Retrospective study of 871 dogs with thrombocytopenia

Eight hundred and seventy-one dogs with thrombocytopenia were divided into the following five categories: immune-mediated thrombocytopenia (49; 5.6 per cent), thrombocytopenia caused by disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) (52; 6.0 per cent), thrombocytopenia caused by miscellaneous disorders (222; 25.5 per cent), neoplasia-associated thrombocytopenia (244; 28 per cent) and inflammatory/infectious thrombocytopenia (304; 34.9 per cent). The incidence of thrombocytopenia among the hospital population was 6.7 per cent. The dogs with immune-mediated thrombocytopenia and thrombocytopenia caused by DIC had significantly (P<0.001) lower platelet counts (median 32.0 x 10(9)/I and 55.0 x 10(9)/I, respectively) than the dogs in the other three categories.