All of the tick disease tests have come back negative, so her low platelet levels aren't being caused by a bacteria. Darn! That would have been the quickest and easiest fix.
As of yesterday, her platelet count is now at 21,000 (a four-fold increase). We're still ~150,000 shy of being back in the normal zone, but hopefully she'll get there. Her neutrophils are a little elevated (which can indicate a bacterial infection), so the vet has asked us to keep her on the antibiotics for now even though the tick titres came back negative. We go back in for bloodwork on Monday again for the next check.
It's sounding more and more like immune-mediated thrombocytopenia, so it sounds like she will be on steroids for the rest of her life (in addition to her twice daily thyroid and phenylpropanolamine). Soon we're going to need one of those pill cases just to keep it all straight! The vet also had us put her on 2 tablets of maximum strength Pepcid AC to help her stomach cope with the current high doses of steroid.
Simone's current twice-daily medication dose. Yikes!
We're glad her eyes look better...the redness has pretty much disappeared. The weight gain has begun from the steroids though, as she's up 4 pounds in only 2 days. I shudder to think of what it will be on Monday! Poor puppy worked so hard to lose all that weight, and now it's going to pile itself back on. Hopefully it won't be too hard for her to lose again later :)
We'll continue to keep you posted.
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