Golden Retriever - Low Platelets; Low Red Blood Count

I have an 8 month old golden retriever.  She has been perfectly healthy.  She started not feeling well - didn't eat much, lethargic, no energy.  We watched her for a day before taking to the vet.  She had a fever and was put on antibiotics.  The same evening she started having seizure-like symptoms - shaking, stumble and fell a couple of times, head twitching.  We took her to the emergency vet.  We had taken a couple of ticks off of her.  Couldn't find any other issues, so started treating her for tick-bourne illness.  She has had no other seizure-like episodes.  3 days out she no longer has a fever, but her platelets and red blood count is low.  She is eating like normal and her energy is back.  We went back to the vet today for more blood work and her counts are still low.  The vets are stumped.  She is on ciprofioxacin, prednisone, and doxycycline.  We are suppose to go back to the vet in a week to check her blood again.  Any ideas?   Patti

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

Has your dog been tested for Ehrlichia and other tick borne diseases?  Has she been vaccinated recently?  Has there been any exposure to toxins or chemicals?  Was she recently spayed or did she have anesthesia for any other procedure?  

Thrombocytopenia  literally is a low platelet count in the blood.   Thrombocytopenia may be congenital or acquired  and there are many causes for  the disease as follows:  

1. Platelets being used up too quickly as in blood loss,  
2. Platelets being too rapid destroyed as it is with : toxin exposure, exposure to radiation, infectious causes (including: chronic viral, rickettsial or protozoan infections or, hepatitis), other diseases such as: leukemia, tumors (hemangiosarcoma), Addison's disease, vitamin deficiencies: (vitamin B12, folate, or severe iron deficiency), and from some vaccines.
3.  Platelets could be destroyed  by the body as in immune-mediated thrombocytopenia (the body viewing the platelets as a foreign substance and destroying them, due to an overly active macrophage system.)
4. Decreased production of platelets:  as in Congenital thrombocytopenia caused by bone marrow malformations, and other diseases.

The most common infectious cause of thrombocytopenia in dogs is infection with Ehrlichia canis and, less commonly, E. platys, E. ewingii, (tick borne diseases), and infectious canine hepatitis virus,

The doxycycline is for a tick borne disease.  The prednisone is effective against auto-immune thrombocytopenia (low platelets) and the ciprofloxin is an additional antibiotic that will work synergistically with the doxycycline for broad spectrum coverage of any additional bacterial organisms.

You may never find out the cause of your dog's thrombocytopenia but treatment is usually effective, though it may take months before your dog is cured.

Let us know how your dog does!













The prognosis for this disorder is guarded to good. If dogs with primary immune-mediated thrombocytopenia fail to respond, additional immunosuppressive therapy may be required, although reevaluation for an underlying cause that was not identified initially should also be considered.

In patients in which immune-mediated thrombocytopenia is suspected to be secondary to vaccine administration, avoid the potentially causative vaccine or vaccines in the future. Administering distemper-hepatitis vaccines may lower platelet counts, with the peak effect one week after vaccination, so vaccination should be avoided in thrombocytopenic patients. (28) For patients that have recovered from immune-mediated thrombocytopenia, we recommend administering only core vaccines and administering the vaccines at separate times. Monitoring the platelet count before and for a few weeks after vaccination is warranted.