Anemia refers to nutritional anemia caused by the lack of certain hematopoietic substances that affect the production of red blood cells and hemoglobin. Dogs, like humans, will suffer from anemia. What are the symptoms of anemia in dogs, and how can we avoid anemia in dogs?

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

Anemia can be divided into hemorrhagic anemia, hemolytic anemia, nutritional anemia and aplastic anemia.

[Cause] Acute hemorrhagic anemia caused by trauma or surgery to internal organs (such as liver, spleen, caval artery and vena cava, etc.) and The rupture of blood vessels outside the body causes massive hemorrhage, which suddenly reduces the amount of blood dissolved in the body.

Chronic hemorrhagic anemia, mainly due to chronic stomach, intestinal inflammation, lung, kidney, bladder, uterine hemorrhagic inflammation, resulting in long-term repeated bleeding. In addition, canine hookworm infection can also cause chronic hemorrhagic anemia.

[Symptoms] Common symptoms include visible mucous membranes, pale skin, rapid heartbeat, and generalized muscle weakness. Symptoms are proportional to the amount of bleeding. Excessive bleeding can manifest as collapse, restlessness, decreased blood pressure, cold limbs, ears and nose, unsteady gait, muscle tremors, and drowsiness, lethargy, and shock in the later stage.

In dogs with low bleeding and chronic bleeding, the initial symptoms are not obvious. However, the sick dog can be seen gradually losing weight, the visible mucous membrane gradually develops from light red to white, lack of energy, general weakness, lethargy, lack of activity, fast and weak pulse, and superficial breathing. Slight edema of the mandible and limbs is often seen. Severe cases can lead to shock, heart failure and death.

[Diagnosis] According to clinical symptoms, red blood cell count and hematocrit examination can confirm the diagnosis.

[Treatment] Hemostasis and recovery of hemolysis.

①For traumatic bleeding, ligation, compression, and tourniquet can be used to stop bleeding. For the bleeding at the end of the extremities, the owner can use a tourniquet to stop the bleeding and immediately send it to the veterinary hospital for treatment.

② Injection of hemostatic drugs: hemostatic 25 mg/kg body weight; vitamin K 30.4 mg/kg body weight; vitamin K 11 mg/kg body weight; coagulation 1.5 mg/kg body weight.

③ To supplement the blood volume, dextran, glucose, compound saline and amino acid preparations can be intravenously infused. Conditional veterinary hospitals should conduct blood transfusion therapy.

Anemia caused by massive destruction of red blood cells due to various reasons is called hemolytic anemia.

[Cause]

①Infectious disease. Such as leptospirosis, herpes pathogens, trypanosomiasis, hemolytic streptococcus infection and so on.

②Toxic disease. Heavy metal poisoning such as: lead, copper, arsenic, mercury, etc.; chemical poisoning: benzene, element, phenol, sulfonamide, etc. Hemolytic anemia can also be caused by inhalation of TNT explosives by police dogs on duty.

③Antigen-antibody reaction. Hemolytic anemia in newborn dogs, due to the difference between the blood type of newborns and the blood types of mother dogs, antigen-antibody reaction occurs after feeding into breast milk, resulting in hemolytic anemia in young dogs. Hemolysis can also be caused by transfusions of different blood types.

Other factors, such as febrile diseases, lymphosarcoma, myeloid leukemia, plasma hemoglobinemia, and erythrocyte pyruvate kinase deficiency, can cause hemolytic anemia.

[Symptoms]The main symptoms are yellowing of the visible mucous membranes, yellowing of the skin and corners of the mouth, depression, exercise weakness, weight loss, and later visible mucous membranes, lethargy, hemoglobin Urine, body decreased.

[Treatment]Increase the amount of hemolysis, remove the cause, and treat symptomatically. Rehydration, blood transfusion therapy. Toxic disease, give antidote; parasitic infection, give insecticide treatment. At the same time combined with hormone therapy, such as cortisone, prednisone, dexamethasone.

Refers to the lack of certain hematopoietic substances, anemia that affects the production of red blood cells and hemoglobin is nutritional anemia.

[Cause] is mainly caused by the lack of protein, iron, copper, cobalt and vitamins.

①Protein deficiency: caused by insufficient protein intake of animals or chronic digestive dysfunction.

②Deficiency of trace elements: iron, copper and cobalt deficiency, and iron deficiency anemia is common clinically. Iron is necessary for hemoglobin synthesis; copper deficiency can also lead to reduced hemoglobin synthesis.

③Vitamin deficiency: Lack of vitamin B1, vitamin B12, vitamin B6, folic acid, niacin, etc. will all lead to obstacles in the production of red blood cells and hemoglobin synthesis, resulting in nutritional anemia.

Most of the above factors are due to the single diet, chronic digestive tract diseases and intestinal parasitic diseases in dogs, which cause intestinal absorption dysfunction, resulting in nutritional anemia over time. :

[Symptoms] Nutritional anemia develops slowly, mainly manifests as progressive weight loss and malnutrition. Physical weakness, curled abdomen, rough coat, pale mucous membranes, high weakness in later movements, shaking, difficulty getting up from the ground, until lying down, and systemic failure.

[Treatment] Strengthen feeding, supplement hematopoietic substances, and give protein-rich and vitamin-rich foods.

Ferrous sulfate 50 mg/kg body weight, orally 2-3 times a day. Cobalt chloride 0.3% solution, orally 3-5 ml/day.

Vitamin B15-10 mg/kg body weight, vitamin B125-10 ml/kg body weight, mixed intramuscular injection, l times/day. Folic acid 1-3 mg/kg body weight, orally, once a day.

In addition, glucose and various amino acid preparations can be supplemented to help the recovery of body functions.

Aplastic anemia refers to anemia caused by the dysfunction of bone marrow hematopoietic function.

[Cause])

Poisoning. Some heavy metals, such as: gold, arsenic, bismuth, etc.; some organic compounds, such as benzene, phenol, trichloroethylene, etc.; some excessive therapeutic drugs, such as: chloramphenicol, sulfonamides. Can cause aplastic anemia.

(2) Radiation damage. A large number of X-rays and certain radioactive elements are accepted. It can be damaged by bad bone marrow cells, erythrocytes, osteoid cells and megakaryocytes, causing irreversible damage to these cells, resulting in the loss of hematopoietic function.

(3) Certain diseases. Such as: chronic kidney disease, leukemia, hematopoietic organ tumors, etc., can lead to aplastic anemia. * i2 b; l9 X# K*

[symptoms] The clinical symptoms of aplastic anemia develop relatively slowly. In addition to the above three symptoms of anemia, the main manifestations are blood Changes, red blood cells and white, globin content is low, the reticulocytes in the blood disappear.

[Treatment]Improve hematopoietic function and replenish blood volume.

(1) Blood transfusion therapy. Blood transfusion is carried out after the blood matching test, and the blood transfusion rate should be slow, generally 10-15 ml/kg body weight per hour. The amount of blood transfusion can be given according to the specific volume of the sick dog.

(2) Anabolic hormone therapy. Such as: testosterone (stimulates erythropoiesis) 1-2 mg/kg body weight, intramuscular injection, 1-3 times a week; Stanozolol 0.4-0.6 mg/kg body weight, orally once every 2-3 days.

Secondly, let’s talk about the importance of deworming.

The most common internal parasite in dogs is roundworm, most of which are vertically transmitted from the mother. In addition to stunted growth, puppies with roundworms will also have symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, and flatulence. Therefore, it is best to start deworming the puppy about a month after birth. If hookworms are parasitic, in addition to a large stomach, there will also be vomiting and slight bloody stools. Usually, the initial infection symptoms are not obvious, but when the infection is serious or other complications occur, the symptoms become obvious, and the blood pulling is more serious. If no treatment is performed, acute anemia or other complications may occur and cause death . In addition, there are many kinds of dog's internal parasites, such as canine tapeworm, canine whip, sick canine spiral hair, canine paragonimiasis, canine liver fluke and so on. Dogs infected with parasites usually eat more, but never gain weight no matter how much they eat. Some owners think that parasites are minor diseases and often do not pay attention to them. Do you not know that it is very harmful, because parasites are infectious diseases that can be shared by humans and animals, and children with weak resistance can easily cause infection after touching a sick dog or kissing a dog with their head on their head. Especially like hookworms, if the owner is barefoot, the hookworms will burrow through the skin. People with strong immunity are not easy to be infected, and people with weak immunity may not be able to survive. Moreover, many parasites will endanger the life of the dog

Finally, it should be emphasized that when choosing puppies, do not blindly pursue smallness. There are quite a few quite unscrupulous sellers who start to pursue size in newborn dogs. Use starvation to force puppies to be small. The result of this is that the puppies are starved for a long time, and the gastrointestinal function is atrophied, causing nutritional anemia.