My dog has blood in urine & low platelets. Is it an emergency?

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.

I'm so sorry to hear that. Bloody urine can have a number of different causes. It can be due to a problem in the urinary tract-- such as a severe urinary tract infection, bladder stones, or a bladder tumor. Those things may also cause her to urinate frequently in small amounts and/or strain to urinate (but not necessarily). It could also be a problem higher up in her urinary tract--in her ureters (tube from kidney to bladder) or in her kidneys-- again an infection, stone or tumor. The other potential cause of seeing blood in the urine is if she isn't able to form a blood clot properly. If her blood platelets or clotting factors are low or are not working correctly, bleeding can occur within the bladder (or anywhere in the body--bruising under the skin, bleeding around the gums, blood in the stool, bloody nose, blood in the eyes). We can also sometimes see the urine look bloody when its actually a different thing causing the pigment (color). For instance, if she's destroying her red blood cells and the pigment (color) from the red blood cells which is the hemoglobin is ending up in her urine. Also myoglobin (which occurs with massive muscle damage) can result in dark reddish brown urine. Some types of toxic ingestions can also result in reddish brown urine. The seizure on Sunday makes me more concerned that something very serious is going on with her. If she's unable to clot her blood properly she could have a bleed in her brain. Or the seizures may be completely unrelated to the urine. I wish I could offer you a suggestion to treat her at home, but it sounds like you need to have her seen by a veterinarian as soon as you can.

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.

Hello, I am sorry to hear about Daisy. Based on the blood work abnormalities it is possible that Daisy has an infection secondary to tick borne disease or another organism. Many of these diseases cause destruction of the platelets. The white blood cells are part of the immune system and fight infection. It is possible that this value went up despite being on treatment secondary to fighting a severe infection. However, if Daisy is still not feeling well or these counts don’t improve it may be possible that Daisy’s platelets are low due to a different cause such as immune mediated disease. Your veterinarian can help assess for this kind of disease and determine if treatment is needed if Daisy’s blood counts do not improve or she is clinically ill. Hope this helps, good luck!

I'm sorry Pebbles has been having such problems with UTIs! This is a great question. This depends. If she appears otherwise healthy and happy, eats and drinks plenty, you can wait until Monday morning. If she appears lethargic, ill or distressed, or if the urine appears very bloody, then she should be seen by a vet ASAP. Feed her wet/canned food, add water to it, and make sure she drinks a lot of water to help flush the bladder.

Yes, I would definitely take Kahlua into an ER vet. I would be very concern that if she is trying to urinate and nothing is happening that she may have bladder stones. Those can cause a blockage in the urethra, which is fatal without treatment. It could also be a UTI, but as I said, it's quite concerning that she is trying to urinate with nothing coming out. Please take her into a vet right away.

The main two things i would suspect is Tick fever caused by a bacterial called Erlichia (it is treated with an antibiotic called doxycycline). it could also be an autoimmune hemolytic crisis, this will need to be treated with steroids.