Comments on #36 Blood Tests: All You Need to Know? - Vital Animal® § The Natural Path

I will never do annual bloodwork again. My cat Sasha had annual bloodwork. He also had an enlarged thyroid gland on a physical exam. Over the course of 12 months, Sasha had 5 SMDA tests and 3 renal panels. I was told that he went from stage 2 to 3 kidney disease over that 12 month period in spite of medication.

Here is where it gets interesting. Sasha was not symptomatic for kidney disease. He was symptomatic for hyperthyrodism. The vets put him on Calcitriol. That did nothing. Then he was on Semintra. That did nothing. Of course it didn't. He did NOT have protienura. He did NOT have kidney disease.

In my experience, vets are quick to upsell all things kidney. It's a money maker for them. I have also learned that bloodwork is useless if the vet does not have any diagnostic skills. Too many of them are trained to memorize a number. And that is more dangerous than not having bloodwork done. Because misdiagnosis happens.

In Sasha's case, his hyperthyrodism was affecting his kidneys. And knowing what I know now, his kidneys would have been just fine had the root of the cause, hyperthyroidism been treated.

Dr...thank you again for another great episode and pieces of information.

But we could use lots of help to bridge the gap from observing symptoms and then taking the necessary action, steps, in finding appropriate clinics/homeopaths/practitioners, please.

Could an easily understandable and viewed page or episode be done to emphasize how to find a homeopath, or any other type of pet Dr we might consider, such as naturopath, etc, please?

It seems it is quite challenging to find such practitioners, and those who are taking on new clients. We need help please.

Dear Dr Will,
Another great and informative podcast! Thank you! I had a female German Shepherd that had blood drawn when she was about 13 yo and the allopathic vet informed me she was in early renal failure and my holistic vet took a look at the bloodwork and told me that she wasn't and that her bloodwork was good and explained that a raw fed dog's bloodwork can be different than a kibble fed dog. I would assume kibble fed dog's bloodwork would be the baseline for what the vets consider normal bloodwork? Interesting ! :-)

I had a vet tell me that kidney function would be reduced to 25% before any symptoms showed up, hence the need for blood tests. But I don’t believe she had any treatments to offer other than prescription food for chronic kidney failure, so the testing wouldn’t be much of a net benefit.
I did have a dog who went in for a surgery after a paw injury at the age of two and the pre-anesthetic blood test showed elevated kidney values. Subsequent xrays and ultrasound showed one severely enlarged and non-functional kidney. The dog had never shown any symptom of any kind of illness so I was shocked. We never knew if it had been an acute blockage or a genetic defect, but I put her on a home-prepared low oxalate moderate protein diet for the rest of her life. She eventually died of CHF, exacerbated I believe by repeated vaccinations. I won’t make that mistake again.