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A clinicopathological study was performed on 14 dogs with myelofibrosis (MF), in order to correlate clinical, laboratory, and histomorphological parameters and investigate factors of prognostic significance. The clinical signs included fatigue, weight loss, anorexia, and diarrhea. Physical findings included pale mucous membranes and wasting/emaciation. The major laboratory observations were moderate to severe, poorly-responsive anemia with various degrees of marrow cellularity and fibrosis. All dogs with severe, non-responsive anemia should have a bone marrow core biopsy, stained for connective tissue, in order to detect myelofibrosis. Myelofibrosis regressed in six dogs.

Increasing concentrations of canine hemoglobin were added to aliquots of urine and saline to determine the relative sensitivity of several hemoglobin and protein detection methods including commercial reagent strips and sulfosalicylic acid. The hemoglobin detection pads of the reagent strips were 50 times more sensitive than the protein detection pads, indicating the presence of hemoglobin at a concentration of 0.001 g/L whereas the protein pads did not react positively unless the hemoglobin concentration exceeded 0.05 g/L. The sulfosalicylic acid test was the least sensitive, detecting hemoglobin only at concentrations of 0.4 g/L or higher. These results were similar for hemoglobin added either in the form of lysed red blood cells, intact red blood cells or associated with plasma proteins in whole blood.It was shown that a urine hemoglobin concentration eliciting less than the maximal score on the hemoglobin detection pad will not be detected as "protein" either with the commercial urinalysis strips or with sulfosalicylic acid. It was also seen that hemoglobin becomes visible as a red pigment when exceeding 0.3-0.5 g/L in a clear, light urine. It follows that a positive urine protein reading in the presence of a positive but less than maximal hemoglobin score or a protein reading exceeding 1.0 g/L in a nonpigmented urine indicates "true" proteinuria in excess of hemoglobin and plasma proteins associated with urinary tract hemorrhage.