Therapeutic efficacy of doxycycline with whole blood transfusion in management of thrombocytopenic ehrlichiosis in canines

The objective of present study was to evaluate the efficacy of doxycycline with whole blood transfusion in anemic and thrombocytopenic cases of canine ehrlichiosis. Clinical cases of thrombocytopenic ehrlichiosis in canines were diagnosed on the basis of reduced count of platelets and blood smear examination for morula stage in monocytes. Five cases of dogs (3-6 months) presented with wide spread petechiae and echimotic hemorrhage and other clinical signs were selected for study. These cases were kept as treatment group (Group-I) and five healthy dogs as control group (Group-II). Group-I was treated with specific therapy with oral doxycycline @10 mg/ kg body wt. twice daily for 20 days and whole blood transfusion was adopted as supportive therapy for anemia and thrombocytopenia. Five healthy dogs of same age group were kept as control (Group-II). Haematobiochemical profile of treatment group (Group-I) revealed significant (p< 0.05) reduction in Hb, PCV, TEC, platelets count, lymphocytes, total protein, albumin and globulin while significant (p< 0.05) increase was recorded in neutrophils, monocytes, serum ALT and AST at 0 day as compared to healthy control (Group-II). The infected dogs showed remarkable improvement in hemorrhagic tendency after whole blood transfusion and complete recovery after 20 days of therapy with doxycycline.