Last Thursday, we left Lycan in a Pets Hotel for two nights while we were away. When we picked him up on Saturday morning, the staff there was really evasive and it took them more than half an hour to bring him out. There was a patch of fur gone on his front left paw. I brought him to the vet right away and was told that something caused allergy reaction in him, leading to a hot spot. The area where his fur is gone is inflamed. Probably the shampoo they used to wash him. Lycan was really moody after he got back, did not play much and sleeps all the time.
I brought him to the vet again today for a re-visit on his hot spot. Seeing that he is so flat and not his usual self, the vet did a blood test on him. The result is he has low red blood cell and high white blood cell. In the breakdown of the white blood cell, these two are high; Neutrophils and Monocytes. The vet said it may be an infection somewhere but said it is not about his hot spot. He gave Lycan a general antibiotics and told us to see if he become his usual self again in two days.

So, we don't know what is wrong with him. He is only 7 1/2 months. We are really worried right now. He will be going to Malaysia this coming Friday. Anyone has any experience in this issue to share?

Both neutrophils and monosites are both for infection fighting. If they're high you'd think he's fighting something.

Hope you can get to the bottom of what ever it is.

http://www.metro-vet.com/resources/reference/kennel-cough-pneumonia/

Internet says
"The total number of white cells is usually increased in a dog or cat with pneumonia. Increased neutrophils (a type of white blood cell) are exposed when bacteria are the cause of pneumonia. Parasites or a hypersensitivity response can cause an increase in eosinophils (a type of white blood cell) and fungal infection usually results in increases in both neutrophils and monocytes (another white blood cell)."

Fungal Infection?

I know neutrophils are phagocytic cells and they aid in removal of debris and bacteria. When they degenerate and die, they accumulate and clump up, becoming purulent material (pus). Seems that an antibiotic is the clear choice for now. High white cell count depicts the body fighting an infection and low blood cell count can indicate a number of things...anemia, malnutrition, even kidney disease etc. Hopefully its not severe and the meds will get him back to normal soon enough.

Also, Lycan has been taking antibiotics for his inflamed hot spot for the past three days. Generally if he is taking antibiotics, his white blood cell will be higher. I was once told that a blood test during the intake of antibiotics will be inaccurate as white blood cell will always be high to fight off bacteria.

I hope that it's nothing bad and he's just having the infection from his hot spot. Otherwise his appetite is normal, he is only a little tired because of the meds he has been taking and probably just the stress from staying in the boarding kennel for three days. He has never been away from me. I read that Neutrophil will increase in a highly stressed dog. The vet on Saturday also said that his hot spot might or might not be the cause of stress from being away from me.

The vet today gave him a more general antibiotics to cover most infections as we do not know the cause yet. Titus used to take this when he had kennel cough so that covers the pnemonia area as well.

Hopefully the antibiotics will take care of it. I wouldn't get overly worked up just yet. In know my sibe, even when he's perfectly healthy, will take a few days after being boarded to return back to his normal self. He gets so stressed from being boarded that he doesn't eat at all and he gets stress diarrhea and then when we bring him home he ends up sleeping almost all day for at least 2 days after that if not longer...my guess is he doesn't get much rest in a boarding place with all the stress, fear, excitement, and noise so he makes up for it when we bring him back home.