# High HCT, high HGB, VERY high VGM



## kimouette (May 2, 2012)

Is it normal for a raw fed dog to have high HCT, high HGB, VERY high VGM??

HCT is 64.2% (while normal range is 37% to 55%)
HGB is 18,2g/dl (while normal range is 12 to 18 g/dl)
VGM is 88.9 fl (while normal is 60fl to 77fl)

Also CCMH is pretty low!
28.3 g/dl (while normal range is 30 o 37 g/dl)

The dog is a 5-6 year old bernese montain dog that suffers from chronical otitis, but nothing else that we know of. I know raw feeding might affect the blood chemistry results, but that much? And those specific values? 

I have to admit, I'm a little worried! Thanks for your help!


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## britt0325 (Jul 11, 2013)

I just my dogs blood work done and he had high levels for both the HCT and HGB, although just barely. Yours are a little bit higher but I'm thinking there shouldn't be anything to worry about as long as the vet looked everything over. When you get a CBC/Chem it's best to read all the values together rather then separately because if something is wrong than there will be various values that are either too high or too low. Your vet will be able to determine that for you. So as long as he didn't seem concerned then that's usually a good indicator that everything is fine. 

Here's a couple good website that gives you information about what the various things represent. 

Normal Dog and Cat Blood And Urine Chemistry Test Results

understanding dog bloodwork, canine blood tests

You should read through that just to get a better understanding.

To sum it up for you though, HCT represents the pets Hematocrit. HGB represents Hemoglobin. Both being raised by a small amount could indicate dehydration. Now, I'm not too sure if the amount your dogs blood test shows is something to be concerned about. That's something you would need to call and ask your vet about. If they'er significantly raised it could indicate certain health problems but I don't think that should be the case for you. 

Okay after some reading, because this also interest me since my dogs levels were slightly high, I think I might have found something of interest that you should bring up with your vet. 

Apparently high VGM, or MCV as I know it lol, can indicate some vitamin deficiencies and a high HGB can indicate B-12 deficiencies. So in your case it might be related to that rather then dehydration but you would need to talk to your vet about that possibility. In my dogs case there was no elevated MCV and his levels weren't as high so it was related to dehydration. It might still be the case for your dog but considering the link between vitamin deficiencies with elevated levels of both VGM and HGB it might be something you want to look into. 

Hope this was helpful


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

Those all look a little high, how long did the dog fast before the blood work was pulled?


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## britt0325 (Jul 11, 2013)

I'm sorry. I tried replying to give you some info about the results you got and my post needs to be approved by a moderator. Pretty ridiculous. Going to give this a try and hope it goes through since I won't post links in it. You'll just have to trust me or google it lol.

Um, both HCT and HGB can be related to dehydration but in this case those levels might be too high. 

VGM, or MCV, when high is usually always related to vitamin deficiencies and high HGB can indicate B-12 deficiency so that might be something you want to talk to your vet about.


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## FBarnes (Feb 17, 2013)

What is his diet in a typical week?


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## kimouette (May 2, 2012)

The dog was fast for 12 hours.
His typical food is now completely different from what is was. The problem is that this dog has reccurent otitis and right now the vet is trying to figure out if he has a food allergy. And in order to do this, we had to put him on an exclusive diet : chicken meat, chicken rmb and chicken liverand hearts. He has been on this diet for almost 4 weeks now and things arent as stable as we were hoping for... we might have to switch to a food he has never eaten so in couple of days he will switch to 100% duck...

could duck meat, rmb and heartand liver solve that b12 (or eventually iron) defficiency?

And do you guys all agree that these results could ALL be related to the fact that his diet isnt as varied as it should? 
The vet is so stupid he only said it was probably all caused by stress from being at the clinic! Geez it cant be that far from the normal range just because of stress!

Thanks all for your help!
Kim


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## liquid (Dec 28, 2011)

While I'm not vet and I'm not familiar with what those values mean, I know for a fact that bloodwork will go out of whack when you feed a low/no variety diet. There was a thread on here not too long ago about abnormal bloodwork from feeding an unvaried diet. 

Here it is: http://dogfoodchat.com/forum/raw-feeding/19829-why-balance-proportion-important.html


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## britt0325 (Jul 11, 2013)

I think you should look into getting a second opinion. It could have been caused by dehydration and a lack of variety in the diet you feed. If everything else was normal I wouldn't be too worried but I'm not sure stress has any impact on those values.

Also, apparently chicken liver is supposed to be high in b12. So I'm not sure what could be causing a deficiency in that. Although the limited diet could be lacking in other essential vitamins.

Just wanted to add, you should look into folic acid. Was just reading that could also be lacking. Apparently b12 and folic acid should always be given together. Most vitamins and minerals work together. If your lacking in one thing then another thing might not absorb properly. I love learning new things so if I find anything else worth mentioning while I'm reading through stuff I'll let you know.


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

Feeding one single protein, it is not enough variety and you will not see satisfactory blood results. All proteins are not created equal and have different levels of everything. Try feeding proteins not common for food allergies like lamb, venison, elk, bison, fish, rabbit. You should also look into getting a supplement like GreenMin from dr.dobias or biopreperation from bioage.com 

It is not going to be overnight results, I would wait to get blood retested after 6 months at the earliest. 

My pup Oscar is anemic, first blood panel he had really low iron serum levels, hemoglobin, red blood cells, and some other stuff I can't remember the names to lol. My vet kept pushing a kibble diet to bring his iron up, but I just tweaked his diet by adding more red meats, liver, heart, and I am doing the biopreperation supplement every 2-3rd day. 4 months later I retested because I had to go to the vet to check his scratched eye, otherwise I would have waited till 6 months, anyway - his hemoglobin and RBCs were in perfect levels, and his iron serum increased by 1.3 points or something like that. It was still crazy low, but I was happy to see his body was absorbing the iron and the diet tweak was working. 

Ruby also had elevated liver enzymes last year, it took 16 months to bring it into perfect range, no vet medications, just a diet tweak and detox. 

Don't give up, start introing (slowly) the new proteins, and within time the body will heal. As another member said, if some of the levels were askew because of dehydration, you could also add some water to the meals too.


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