Blood Test Results

Hi all, 

So my 10 year old boy, Nub, has been having some issues. In a nutshell, it seems that he has recurring seasonal allergies. This is the 3rd year he's had similar symptoms around the same time of year. They include: Excessive licking, head shaking, skin rolling/twitching, general agitation, being aggressive towards his sister, licking our exposed brick wall, and this year he has also been vomiting spit once a day with some frequency. 

It isn't 100% certain that all of these things are allergy related, and I thought that some of them (the aggression and vomiting) might be secondary symptoms from stress, but this is also just speculation. 

The vet ran a comprehensive blood panel and said she isn't worried because the only problems found can result from allergies. However, I had her send the results to me and I compared them against his results from January of this year (when he was also experiencing the allergies), and all of the values that were abnormal in January now seem significantly more abnormal. 

I've done some googling but am obviously no expert on blood tests, and I can't afford to pay another vet for a 2nd opinion at the moment, so wondered if anyone had any experience knowing what it all means and whether there is cause for concern? 

The results of the most recent test are below, and I will add the results from the one in January 2014 momentarily: 

These are his blood tests from January 2014 for comparison with the above ones from a few days ago. Not sure if anyone has enough experience to know whether there is cause for concern, but appreciate any advice. Thank you!

i can't read the blood results, but allergies usually you need a special test for from what I understand.  Have you tried giving him benadryl or another safe antihistamine for cats every day?  If those don't work, to me it sounds like he might have Feline Hyperthesia Syndrome, but you'd need a vet to confirm this, of course.   Best of luck with your baby, and I hope his allergies are not anything too serious!

Have you noticed any differences in the products you've been using?  Maybe he is allergic to some household cleaners or a laundry detergent or some such. Just guessing here.  Hope this helps a little.

silmarien said:

 
i can't read the blood results, but allergies usually you need a special test for from what I understand.  Have you tried giving him benadryl or another safe antihistamine for cats every day?  If those don't work, to me it sounds like he might have Feline Hyperthesia Syndrome, but you'd need a vet to confirm this, of course.   Best of luck with your baby, and I hope his allergies are not anything too serious!

Have you noticed any differences in the products you've been using?  Maybe he is allergic to some household cleaners or a laundry detergent or some such. Just guessing here.  Hope this helps a little.

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Thanks silmarien. The vet said that allergy tests for cats are often inaccurate, so she recommended not doing them. She also said that the antihistamines would work for next year, but there's not much point in using them now because they need to be in the system before the allergic reaction starts, so I would need to start them a month or 2 before the season begins. I will definitely consider that for next year though. 

I had also suspected Feline Hyperthesia at first, because you're right, the symptoms do sound like that, but it seems unlikely that this would go away for half of the year or more and come back around the same time each year. I have carefully considered all of the household products, but none have changed, and again, it always recurs around October or so. The symptoms also started the year that we moved to another country, so it seems likely to me that they are a local, seasonal allergy related. 

I am considering the use of steroids to treat his symptoms at least for the coming months, to help him get through it, but will post another thread about that. In the meantime, I was just worried about the blood tests, because some of the recent values seemed a bit alarming, especially compared with last year when he was also experiencing allergy symptoms. 

Reading these tests is pretty complicated....I think that's one reason why it  requires so many years of schooling.  If you just look at one figure it might tell you one thing, but when you put them together, it can tell you different things, at least that's what our Vet AND our personal doctor has told us on different occasions. 

I don't know if these will help or hinder, but here are a couple of articles on "how to read blood tests", but I think a professional is the best person to interpret them. 

https://www.idexx.com/pdf/en_us/sma...ient-education/understand-diagnostic-test.pdf

http://www.petplace.com/cats/understanding-blood-work-the-biochemical-profile-for-cats-2/page1.aspx

http://www.petplace.com/cats/unders...omplete-blood-count-cbc-for-cats-2/page2.aspx

I think one reason your Vet is saying allergies is because of his Eosinophils being so high.  According to the third article (above), high Eosinophils is typically a sign of fighting either allergies or parasites.  If I were you, however, I would give them a call back, though, and have them explain to you how this effects his liver, since there are quite a few liver functions that are being affected, according to the test results.  Have his eating habits changed?  Sorry, I'm a rush and don't have time to pull up your other thread right now.  Does he seem constantly hungry?  (his would also account for his being aggressive toward his sister) 

mrsgreenjeens said:

 
Reading these tests is pretty complicated....I think that's one reason why it  requires so many years of schooling.  If you just look at one figure it might tell you one thing, but when you put them together, it can tell you different things, at least that's what our Vet AND our personal doctor has told us on different occasions. 

I don't know if these will help or hinder, but here are a couple of articles on "how to read blood tests", but I think a professional is the best person to interpret them. 

https://www.idexx.com/pdf/en_us/sma...ient-education/understand-diagnostic-test.pdf

http://www.petplace.com/cats/understanding-blood-work-the-biochemical-profile-for-cats-2/page1.aspx

http://www.petplace.com/cats/unders...omplete-blood-count-cbc-for-cats-2/page2.aspx

I think one reason your Vet is saying allergies is because of his Eosinophils being so high.  According to the third article (above), high Eosinophils is typically a sign of fighting either allergies or parasites.  If I were you, however, I would give them a call back, though, and have them explain to you how this effects his liver, since there are quite a few liver functions that are being affected, according to the test results.  Have his eating habits changed?  Sorry, I'm a rush and don't have time to pull up your other thread right now.  Does he seem constantly hungry?  (his would also account for his being aggressive toward his sister) 

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for those resources, I will look into them now. I know of course that understanding the full scope of blood tests requires quite a bit of knowledge, but was hoping I could at least gain a slightly better understanding of it all, as that helps me to make the best decisions I can for him. I have tried to get a clearer explanation from the vet but so far have been unsuccessful and can't afford to seek a second opinion at the moment. 

I haven't noticed his eating habits change, I don't think. I hope that indeed everything can be explained away to allergies, but even so I'd like to have a clearer idea of how this can affect his overall health, and what can be done to not only reduce his discomfort but also to protect his overall health as much as possible. I'd also like to better understand what could cause the results to look so different from those in January. 

Thanks again, really appreciate your feedback.