Ridecamp: Re: [RC] low calcium level in CBC

The 'normal' chem panel only measures total serum calcium, which can be
misleading.  A proportion of serum calcium is bound to albumin, and in your
horse's case, more might be bound and therefore not show up on the chem
panel and falsely suggest low calcium.  Routine panels for total calcium are
more useful for evaluating high calcium, which suggests renal disease, bone
cancer, etc.

So, if your horse seems fine, don't worry about it, it's almost certainly
just a false result based on total calcium, assuming the rest of the panel
was normal, which you said it was.  Or, you can ask your vet for an
*ionized* calcium assay, which will be more accurate (though IMO it's not
worth the money unless you're seeing some clinical signs of a problem).

If the rest of the panel was *not* normal (particularly albumin, BUN,
phosphorus), then those do indicate a problem and need to be followed up on.
Sounds like that's not the case, so don't worry about it.

Good luck,
Susan G


----- Original Message -----
From: "Michelle Fink" <michrowe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2002 9:53 AM
Subject: [RC] low calcium level in CBC


> Hi -
>
> I had a CBC pulled on one of my horses a couple days ago after he had a
mild
> gassy colic and the vet found low calcium level.  Phosphorus and other
> markers were normal.  The horse is getting wheat hay (8+ lbs. per day),
> grass/alfalfa (4 lbs. per day), and grass in pasture - no grain or
> supplements.  The wheat analyzed out as a 2:1 Ca:P, so I'm really puzzled
at
> why the calcium level would be low.  If anything, I'd expect it to be high
> due to the alfalfa he is fed.  He's 4 and doing LSD to start distance
riding
> next season, so stress is not a likely factor.  Any ideas??
>
> Happy trails -
> Michelle
> (Colorado)





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