Kobe has lepto and the vet gave him doxycycline 100 mg 1/2 tablet for 14 days. When I returned him to the vet for check up his platelet count went down to 109. 2 wks ago it was 126. The vet said the normal range is at least 200. Does this mean that the doxycycline is not working for Kobe? The vet prescribed the same medicine again for 14 more days . Does this mean that the lepto bacteria is till In his system? And his urine is still with lepto bacteria?
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I'm sorry to hear about Kobe's current issues. Leptospirosis is typically treated with Doxycycline unless it is some extremely uncommon strain. The only way to know the strain with absolute certainty is with a culture of the urine or blood. In general however, Doxy is a fine choice. The platelet count that you are seeing isn't terribly low. I would also be curious to know whether or not your vet is relying on the the machine's read out or if he is manually reading a platelet count on a slide. These machines are notorious for misrepresenting platelet counts due to the cells clumping together (known as platelet aggregates). I would not say that this platelet reading is indicative of successful or unsuccessful treatment of Lepto. I would base that on Kobe's clinical response, clinical signs, and serology sent out to a laboratory. Continuing Doxy for an additional 14 days isn't going to do any harm more than likely if Kobe handled it fine the first go around. However, I would recommend having serology sent out next time before embarking on a third doxycycline regimen. Hope this helps!
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IT could be although if the other symptoms are gone it is not likely. in order to be sure you should ask your vet to send a urine or blood sample to the lab in order to detect if the bacteria is still in his system.
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