Expert: Kaza - 9/7/2008

Question
QUESTION: Dear Kaza,

I just got a Bichon puppy age 14weeks. He went for blood test and his PLT is 30 (the vet said the normal is 200-460). What could be the caused and will his life be threaten now?
Please advise. Thank you in advance.

Regards,
Ng

ANSWER: Are you sure they are that low, if so has the dog eaten any rat poison  or garden poison. The PLT is the bloods ability to clot, a blood smear should have been taken to assess if this was a false negative as this can happen.
This pup should require immediate treatment if this is the actual figure.
Ask the vet if he wants to treat the dog , are the dogs lymph nodes enlarged as this may suggest an infection , close monitoring will be needed in case this is an immune related problem of which Bichons do suffer from. I would make contact with the breeder to see if this is a whole litter concern etc. If so the pair shouldnot be mated again

www.eurobichons.com

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Dear Kaza,

Im glad you replied. I took the puppy for another blood test and his PLT is still low, plus he has babesia gibson positive 1% now. Is the low PLT caused by the babesia gibson? The vet here cannot seem to give me a real explaination. Can you please explain to me in more detail and can this puppy survive or suffer lots of pain?

Thank you in advance.
Regards,
Ng

Answer
hello
babesia gibsoni is a tick borne infection , if you follow vet advice the dog should be fine eventually.
Improve the dogs immunity by using silver colloidal
www.eurobichons.com are UK suppliers £25 per bottle plus shipping.
Encourage doggy to eat foods rich in B vitamins to inprove immunity .

One of the numerous complications which could occur in babesiosis of dogs is disturbance in the coagulation system. Decrease in number of red blood cells and haematocrit could be due to mechanical, immuno-mediated or toxic-mediated haemolysis. It is well known that inherited deficiency of PC, antithrombin III (AT III) or protein S (PS) increases the risk of thrombosis, and the measurement of markers of activation of coagulation may correlate with the risk of developing thrombosis in these patients.

Give the dog foods rich in iron such as chicken livers, lambs liver, vitamin d
etc foods like liver will build blood rather than deplete it.
We treat this disease with anti-babesiosis drugs, intravenous fluids, blood building tonics and good nursing care. Imidocarb dipropionate (Imizol, Burroughs Wellcome, Schering-Plough) is the drug of choice. It is given at 2.5 mg/pound body weight by deep muscular injection every two weeks for two treatments. Sometimes dogs are simultaneously infected with a second parasite, Ehrlichia canis. When this is the case imidocarb destroys them both. Some dogs treated by this method recover very rapidly but others do not. Many cases relapse and those that do recover may become chronic carriers that transmit the disease to other dogs.

In dogs that are not treated, the chronic antigenic stimulation associated with persistent infection can result in chronic kidney inflammation (glomerulonephritis), liver failure and inflammation of the blood vesicles (vasculitis).


The secret of keeping the dog free of babesia is good tick control.
Check your pet and yourself daily for ticks and remove them. Be particularly thorough in brushing and combing if your pet has been in high weeds or brush. In removing the ticks try not to crush them. The best way I have found to remove them is to grasp the ticks mouth parts as close to the skin as possible with a pair of small tweezers and pull the tick away removing all of the head a small tag of skin. Ticks secrete a liquefying enzyme into the skin surrounding their mouth parts. Removing a small tag of skin with the tick allows for quicker healing in the long run.

Treat your yard with insecticides approved for controlling ticks or hire a professional to do so.

Uses shampoos and dip products that kill and repel ticks.

Keep your yard closely mowed. Clear brushy areas that harbor ticks and trim your trees so that sunshine reaches the ground.

For dogs, collars that contain amitraz (Preventic Collars) combined with monthly fipronil spray (Frontline Plus) are quite effective in repelling ticks. Frontline spray is more effective than the dropper form.