This is a very important topic for pet owners.

Most people don’t understand any of this and leave it all up to their vets.

However, if your dog is diagnosed with liver disease, kidney failure, etc., the more you know about this the better for your pet.

Your vet may not have a lot of experience treating kidney failure (KF) or liver disease (LD) or something else, although they are very capable of reading blood work results.  My vet admitted this to me (which I appreciate).

You can educate yourself and do your own research to find natural supplements or holistic means to help your pet.  I did this with KF and LD (you can see my other blogs on both)

It is very important when dealing with this to be sure each time you re-check blood work to get a copy of the results from your vet so you have it in your file at home to refer back to when necessary.  If your vet refuses to give you copies, please find another vet.

While it is true that you can drive yourself crazy (and your vet) while researching a disease your dog has been diagnosed with (because there is so much on the internet) it is important to stay level headed during this research and not panic at everything you read.

But, you must keep in mind that your vet has many patients and does not have time to do extensive research if they don’t have the answers for you.  Therefore, you need to be your dog’s advocate.

There are quite a few sites that explain blood work so you can understand all about it and be educated as you have to monitor your dog’s levels and know what to do to help them improve or keep those levels in check.

Here is a good site to start with:

http://www.itsfortheanimals.com/BLOOD-TEST-EXPLAINED.HTM

As always, I will state again, I am no a vet, but if anyone has questions or needs help with research, please contact me.  I will help all I can.

Patty

www.snowcolabradors.com