Hey Marlene, Reticulocytes are immature red blood cells and in the human body (and probably kitty's too), they typically make up 1% of all red blood cells. From what I understand from my vet when Cricket was severely anemic, if your kitty has a reticulocyte count, that's good. Regenerative anemias (which means kitty is still making red blood cells) are characterized by the presence of reticulocytes, which is a good thing. If a kitty was non-regenerative, they aren't making any red blood cells, which isn't a very good thing; no reticulocytes. The more reticulocytes, the better, because it means that lots of red blood cells are being made. To achieve regeneration, the count must be higher. Hope this helps you understand. And I hope your kitty gets to feeling much better.
:) Wendy --- catatonya <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Maybe he IS getting better and the numbers just > haven't caught up yet. Hang in there. It sounds > like Pekoe is a little fighter. > > take care, > t > > Marlene Chornie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Pekoe is still doing fairly well - > good appetite, going to the litter box, playing a > little. His nose, gums, and pads are still fairly > pink - occasionally get a little pale, but return to > pink. I took him to the vet a few days ago for a > recheck of his blood work. Only got a couple of > numbers to report at the moment though. There was a > problem with the fax machines between our vet clinic > and the Animal Health Lab that ran the tests, so our > vet called them to get a verbal report. She only > told me the numbers that she was still concerned > about. (His WBC has come up from 2 weeks ago (it had > been slowly declining the past month) - was 6.9 and > is now 7.3 (Normal Range = 4.2 - 13). > > RBC - was 6.0 - now 5.0 (Normal Range = 6.2 - > 10.6) > PCV - was 36% - now 29% (NR = 28 - 49%) > Platelets - was 11 - now 18 - 20 (NR = 93 - 514) > > They also did a Reticulocyte Count - 4.98 > (Normal = <60). The vet said that the "Normal" of > <60 is for a healthy non-anemic cat, and that in an > anemic cat, she would ideally like to see that count > at >60? (Not quite sure I totally understand that.) > The vet is still waiting to hear from an > Internal Medicine guy for input on Pekoe's case. > That's the problem with living in a rural area > without ready access to such specialists. Our vet > is doing everything she can in that department - > daily phone calls, etc. > He's still on the Prednisone 5mg. twice/day. > Hubby and I were a little "let down" with his latest > blood results, because he seemed to be improving - > although from the beginning, he never really was > outwardly "sick" other than licking the concrete. I > know from reading all the posts that there are > others who are not as fortunate as we seem to be > with our furbaby, so for now we're just counting our > blessings each day - and trying to take it one day > at a time. > > Marlene > Pekoe & Angel Digby > > > > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
