Readers Respond: Thrombocytopenia: Dealing with your pet's disease and low platelet count

Whatever the cause, this condition can be dangerous. Please share your pet's story here to help others dealing with this condition.

Golden with ITP

In November of 2011 our 2 year old golden retriever, Sali, received her Rabies and Parvo vaccinations. Within 3 weeks she became lethargic and had a red area in the white of her eye. The vet diagnosed her with Immune Mediated Thrombocytopenia. Treatment was 40 mg prednisone daily. Her platelet numbers improved immediately but after tapering there was a steady decline again. We resumed higher doses of prednisone combined with 6 mg melatonin twice daily. We are tapering more slowly this time but platelet numbers are still declining. I am wondering why the vet and online sources are so quick to reject the connection between administering vaccines with onset of disease. It seems that there is a relationship since dog was so young and otherwise healthy and active. I would like to know if anyone else has experienced this and if their are any suggestions for further treatment.

—Guest cfjensenpdx

Christmas diagnosis

Zachary was diagnosed 12-23-11. He is a 4 y/o Standard Poodle. My new holistic vet caught it. Zachary had bruises on the inside of his leg after grooming. I know my groomer wasn't to blame. My new vet drew blood and came back with the diagnosis. We started with large doses of prednisone which did not agree with Zach's stomach. We have had good results with azathioprine, and his platelet count is climbing slowly. It's been 3 months since diagnosis and we have seen improvement. When I made the vet appointment, he didn't have the bruises...he was very "unZach". Zach is normally FULL of ENERGY and nearly bouncing off the walls with FUN! He had changed over a period of a month and became lethargic. Thank heavens for the bruises left from the groomer or we may not have caught this disease so quickly. I started writing about it...www.http://zacharylivingwithcanineimt.blogspot.com/ Comments appreciated. I love this guy so much as I know how you all love your dogs.

—Guest Sue Dolezal

Trying desperately to save my dog!

My dog was diagnosed with Trombocytopenia in Sept 2011. Prednisone helped till we started to decrease it. Now she has been bumped back up on pred. Want to try azathioprine. However she is so allergic to everything I don't want to put her through all the nasty side effects. Read Nancy's story about her Bichon Frise and Melatonin. I need help to save my dogs life.

—Guest Lori

We suspect this took our Bailey.

We lost our Cocker Spaniel on 8/19/11 to severe autoimmune anemia. We have always been very careful and used flea and tick protection, but the Babesiosis symptoms describe exactly what we observed. Sadly, although he was 11 1/2 years old, this was the only medical problem he had. Not even any arthritis, which is so common in Cocker Spaniels.

—Guest CockerMomIL

My 3 year old Affen Tuxedo

Well I was just informed yesterday that my affenpinscher Tux has thrombocytopenia we are not sure what types because we are still in the process of figuring it out. Tux has always been a healthy boy up until 5 days ago when he started to get violent diarrhea. He had it for 5 days and on his 5 th day he did not want to eat and he was lethargic. So I took him to the vet and the vet did a Blood test and it showed his blood platelets a 50 when the should be at 200 +. He was given a steroid shot and some antibiotics plus some probiotics for dogs. I'm waiting for the results and loosing my mind!!! I love my tux he was a wedding gift from my husband and I honestly don't know what I would do without him. Please pray for Tux and his health.

—Guest Karina

Healthy, Strong golden retriever

Just can't work this out. Our boy Seamus has been diagnosed with thrombocytopenia. He is 7.5 years old and has been an extremely healthy boy. He was playing with the Kong when he cut his paw, it bled profusely. Many tests later and an horrific waiting period later we were told that he has this ITP. He will now be on the usual medications to get him back, and we are thinking ourselves blessed to have him at all. What a horrible disease.

—Guest Helen

Melatonin for ITP

My bichon frise's platelet count kept crashing for about three years. She was on prednisone, azathioprine, and Atopica, and every time she was weaned off the drugs, her platelet count would dive again. Then my vet told me to start her on 3 mg of melatonin twice a day. She has been taking only melatonin for almost a year, and her platelet count as of this week was 490,000! I just get the melatonin tablets at the grocery store--NOT the time-released kind--and give it to her wrapped in a bit of cheese. These inexpensive tablets have worked so much better than the expensive prescription drugs. I'm so grateful that my vet tried something new.

—Guest Nancy

Even with Frontline!

We Frontline our American Water Spaniel faithfully when we go on vacation down south in the spring, and in season up north. She contracted anaplasma and TBC anyway - vomiting blood and not eating (she always eats). No relation to vaccs, she hadn't had any for 5 months. She's on Doxy and Pred, off Rimadyl (for her arthritic back) and on Tramadol for pain. Just started this; hope she bounces back soon. Now I don't trust the Frontline; will have to tick-check faithfully (no small task with an AWS; think Cocker Spaniel/Wooly Mammoth cross) and keep her short at all times except the dead of Wisconsin winter. Thank goodness for a smart vet and the 4DX test!

—Guest widogmom

Sophie

Our 1 yr old english setter just got diagnosed with anaplasmosis platys. She was not being treated for ticks since our vet failed to advise us of the importance of it. Her first symptoms were loss of appetite and very tired. After 3 days of this behavior I knew something was seriously wrong with our normally happy energetic doggie. Once seen by our vet, her first blood results showed severe low platelet count of 29 and same for red blood count. She was so weak and wouldn't eat. A second blood test was done to confirm the tick disease. I have been hand feeding her around the clock for almost two weeks and she is on antibiotics a heavy dose 2x a day. I am winding down on the prednisone too. She will need to take her antibiotics for 6 weeks. We are lucky to have our Sophie with us today but she is on her way to recovery!! Thank god. No matter where you live you must treat your dog for ticks. Anaplasmosis is a dreadful disease.

—Guest monica

the death of my sweet Kuma

I made the mistake of getting unnecessary immunizations for my 14 year old Somali indoors only house cat at the recommendation of a new vet. What followed was years of suffering, medical bills, and death. I will never forgive myself.

—Guest Sharon Croissant

Secondary - Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

I was always very attune to Lambchop and noticed anything even slightly off very quickly. (Lambchop had long list of often mysterious medical maladies from day one). So I believe his thrombocytopenia progressed very quickly. It was about 1am and I noticed a few tiny red spots on him, through his short white coat. As I investigated further, I found more tiny red spots on his tummy, his eyes and in his mouth. At about the same time, he became progressively lethargic. We rushed to the emergency clinic where they started him on antibiotics immediately, before even sending out blood for tick borne disease testing. Lambchop's platelets were 15. By the time we had gotten up there, there were little red spots everywhere on him! We really lucked out that the vet on duty that night recognized this as being a possible tick borne disease and treated as if. A couple of years earlier Lambchop had contracted Ehrlichiosis that went undiagnosed for a very long time! No one in NYC thought TBD then.

—AnnetteFrey

We've dealt with this for 2 1/2 years

My dog Nathalie was diagnosed in October of 2007 with Immune-mediated Thrombocytopenia. She was getting groomed that morning, and she suddenly started turning up black and blue every time the groomer touched her. We went to the Vet and she ended up having a platelet count of 0. After much trial and error, she is now on a combination of Cyclosplorine and Prednisone. She will be on this for the rest of her life. It's somewhat conjecture on my part, of course, but our problems started about 3 weeks after she got her immunization shots. I often wonder if that was what started all of the problems.

—Guest Andrew Ponto