My dog's blood work shows high immature red cells. Anemic? Anesthesia safe?

Question

My 10 year old dog had blood work done and had high RETIC (139) and low RETIC-HGB (21.5) results. All other counts were normal. Would they be considered anemic? Is anaesthesia safe with these results? Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Medium (23 - 60lb) | Male | neutered | 44.6 lbs

Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA · Accepted Answer

Hi there. If Clyde's other CBC values were all in the normal range, then no - he would not be considered anemic, and I would not expect this to have any impact whatsoever on his anesthesia risk. :) Anemia has to do with the actual red blood cell count, or hematocrit (which are normally abbreviated RBC and HCT on lab reports, respectively). Reticulocytes are immature red blood cells released by the bone marrow, and it's completely normal to have a certain number of them in circulation at any given time. RETIC-HGB refers to the hemoglobin content of the reticulocytes, not the red blood cells as a whole. If we see an elevated reticulocyte count in a dog who IS anemic (low RBC or HCT), then this can give us some additional information about the types of things that might be causing the anemia. But in a dog who *isn't* anemic, it doesn't really mean much of anything or have any particular clinical significance. If you're concerned about it, you could always opt to have lab work repeated in a few weeks to see if the elevation is repeatable, or if there is any kind of trend in his overall hemoglobin level or hematocrit that might warrant further investigation.

My dog's blood work shows high immature red cells. Anemic? Anesthesia safe?

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