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Top 6 Questions About Anemia in Cats Answered

Top 6 Questions About Anemia in Cats Answered

Updated On August 10th, 2016

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Reviewed By Christie Long, DVM

Anemia is a pretty common finding in older cats. You may have heard your veterinarian throw the word around, but did you get a good explanation of what exactly he meant?

Lots of people have heard the word, but many of them don’t understand what it means. Read on for the most commonly asked questions – and their answers – about anemia in cats.

What does an anemic cat look like?

People who are anemic report feeling tired and low on energy. This is because red blood cells carry oxygen to all the tissues in the body, and without oxygen things don’t work too well.

Since cats aren’t the most energetic members of the animal kingdom, it may not be readily apparent that they are “lethargic”, especially if they’re older cats they nap 95% of the time anyways. Those that are anemic may sleep more, but since so many diseases can cause lethargy in cats this does not confirm the diagnosis.

Lift your cat’s lip and examine its gums. The gums of an anemic cat will look paler than they normally do. This is a great argument for knowing how pink your cat’s gums are typically, so you can tell when things are abnormal.

What can blood work tell us?

A test called a complete blood count (also known as a “CBC”) involves putting a sample of blood into a machine that counts the numbers of blood cells. Since we know how many red blood cells a “normal” cat should have, at least within a range, we identify anemia as the state of having fewer than normal red blood cells. Knowing how low the count is tells us how severe the anemia is, and also may help us decide how to treat it.

The CBC also contains some other information that can help us determine whether the bone marrow is responding to the anemia. This is termed a “regenerative” anemia. If the bone marrow isn’t producing more red blood cells, it’s called a “non-regenerative” anemia. Different disease processes cause each type, and we can get important clues from knowing this.

Is it acute or chronic?

Acute anemia develops rapidly, and because of that we usually notice right away that something is amiss. Diseases that cause rapid loss of red blood cells, like trauma that produces profound hemorrhage – think about a cat that gets hit by a car and sustains a ruptured spleen – produce an acute form of anemia.

Chronic anemia develops more slowly, and because of this we often don’t realize it’s happening until the cat is profoundly anemic. The cat’s body seems to subtly adjust to the lower oxygen state associated with anemia. This is just one great argument for having blood work run routinely on your older cat, even if you don’t perceive that anything is wrong.

What diseases cause anemia cats?

When we find out that a cat is anemic we have to start looking for the reason why. Anemia itself isn’t really a disease, it’s a symptom of a disease, and lots of diseases can cause a decrease in red blood cells numbers for different reasons.

Anemia in cats falls into one of three broad categories. First, there’s loss of red blood cells, which means hemorrhage, either from bleeding from a major vessels to the outside of the body, or bleeding inside the body, which in cats usually happens as a result of rat poison ingestion. The next category involves a decrease in the production of red blood cells by the bone marrow. Certain types of cancers cause this, but in cats the problem is usually kidney failure. The kidneys produce the hormone that influences the bone marrow to make red blood cells, and without it production slows dramatically.

The last category includes diseases that result in destruction of red blood cells. There are a lot of different diseases that do this – anything from ingestion of Tylenol to diseases transmitted by fleas.

How is anemia in cats treated?

We can treat anemia in two ways. Ideally, we figure out exactly what’s causing the anemia, and treat that. For example, if an infectious disease such as mycoplasmosis (transmitted via flea bites) is the root of the problem, most cats respond well to antibiotic therapy. If the cat is anemic due to blood loss, like that which occurs after being hit by a car, we would likely give a blood transfusion while working to stop the blood loss by repairing the tissue damage surgically.

The other way we can treat anemia is by stimulating the bone marrow to make more red blood cells. This usually only helps in cases where the direct cause of the anemia is decreased bone marrow activity, which is usually the case in cats with chronic kidney failure, as mentioned above. We give the hormone that the kidneys are failing to make, erythropoietin, by injection, and that spurs the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells.

How will anemia affect my cat’s life expectancy?

If the anemia can be definitively treated, meaning we can exactly determine what’s causing it, and the cause can be cured (see mycoplasmosis above) then your cat’s life expectancy will likely not be impacted at all by the anemia. If we can’t find the cause of the anemia, or if we know it but there’s no long-term treatment for the anemia, then your cat’s ultimate life expectancy depends on how quickly the red blood cells are being lost or destroyed.

Acute anemia can cause death rapidly, since the red blood cells are being lost so quickly, the body cannot adapt to the loss of oxygen fast enough. In chronic anemia, especially in cats with kidney failure, the body seems to adapt to the low oxygen state, and in those cases the anemia typically doesn’t lower the life expectancy of the cat significantly.

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