Low White Blood Cell Count

[2ManyPuppies]

My 8 year old German Shepherd mix went to the doctor for blood work and it back back that his WBC count is 3.5. The doctor said normal is 5.5-17. They gave him an antibiotic and in 2 weeks his WBC count will be rechecked but I am freaking out! Has anyone here had an experience with anything like this? Other health stuff, he has bad allergies that he takes shots for and he seizures but he does not seizure frequently enough to need medicine.

[adojrts]

No sorry, but good luck and I hope he is ok.

[corgipower]

I hope it's nothing serious. There are infections that can cause a low white blood cell count, so hopefully the meds work and he's back to normal!

[BostonBanker]

Have you done any bloodwork in the past to compare it to? I only ask because my horse constantly carries a low WBC count; we went into panic mode a bit when we did bloodwork one time looking for a problem, until the vet got back to his computer and realized it had been the same the other two times we'd pulled blood over the years.

Now, I don't remember HOW low it was compared to normal, but it's something to check if you have bloodwork records from the past.

I hope everything comes up okay.

[2ManyPuppies]

Originally Posted by BostonBanker

Have you done any bloodwork in the past to compare it to? I only ask because my horse constantly carries a low WBC count; we went into panic mode a bit when we did bloodwork one time looking for a problem, until the vet got back to his computer and realized it had been the same the other two times we'd pulled blood over the years.

Now, I don't remember HOW low it was compared to normal, but it's something to check if you have bloodwork records from the past.

I hope everything comes up okay.

The vet looked at his last WBC count from May 2009. At that time he was normal but low normal. She told me that she has seen other animals who just seem to have a low WBC count and they can't really find a reason. I will have her look at previous counts too now. They took another count today after they got the 3.5 and the count went up a little. I'm really hoping he is normal in 2 weeks! This is driving me nuts.

[Jynx]

my aussie seems to carry low white blood cell counts and has been like this for years.

One thing I would test for are tick diseases, Jynx (aussie) tends to always come up positive for anaplasmosis(equii erhlichia), we treat, the numbers lower,

[2ManyPuppies]

Originally Posted by Jynx

my aussie seems to carry low white blood cell counts and has been like this for years.

One thing I would test for are tick diseases, Jynx (aussie) tends to always come up positive for anaplasmosis(equii erhlichia), we treat, the numbers lower,

They tested for heartworms and tick diseases already and they came up negative. My vet said that her cat is like that and always carries a low WBC count for seemingly no reason. I am praying for that to be the case with my dog, too!

[Amanda885]

I hope that the meds help out and raise it back up. Poor doggie! im sorry to hear. keep us posted on his health. i hope it improves!

[2ManyPuppies]

Thanks a lot, everyone. I'll definitely update. It's nice to have a place where others understand how much our dogs mean to us.

[ricky]

*edited by mod - you need to cite your sources*