too long now so shes going back up on the 15th). They also want to scope her to check for ulcers and they want to run bloods on her to check that her CK levels aren't high like the others therefore makng it uncomfortable for her to run, but shes going to have to be in work for a few days first! Ugh horses!
 
Have you ever had your grazing analysed? It's worth doing if not as it's pretty cheap.

What are they being fed? It all sounds very strange as there doesnt appear to be anything drastic in those results and you say the warmblood showed similar symptoms this time last year?
 
No, but we are going to have it done this year, especially after this.

They are being fed differently this year to what they were last. Last year tehy were on competition mix and chaff hereas this year they're on winergy equilibrium. The warmblood is running out of steam and not wanting to jump about 1/2 way around the xc and generally lethargic (I do fitten properly, hack out around hills and take them to canter around local p2p fields). The TB isn't liking jumping downhill (but I accept he's not well shod at the moment and he does havea n appointment booked at willesley for hoof xrays then the resident farrier there will shoe him), and he's also just so quiet and lethargic at the mo, normally I have to cling on for dear life with his spooking and general cheekiness when I get on him but it's like riding a complete donkey at the moment?

How high is "high" in terms of a CK reading if anyone has any idea?

Thanks
 
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How high is "high" in terms of a CK reading if anyone has any idea?


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As far as I know, the reference range is 0 -100 IU/L/l
 
on the results sheet it has down 25-225 IU/L as normal, but both of their readings were late 300/early 400... how high is that in terms of not very high/very high? (I know its not has high as when they've tied up... but considering neither of them had exercised that day?)
 
Ah ha- all I have is an old print out of one of Boss's tests!

I would say thats pretty high, it's definitely significant. Def get onto Willesley, it sounds like it needs further investigation. Did your vet have any suggestions as to the cause?
 
well I thought that was quite significant considering they hadn't worked but she told me they were slightly high but wouldn't give me the readings, so eventually got the printouts form them (talk about blood from a stone...) and she hadn't even mentioned that they had very slight aneamia (which when one of them is trying to do intermediates in my opinion (which ok granted isn't at all qualified) I would like them at least mid normal) or the low organic phosphorus... So when we got them we had quite a shock to how high that looked as she told us that there was nothing really to worry about on the tests... So no she didn't have any suggestions! Was going to email results up tomorrow and see what they say... They wonder why we don't trust they're local opinion and want to go to willesley for anything more than flu vacs
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