For pet owners, when they go to the hospital for examination, the doctor may say that the dog or cat has anemia. But in most cases, we don't pay much attention to this problem. On the one hand, this is because anemia is common in many animals, and another reason may be that doctors have not done detailed examinations. In fact, anemia is also divided into many situations, and we need to look at this problem comprehensively.
Sick dogs
Anemia refers to the state when the number of red blood cells or hemoglobin in circulating blood is lower than normal. Anemia is not a single disease, but more a symptom of one or more diseases. There are many reasons for anemia, which can be summarized into two types: insufficient erythropoiesis or excessive loss.
sick dogs
(pale oral mucosa, a typical symptom of anemia)
The nutritional anemia of puppies should be the most common in clinic, which is mostly caused by the inexperienced owners of newly-raised pets, due to improper and unreasonable feeding. The solution is simple. Puppies need small meals and high-protein food. In layman's terms, just let it "eat well".
test data
(RBC, HGB and HCT in the blood test list are all lower than normal, which is a typical anemia test result)
Decreased erythropoiesis, also known as aplastic anemia. There are many reasons for this anemia, such as the decline of hematopoietic function of bone marrow or the disorder of hemoglobin production caused by iron utilization (strictly speaking, this belongs to the category of nutritional anemia). RBC decreased in blood routine of aplastic anemia, but reticulocyte was not found in blood smear.
Red blood cells
(the central indifferent area of red blood cells in blood smear is enlarged, which is mostly an indication of iron deficiency or hemorrhagic anemia)
Excessive red blood cell loss can be divided into two situations, blood loss and hemolysis.
blood loss is divided into acute blood loss and chronic blood loss. The basis of judgment can be based on the animal's state first. Acute blood loss is more common in trauma, surgery or some coagulation disorders. But it is strange that the blood test indicators at this time may show normal. Because the first reaction of acute blood loss is the contraction of the spleen, the peripheral blood enters the circulation pool. This makes many indicators, such as HCT, rise, and then due to the increase of circulating blood concentration, the water in the body enters the blood vessels to dilute red blood cells, which makes HCT fall back to the normal range. In the next 72 hours, the body will have a compensatory response. In this case, red blood cells can be seen on blood smear with different sizes, and many low pigmented red blood cells (also called small red blood cells) can be seen due to the loss of Fe due to blood loss.
sick dogs
(small dogs suffer from blood loss due to blood pulling, and small dogs suffer from severe anemia during the course of the disease)
Hemolytic anemia can be divided into hemolytic anemia caused by red blood cells themselves and hemolytic anemia caused by the environment in which red blood cells live. Most of the former are hereditary and congenital, while the latter are congenital and acquired. The common causes are drug-induced hemolysis (aspirin), biological hemolysis (Babesia), poisoning (lead poisoning), and the oxidation of red blood cells (eating onions) caused by some reasons. At this time, blood smear is of great diagnostic significance. Such as Babesia, Heine's corpuscle, spherocytosis and so on.
red blood cells
(a large number of spherical red blood cells can be seen in blood smear, which are mostly indicators of hemolytic anemia)
Anemia is not a disease, but a clinical manifestation. Because anemia can be secondary to many other conditions, the most common problem is cardiopulmonary compensation. Because of anemia, the ability of blood to transport oxygen decreases. When it can't meet the needs of the body, compensatory breathing will deepen, which may lead to shortness of breath or even wheezing, and this phenomenon of eager to inhale more oxygen may lead to respiratory acidosis. Similarly, due to anemia, many tissues and organs of the body can not meet the demand for oxygen, and there will be functional disorders, the most obvious of which is the dysfunction of the brain, which may cause dizziness and even convulsions.
Therefore, although anemia is not an accurate disease name, it can indicate many problems and bring many negative effects to the body, so it still needs the attention of owners and doctors.