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  Discussion on For 16 Months I'm Told My Filly Has Anemia
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Posted on Saturday, Jan 15, 2000 - 12:35 am:

I have a 3yr old Standardbred racing filly who I purchased as a yearling. She's very sound, happy, looks and feels great, never leaves a crumb, is extremely social, and loves her work on the track and her play in the paddock. My ONLY concern has been her hemo results. In the 16 months owning her, I have 14 hemo results (3 different vets) stating she has anemia.

It's quite common practice in the Standardbred Industry to draw bloods on a weekly basis. Not only do vets encourage it, but trainers feel to be competative their racing stocks RBC must be within a certain range. I have read this sites
Laboratory Values, the article on "The Diagnosis of Anemia in Horses", and questions from various forums discussing the topic of "bloods".

Although my filly's HGB readings are all within the range of the differing labs, she's still considered anemic. Ex) HGB 12.4 with reference range 11.0 - 19.0. The vet recommended she be put on Hemo 15. Another vet recommended Eqstim (series of injections to stimulate her bone marrow) her reading was 12.0. She's been given vitamins (fercobsang) and iron (hippiron) and electrolyte jugs, administered by the vet containing Caco Copper. I give her supplements in
her feed: Red Cell and Equi-sol (Visorbin), as well as a powder called UltraFer 300.

Unknown to me, I've learned it's the belief of many that the HGB level for racehorses 'should be' minimum 14.0. "Lady's" HGB has remained at
the 13.0 level, in fact, she plummeted to 10.0 and
wasn't herself (didn't eat) when she was on the
eqstim series last summer. She did race at two,
(only 2 starts) and raced well for "low bloods!"

I don't know of a single vet (20 yrs. in this business) who has ever drawn a blood sample from
a horse who's been exercised. All of our bloods are drawn first thing in the morning, prior to exercise, and if it's later, it's when they're
totally cooled out. I was amazed when I read Dr.O's comments "...to get an accurate assessment of whether anemia is present or not, the horse has to be exercised to a heart rate of 100."

I've heard of two cases where Standardbred horses had blood drawn after exercising - the HGB reading however was "too high" 15.0 - 17, and both horses diagnosed 'dehydrated', with the vet
recommending electrolyte jugs!

As for my filly, she's expected to qualify next Friday. I plan on having our vet at the track take a blood after she qualifies and see what the results are. Very interesting indeed.

Posted on Tuesday, Jan 18, 2000 - 12:46 pm:

Can't wait to see those numbers. You know, critical evaluation of this very common procedure gets worse. Studies have tried to correlate PCV (a true post race sample) to performance, have repeatedly failed to show a significant correlation in otherwise healthy racers.
DrO

Posted on Monday, Jan 24, 2000 - 5:26 pm:

Dear Dr.O:
Lady didn't qualify on Friday. She was temporarily side-lined due to cryoing (sp?) a spint that became infected.
Today however, "after" she jogged, I took a blood sample in for results. Here were the results:
HCT = 42.8% increase
HGB = 15.7 g/dl increase
MCHC = 36.7 g/dl same
WBC = 7.0 x10/L same
GRANS = 3.9 x10/L same
%GRANS = 56.%
L/M = 3.1 x10/L same
%L/M = 44.%
PLT = 152 x10/L
AST = 439 ul up from 303

Dx good blood count; watch muscle count!!
You have no idea how happy I am. Not "1" horsemen I've talked to about anemia ever heard that blood should be taken 'after' warm-up. My
76 year old father-in-law, has been in the racing business his entire life and he too, never heard of it. Lady's result in her AST > 439 (muscle) would account her just coming in from the track. I'm ever grateful for this information.
The last profile I had done was last July and Lady's results were low potassium and low TP. I'm curious to see where she's at now. Does it matter at what time this sample is taken? She's a
week away from qualifying and I'd want to be certain she's getting enough through feed, hay and
supplements. Thank you, Nancy
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