Treat the animal, not the numbers

You may find this useful: http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/treatment-by-the-number/

An excerpt:

Remember paint by the numbers? You had certain colors available, and the paper had all these little spaces with numbers in them, and when you applied the right color to each of them, you ended up with a picture. Of sorts. It was both kind of neat and simultaneously, quite disappointing. You knew in your little heart of hearts that you hadn’t used an ounce of creativity to come up with that picture. You were just a technician.

Veterinarians often do a similar thing. It’s how we were trained, I guess, though it’s been so long since I’ve thought that way that I can only vaguely remember it. One example of this that I commonly hear from clients goes like this:

“He had a high white count, so we put him on antibiotics.”

Oh? A high white count. What does that mean was going on in that animal?

It merely means this animal was seeing the need for a good fight against some invader (barring a more rare, complicated diagnosis like bone marrow cancer). It might be against a bacteria, maybe a virus, a fungus, maybe even a chronic parasitic infestation.

The white blood cells are an essential part of the immune system, a system in all of us that’s so complicated and finely tuned we can’t possibly know the whole picture of how it works. Truly one of nature’s wonders!

So, the fight is on! More white cells in circulation means the immune system is engaged, doing what it was designed to do, to take on the invaders and stop them from taking over the body and wreaking havoc.

Why would antibiotics be needed in this situation?

And the conclusion:

If you want to be part of the solution, to help the immune response, don’t kill the good guys in the gut or turn down the internal thermostat. Instead, add some well studied immune support.

A case in point:

I was treating a cat long distance who was having chronic urinary troubles and had been blocked. It took a bit of remedy sorting before he was on his way. The owner was on the same page with me, but her mom brought the cat in for fluids one day, and the conventional vets terrified her with a high BUN, a blood value indicating renal waste products building up.

“He could die if we don’t get this number down right away! There could be permanent kidney damage!”

Luckily, mom deferred to daughter, who checked with me about Rajah. My first question was, “How’s he acting now?”

Kolleen told me how much more interested in life he was than earlier, how he’d started grooming, drinking on his own, and urinating with more volume over the past 12 hours.

We ignored his numbers and Rajah came bouncing back, fully well in another day or two. And he has been full of life in the month since. So, keep an eye on the big picture. You’ll never go wrong with that approach. Numbers are attached to a real, breathing animal. How is he?

Our disclaimer holds.

My vet always tells me that he would rely more on the animals’ clinical signs than on test results (numbers). Very often, he would question why I want tests done – ONLY if there is a fair and rational reason to do them.