Should I do these tests?

Dr. Marie replied:

Hi there Stacy and thanks for your question.

It is indeed correct that the dogs don't need another vaccine until a year after their rabies vaccine.

I'm wondering if the blood test that the vets want to do is a heartworm test? We usually do that in the spring time.

It is a little unusual though about the raised kidney enzyme. You could always ask for a copy of the previous blood tests and type the results out for me to look at. Hoever, if there really were elevated kidney enzymes they likely would have wanted to investigate it sooner!

It's not uncommon for some dogs to have kidney enzymes that are on the high side of normal because they are a little dehydrated. It's possible that your vet just wants to check that they are not getting higher. If there is a kidney problem the way we can differentiate it from just mild dehydration (which is nothing to worry about) is by having your vet check the specific gravity of a urine sample. This would be a lot less expensive.

From what you have described it sounds like it would be ok to wait until June, but it would be great if you could find out the levels of the enzymes that were elevated and then I can comment more.

Hope that helps!
Dr. Marie.




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Dr. Marie replied:

You're very welcome.

OK, so the Creatinine, as you mentioned is the value that we worry about the most with kidney disease. The BUN does seem a little high.

If I have an animal with higher than normal kidney enzymes I usually recommend having the owner bring in a urine sample and we check how concentrated it is using something called a refractometer. If there is any kidney disease at all the urine will be very dilute. If not, then we don't need to worry about the BUN. In my office this test would run you about $16 per dog.

Some dogs will have a high BUN for unknown reasons that really aren't important. I have seen some dogs have a high BUN if they eat a lot of human food, especially meat.

It's not a bad idea at some point to repeat some bloodwork but I don't know that it is an absolute urgency to do it now.

It's never wrong to do blood tests. I'm also a little bit reluctant at any time to contradict what your vet is recommending to you as I don't always have the full picture of what is going on.

But, my gut instinct is that if your dogs are bright and happy dogs then I would just have some routine bloodwork done with their annual exam in June. If there still are some BUN elevations then, then you can have your vet look at a urine sample too.

Dr. Marie replied:

Sounds like a good plan!