Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
Hello Marco - it sounds as though your vet is working through a sequence for managing diarrhoea. Diarrhoea frequently self resolves and often has simple causes such as worms or dietary indiscretion, so it absolutely is important to worm the patient, allow some time and to try to treat the symptoms before starting more advanced tests. One of the most useful parts of a diarrhoea work-up is the stool sample and it sounds as though they're On It. Another cause of diarrhoea is internal problems eg endocrine causes, stress or liver disease - hence the bloods. The result they have may give them clues or they may for example ask for more advanced tests to rule out other problems eg pancreatitis. At the end of these tests, there may be a diagnosis, or there may be some questions outstanding - what is the significance of the leucocytes and basophils, for example. At this point, if they are still drawing a blank, the clinicians may ask for an endoscopy, seek advice from a pathologist or suggest further tests. So, I hear that tests appear to be taking a lomg time, but it may be that they are doing a progressive work-up to try to pinpoint the problem. Questions such as 'What is the significance of the basophils? What is the most common reason from them being high?' 'What has been ruled out so far?' 'What still needs to be ruled out?' may prove to be useful. Another good question is: 'All of this seems to be taking a long can. Can you talk me through the work-up / what you've ruled out and what it could still be?'
I hope that something here proves to be useful.
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