Questions about low kidney function.....

*smacks self* I had written them down and now I can't find it. I will have to call them back and get them again

SirDrakeOfTheCreek

*smacks self*

There is a great icon for that.      

SirDrakeOfTheCreek

I had written them down and now I can't find it. I will have to call them back and get them again

Unless your vet is open 24-hours, 365 days a year and you never take Judge out of town, you need to start keeping a notebook with xerox copies of all lab work and of your vet's records.  Otherwise, you could find yourself at an emergency ER vet without the information you need for proper treatment. 

Charting lab result values on spreadsheets can also allow you to track changes over time.  If my dad's doctor had done that, he would have seen that my dad's sodium levels were dropping.  Investigating that fact would have uncovered prostate cancer and the sodium level would have been dealt with before it caused neurological damage (put my dad in a wheelchair for a while). 

Even a good vet isn't perfect, so an extra set of eyes on the lab results never hurts!! 

Sites on interpreting lab results:   http://www.dogaware.com/misc.html#bloodtest

ottoluv

I actually recommend a thumb drive instead of papers and entering them on the computer. It's easier to take it around with you in your purse and you can update it. I have a file on each of my dogs on my drive for easy reference.

Anyone have a vet that is willing to give lab results on computer-readable media?  It is really is silly for pet owners to have to type in the numbers.

ottoluv

LOL, how many lab values do you have? A complete pre transplant panel on a human patient would take about five minutes to hand enter. You'd rather carry around a book of papers to look through instead of putting them in a database that is easily readable, searchable, and updatable? It's so hilarious to me that people will obsess about their dog's food or going to six different vets, but won't spend five minutes transfering data to an xcell file. Yes Janet, my vet is able to email them, but even if they didn't I'd actually spend the time to enter them. You could also enter all sorts of information like weights, medications, what food they are on, etc. But I mean why would anyone want to be an advocate for their pet's health? It's much easier to complain.

I never thought of this but this is a great idea.  I have so many extra thumb drives I never have a good use for.  I always keep a photocopy of the official rabies certificate in my purse but I'm putting everything else on a thumb drive from now on... 

ottoluv

I never thought of the scanning the rabies cert in, that's a great idea. In fact, I'm going to do that right no lol.

I'm paranoid with it b/c we do have some instances of rabies in wildlife here and a valid cert (3 years is acceptable) is required to have a dog, so I like to have a copy or picture of it available rather than just an entry of when it was done to prove it really was done).  That's really the only paper I ever take along to shows or on trips unless other paperwork is specifically required, especially since at shows the dogs can't wear tags, so her county tag (which cannot be obtained without a valid rabies cert) would do me no good.

ottoluv

You'd rather carry around a book of papers to look through instead of putting them in a database that is easily readable, searchable, and updatable?

Nope!

ottoluv

Yes Janet, my vet is able to email them, but even if they didn't I'd actually spend the time to enter them.

Me, too.

ottoluv

It's much easier to complain.

Who is complaining?  Typing can introduce data errors and errors should be avoided when possible. 

There are also still a lot of people with very little computer literacy.  Those folks appreciate it when things are as simple as possible, so I was wondering what various vets did to accommodate them.