by Audrey Frederick

Created on: May 20, 2008

Are You Aware of Possible Blood Disorders Your Dog May Have?

As a dog owner, we may be aware of many things concerning the health of our dog (s), but blood disorders are something most of us do not understand.
The chief function of a dog's blood is to supply oxygen and nutrients to the body's tissues and to carry carbon dioxide and many waste materials away from them.

However, that is not the only job the blood has to do. The blood is a key contributor to such things as cell development, repairing tissue and warding off infections. A dog's blood is much like our own; it contains red cells, white cells, platelets and plasma.

Dogs are susceptible to many blood disorders such as low platelet counts, low red-cell counts, high white-cell counts, clotting problems, blood-related cancers and even poisonings.

One of the most frequent blood disorders our dog friends face is anemia. Anemia in itself is not a blood disease, it causes a lack of circulation of oxygen. There are two forms of this disorder, regenerative anemia where the red blood cells are reduced in number as a result of tissue destruction or chronic bleeding. An example of this would be a deep bleeding wound creating a blood loss. However, if the bleeding was internal caused by a form of parasite or gastro-intestinal bleeding, the blood loss could go on for a long period of time before it was noticed.

The other form of anemia is non-regenerative anemia, here the bone marrow fails to restore fast enough the red blood cells that have been destroyed or have other wise become useless. What causes this? Chronic kidney failure, cancer of the bone or even a tick born disease.

Some dogs such as springer spaniels and basenjis have often been found to have hereditary anemia.

There are many other blood-related problems that are seen in our canine friends on a frequent basis and they are:

Cancers of the blood (acute and chronic leukemias) caused chiefly by an increase in the number of white blood cells in the bone marrow or blood circulation. If not treated these diseases can lead to bone marrow failure and the loss of organ function throughout the dog's body.

Anticoagulant rodenticide toxicity is otherwise known as poisoning. The ingredients in the poison used to kill rats and mice causes a dog to develop a bleeding tendency. It will take a few days to develop and it can cause the dog to bleed through nose and mouth or through its urine and stool. Should the bleeding be internal, it can go on for awhile and not be noticed until

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>