Dog Blood Work Explained — CBC and Chemistry Panel
Wondering what a full interpretation looks like? See a sample report →
Two Panels, Two Different Questions
When a veterinarian says they are running “blood work” on your dog, they almost always mean two tests drawn from the same sample. The first is the complete blood count, which examines the cells suspended in blood: the red cells that carry oxygen, the white cells that fight infection, and the platelets that help blood clot. The second is the serum chemistry panel, which looks past the cells at the fluid they float in and measures the substances dissolved there – enzymes that leak from organs, proteins the liver makes, electrolytes the kidneys balance, and the waste products those kidneys are supposed to clear. The CBC asks “what are the cells doing?” and the chemistry panel asks “how are the organs working?” Neither answers the other’s question, which is precisely why they are run as a pair, and why a thoughtful read of a report means moving between the two rather than ticking off flagged values one at a time. If you want to walk through a real printout line by line, the step-by-step guide to reading a complete canine report is the natural companion to this overview.
What the CBC Is Really Counting
The CBC breaks blood down into its three cellular populations, and each tells a different kind of story. The red cell line – reported as the haematocrit, red cell count and haemoglobin, with index values such as MCV and MCHC describing the cells’ size and colour – is where anaemia shows up when it is low and where dehydration or other causes register when it is high. A drop here is what sits behind a low haematocrit and red cell count in dogs. The white cell line tracks the immune response and is the value that climbs with many infections and inflammatory states, the pattern explored in an elevated white cell count in dogs. Platelets are the clotting cells, and a low count – covered in low platelets in dogs – is taken seriously because it bears on the risk of bleeding. The reference intervals below give a feel for where these lines normally sit in an adult dog.
| CBC parameter | Normal reference range (adult dog) |
|---|---|
| Haematocrit (HCT) | 41-58% |
| Red blood cells (RBC) | 5.7-8.5 x10^6/uL |
| Haemoglobin (HGB) | 14.1-20.1 g/dL |
| White blood cells (WBC) | 5.7-14.2 x10^3/uL |
| Neutrophils | 2.7-9.4 x10^3/uL |
| Platelets | 186-545 x10^3/uL |
See the full reference intervals for the dog — every value cited to the laboratory document or paper it came from.
What the Chemistry Panel Reads Out
Where the CBC counts cells, the chemistry panel measures the chemistry of the serum, and it is usually read in clusters that map onto organ systems. The liver enzymes – ALT, AST, ALP and GGT – report on whether liver cells are leaking or bile flow is impaired; a high ALT is the classic hepatocellular signal discussed in high ALT in dogs, while ALP carries its own, broader set of causes covered in high ALP in dogs. The kidney cluster – urea (BUN), creatinine and SDMA – reflects how well the kidneys are filtering, and is the focus of the kidney marker overview, with SDMA in particular flagging earlier change and urea carrying its own list of contributors. The proteins, electrolytes and metabolic markers fill out the rest of the picture. The table below gathers a representative slice of the canine chemistry panel.
| Chemistry marker | Organ system it speaks to | Normal reference range (adult dog) |
|---|---|---|
| ALT | Liver cell integrity | 17-95 U/L |
| ALP | Bile flow, bone, hormones | 7-115 U/L |
| Total bilirubin | Liver and bile, red cell breakdown | 0-0.2 mg/dL |
| BUN (urea) | Kidney filtration, hydration | 9-26 mg/dL |
| Creatinine | Kidney filtration | 0.6-1.4 mg/dL |
| SDMA | Early kidney filtration change | 0-14 µg/dL |
| Albumin | Liver production, protein loss | 3.2-4.1 g/dL |
| Globulin | Inflammation, immune activity | 1.9-3.7 g/dL |
| Glucose | Metabolism, pancreas | 68-104 mg/dL |
| Calcium | Parathyroid, kidney, certain cancers | 9.4-11.1 mg/dL |
| Potassium | Kidney, adrenal, hydration | 4.1-5.4 mEq/L |
Why the Two Panels Are Read Side by Side
The real value of running a CBC and chemistry panel together is that each can sharpen, or completely change, the meaning of the other. A raised bilirubin on the chemistry panel reads one way if the CBC shows anaemia – pointing toward red cell breakdown – and quite another if the red cells are normal and the trouble looks like the liver or bile ducts; that fork is exactly what elevated bilirubin in dogs turns on. A high white cell count is more convincing as a sign of inflammation when an inflammatory protein or a stress-pattern chemistry sits beside it. Dehydration nudges several values at once across both panels, so a slightly high haematocrit alongside a high urea can simply mean a dog that needs fluids rather than two separate diseases. The point is not to read each value against its own reference line and stop, but to ask whether the abnormal results tell a single coherent story.
