Meet Sanford, a 5-year old Cavalier King Spaniel. He was brought in to Miami Veterinay Specialists because he had bloody diarrhea and was vomiting profusely. Sanford has had a history of thrombocytopenia, which is a deficiency of platelets in the blood.

He was seen by Dr. Candyce Thompson, one of our veterinarians. She performed numerous tests including bloodwork, tick panel and a manual examination of platelets. After going over Sanford’s results, it was suspected that his platelets difficency is due to a congenital disorder that occurs in Cavalier King Spaniels called Idopathic Congenital Macrothrombocytopenia. With this disorder, the platelet counts are normally decreased without causing a true problem. The likely diagnosis given was a hemorrhagic gastroenteritis and it could have been caused by something that he was not supposed to ingest.
Sanford was treated with fluids gastroprotectants and anti nausea/anti-diarrheal medications. His diarrhea and vomiting were resolved and he will be going back home today!