I met a dog named Sailor last week. He was in the back of the owner’s car and was laying lateral. He could not even lift his head. He was not a small dog, 88 pounds, but I knew it was an emergency, so I picked him up and carried him into the clinic.
I set him down and went over all the blood work and radiographs from the emergency room the night before. He was a new patient to me, but I had an instant connection with him. He was a large but gentle Ridgeback dog. The owner said he had 105 temp the night before and a high white blood cell count. I looked at the results and noticed the platelets were 89,000 and should be over 200,000. This is not low enough to cause serious problems yet, but it is a concern.
I advised running a quick CBC in-house so I would have results in about 5 minutes. The CBC showed a platelet count of 40,000. Now this is a very serious problem. He could bleed to death. I told her what the treatment was and hospitalized him. I started him on an IV steroid dose as his own immune system was destroying his platelets. He also got a GI protectant and Doxycycline antibiotic.
The Doxycycline was started as we also ran a tick test, and he was positive for Anaplasmosis. This is a tick borne disease that can cause the immune system to overreact and attack platelets and red blood cells. This happens when proteins from the disease coat the platelets and red blood cells and then the body thinks they are foreign and destroys them. I had him for two days and two nights. I did not know if he was going to survive or if his body would stop destroying his platelets. I rechecked is platelets the next morning and they were worse. They dropped to 31,000. I increased his steroid dose and kept giving him all his meds every 12 hours. The next day he looked better and could lift his head and sit up. He also got his appetite back.
On the third day, his platelets were up over 100,000 and he was able to stand and was wagging his tail. He went home with his owner and I wish him a continued recovery.
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