Why are my racehorse's platelets low? How can I raise them?

Hi there, if Thanos's platelets are only slightly low I wouldn't be too concerned. When blood is taken platelets often clump together so you get a falsely low reading. You could get your vet to have a look on a blood smear for clumps and do a manual count as the machine is often a little off. Unless there is a true deficiency in platelets due to a disease there is very little you can do to increase them, and you likely don't need to anyway.

Hello, the low number of platelets is very common in automatic blood test done by a machine, machines tend to undercount the number of platelets and it is considered to be not accurate, for this reason the vet will usually do a blood smear and count the platelets manually. i would definitely not be worried about that.

I wouldn't say limping is the cause of low platelets. Sometimes platelets clump together and the machine cannot appropriately read it. I recommend having your veterinarian evaluate a blood smear to make sure they are low. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Anti-coagulant rat poisons affect something called secondary hemostasis - they have no effect on platelet count. This type of toxicity can be ruled out by doing a coagulation profile, or PT/PTT test. Many vet clinics can do this in-house. If you have concerns, I would recommend asking your vet about this - he/she should be happy to explain the testing that was done and how to interpret the results.

Sorry to hear about the troubles you've been having. As the ultrasound report indicates, the best method of telling what may or may not be wrong would be by obtaining biopsies of some of the internal organs. Otherwise, the only way you are going to be able to differentiate between the disease processes that are possible are with Coco's response to therapy. Unfortunately, there is no specific medication or therapy that is designed to increase platelet counts besides straight blood or platelet transfusions. However, if Coco has a disorder that is rejecting or destroying platelets, the transfusion is only going to offer a very fleeting response. The fact that Coco was having a fever which is now gone is supportive of some sort of infectious process versus something more aggressive. I would definitely continue to have his platelet counts checked regularly however for the next few weeks in order to ascertain if things are looking up or not. Hope this all makes sense.

You are describing pancytopenia which is a low red blood cell, white blood cell and platelet count. We see this disease process secondary to infectious diseases carried by ticks, toxins such as hormones or even secondary to some medications such as anti-inflammatories, primary diseases of the bone marrow and cancer. Unfortunately, it is a problem because if left untreated his platelet count will continue to drop resulting in bleeding and his low white blood cell count predisposes him to infection. He needs to be tested for tick borne disease and possibly have a bone marrow aspirate. In the meantime, your veterinarian may recommend treating him with doxycycline and prednisone.

The problem here is to establish the underlying cause of thrombocytopenia (low platelets). Immune-mediated thrombocytopenia is one of the most common causes. This process usually occurs in the spleen although the liver also plays a role. Thrombocytopenia develops as platelet destruction exceeds compensatory production by the bone marrow. Immune-mediated thrombocytopenia can be classified as primary or secondary. Secondary processes can be caused by infective diseases or tumors very commonly. Usually to determine a diagnosis more tests needs to be performed like abdominal ultrasound and chest x rays. Infective diseases like Ehrlichia, Anaplasma spp for example should be ideally evaluated as well. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum (where you can post pics of the blood tests) or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.