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[RC] anemic horse - Susan E. Garlinghouse, DVMI agree with Dr. Kellon's comments, I don't find your results to be anything worrisome or unusual, and I would certainly not call this horse anemic. Long before I would go pursuing additional exotic diagnostics or even treatment, I would exercise the horse for twenty minutes to contract the spleen and pull the sample then----as Eleanor commented, a truly anemic horse will still be low ranges. A healthy horse's hematocrit will increase at least into the 50's, usually low or mid 60's. Eleanor has more exposure to race horses than I do, so I wouldn't be surprised if she sees race horses with hematocrits approaching 70. I also agree that supplementing with additional dietary iron is not a good idea. Anemia due to dietary iron deficiency is pretty much unheard of in horses, even those on a pretty crummy diet. You're a lot more likely to cause problems, rather than solve them, by adding blood builder supplements. If nothing else, it's an excellent way to interfere with the immune system's normal defense mechanism of sequestering iron to slow the replication of invading pathogens. Overwhelm that pathway by inundating the body with dietary iron that it otherwise doesn't need and the only species you're assisting are the infective ones. The rest of the CBC looks to me like your horse is presenting an overall very healthy profile. I wouldn't be concerned about the borderline low lymphocytes. The only thing I would suggest would be bumping up his selenium, as general consensus among endurance vets is that over .20 ppm is better, and somewhere in the neighborhood of .250 ideal. JMO. Susan Garlinghouse, DVM =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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