Non-regenerative anemia in 15 yo

[danaNM]

Hi everyone, I haven't spent much time on this forum but you were all very helpful in the past with my boy. Toby (indoor neutered male) turned 15 this year. Over the last few months his appetite has gradually declined and he has been sleeping more. When he's awake he seems mostly normal though, he's just sleeping more overall. He's probably been eating only about 1/2-2/3 of his food each day (he eats all wet food). He weirdly hasn't lost much weight, but has slightly less muscle over his shoulders. I have fed him a homemade cooked diet (balanced according to Dr. Pearson's recipe) but have been trying dif commercial foods to try to get him to eat more for the past few weeks. At first I thought it was just the cold weather and him being sick of his food, but when trying dif foods didn't help I took him to he vet. He's awful at the vet and always needs to be fully sedated. The vet did a full blood panel and his kidneys and liver values looked good, but he's anemic. She said it's likely non-regenerative anemia and recommended I take him to a internal medicine specialist for an ultrasound. We have an appointment in a couple weeks. She said to keep trying dif foods (even fish based ones) to try to get him to eat more in the meantime.

Can anyone give me more info on what his blood work results mean (attached)? To my eye his anemia doesn't seem to be severe yet (the vet mentioned this has likely been a slow progression over the last several months). I'm trying not to panic but I'm concerned that any treatments that require lots of follow up appointments will be difficult with him because he needs to be sedated. The elevated Monocytes jumped out at me too and made me think cancer, but the vet didn't mention them.

Does anyone see any red flags with his diet that could have contributed? The recipe has liver so it should have plenty of iron? Here's the recipe for reference, I add the supplements after cooking the meat.

Poulty muscle meat- 3 lbs (3 lbs after bone and 1/2 of the skins removed, I use chicken thighs most of the time, recently used some beef as well)
Chicken Liver- 3.5 oz
egg shell powder - 9 grams
Morton Lite Salt w/ Iodine - 1 tsp
Fish oil (1,200 mg capsules)- 10000 mg
Taurine- 2000 mg
Vitamin E (400 IU) - 268 mg
Vitamin B-50 Complex - 50 mg
Water - 2 cups (to offset water lost in cooking)
Eggs- 2 egg yolks
gelatin (optional)- 2 tablespoons

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Did they also do a Chemisty panel? One of the most common causes of non-regenerative anemia is kidney disease. However, there are other causes as well. What did the vet say as to why they consider Toby has non-regenerative anemia?

Monocytes can be an indicator of inflammation or even stress. That might be the case here since the other wbc numbers are normal.
I can't speak to the diet but cannot imagine it causing non-regenerative anemia.

Here is an article you might interesting/helpful regarding anemia and related factors.
Anemia | Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine

 

[danaNM]

Thanks for your response. Yes they did a full chemistry panel and his kidney and liver values looked good. Urine and poop were also checked and everything looked good.
She said in his case (because he doesn't have kidney disease) it was likely indicating some type of chronic illness but couldn't say what without further testing (an ultrasound likely). She said that could range from things like dental disease to things like cancer. He does have some mild dental disease but I imagine it would need to be severe to cause anemia.

 

[danaNM]

Oh to answer your question, I'm guessing she thinks it's non-regenerative because of the low Retic HGB value, but she didn't exactly specify.