regenerative anemia and thrombocytopenia

Question
I have a 3 year old cocker. In the last 36 hours she has had 3 seizures. I took her to the vet and had blood work done and found out she has regenerative anemia and thrombocytopenia. I took her to the vet hospital because my vet went on vac.  The slide agglutination test showed mild rbc agglutination, and platelet estimate was 121999. her xray showed a  moderately enlarged spleen, but no other abnormalities. The spleen didn't not appear to have a masss lilely lesion. Our dog was dischargedwith 15 mg prednisone to be given twice a day for 7 days.  Her pt was slightly fast at 11 sec, and the ptt normal at 88 sec. I am not a vet and I need help with what  to do next. Please help.

Answer
Hello David,

This must be very tough for you as your dog's illness is quite complicated and the outcome isn't ever definite.

I'm hoping the Vet at the hospital explained these illnesses to you. First off, Thrombocytopenia includes disorders where there are not enough platelets because the immune system is destroying itself. In essence, your dogs body is attacking itself. This leads to the regenerative anaemia because, at the moment, your dog is quite ill. They have to get the Thrombocytopenia under control. Prednisone is an immunosuppresive drug. It suppresses the immune system and stops it from destroying the platelets in your dogs blood. This won't be like giving your dog antibiotics, the dog doesn't take them for a week and is then cured.

The usual course for this illness is usually to treat for two to three weeks and then start to taper her off the prednisone. The next step would be to try for every other day use and then eventually taper her off the medication altogether after one to two months. There is always a chance of the disease returning though.

If this doesn't work, your Vet may consider doing a splenectomy to see if that would provide additional relief from the thrombocytopenia but this rarely happens because of the success rate of the Prednisone. If your Vet doesn't decide to do this, he/she may try combining the Prednisone with another Immuno-Supressant called Azathioprine (also known as Imuran).

Basically, you cannot afford not to return to the Vet Hospital or go and see your normal Vet. Your dog will eventually become very sick and die. She needs the Prednisone for now.

As always though, I am not a Vet and you really should consult a proper Vets opinion. This is quite a complicated disorder your dog has and you are best to speak to a qualified Vet.

I hope this has helped.

Good luck,
Lynne Clacher.