Medical Conditions

Question
Dear Dawn,

I have a 12 years old Silky Terrier. She has always been active, alert and healthy.

Last Friday, 16 June 2006 evening, she became lethargic and when I brought her to the vet the following day, she was running a fever of 40.8 degree Celsius. The vet gave her an antibotics injection and when she visited the vet 2 days (Monday, 19 June) later, her temperature was around 38 degrees Celsius. She has also started eating on Monday afternoon. At her 2nd visit to the vet on Monday, she was given a blood test and her platelet count was low and not within the normal range.

Since then, she's better for a short period of the day but she is also more lethargic, quite unlike her usual terrier self most of the time and spends most of her time sleeping. Today (22 June), I brought her to another vet for a second opinion and the blood test results are the same - inconclusive. Her urine test also came back normal. She was tested for Ehrlichia / Heartworm and they all came back negative. She was also running a fever of about 40 degree Celsius at that time. The vet gave her some antibotic medicine to take for about 10 days and told me to bring her back in a week's time. She has been sleeping since we returned from the vet and has not been eating again today.

Will appreciate if you could give me some advice / suggestions.

Thanks,
En Yun

Answer
Hi,There are so many causes of thrombocytopenia, low platelet count, that it is really hard to say what could be wrong.  The fact she has a temp & is sleeping so much indicates a low lying infection.  Is she spayed?  Has she ever had puppies?  Let me know and I can possibly give you more answers.

Dawn