Why check white blood cell count?

17 years ago

My foster puppy who is about 4 months old has had a horrible cough ever since we got him a month ago. We were told it was kennel cough and it basically had to run its course. We gave him Robitussin DM for a week, no change.

So then he went to the vet and they gave him a prescription pill he had to take for 5 days, I forget the name. He got a little better, but not enough.

Yesterday he went back to the vet for a radiograph, which I guess is basically an x-ray of his chest. That showed "stuff" in his lungs. So now he has two liquid meds, one is amoxicillin and the other is cephacol... that's not the right word, but its something like that (I'm at work). He'll be on those for 2 weeks.

I was most concerned about the vet's saying they were running tests to check his white blood cell count. They left me this message on the phone, so I have not had a chance to talk to them about what this means.

Just thought I would check here to see if anyone has any ideas on what they are looking for. I hope to speak to the vet later today.

Thanks

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Comments (4)

User
17 years ago
Share, they are probably looking for an infection. When one of our kitties was sneezing, the doc told me her elevated white blood cell count signified infection, and she recovered after taking antibios for 2 weeks.
share_oh
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks for the info Petra! I was thinking maybe it was for a disease of some sort. Since he's already on the antibiotics I won't worry about it then. :)
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Meghane
17 years ago
Checking a complete blood count, including the differential, will help the vet decide what the stuff in the lungs is. For example, fungal infections may show up with more monocytes, bacterial infections with more neutrophils, parasitic infections with more eosinophils. Antibiotics won't do anything for fungal or parasitic infections. Another thing that could be useful information is if the dog has a low WBC count, because that means the infection is overwhelming his body's ability to fight it. Or that he has some kind of other immunocompromised condition. If that is the case then the pup probably needs more than just antibiotics. A plain kennel cough infection would have resolved on its own by now, so there is definately something else going on.
share_oh
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks for your expertise Meghane!

The office called and said his count was slightly lower, and that the antibiotics were the right form of treatment, so I am hoping they work.

I have a friend who's puppy has been battling what they originally thought was kennel cough for several months now. The pup got pneumonia and has been on all kinds of meds. So far, nothing is helping. I am hoping that isn't the case with my puppy. He acts so "normal" in every way, just that annoying hack hack hack. I feel so bad for him.

Why check white blood cell count?

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Why check white blood cell count?

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