Blood parasite went up, red blood cells and platelets counts went down - how to treat

[kcong]

Hi, i have an 11yrs old jack russel whom is detected with blood parasite in her blood due to ticks. This lead to her feeling lethargic, extremely low platelets counts and low red blood cell count . The condition is called Babesiosis in medical term. The vet treated my dog with steroid, azithromycin and atovaquone for 10days. Seems like the medicine are working and my dog red blood cells and platelets counts went up and she went back to her old self. Those few blood tests taken shows negative results for blood parasite until one month later, her blood test results indicates a lot of blood parasites in her again meaning that her condition has relapse after one month and her platelets counts falls low again. So the vet put her on 15days course with the same medicine this time round. Today is the third day of the 15days course, i will be going back to the vet in a few days to see if the medicine is effiective to bring her plalelets count up again. Understood that these medicine she is taking now is toxic and she is so old, how can i help her? What happen if this second course of medicine is not effective and her condition will relapse again. I am very worried because i dont want my dog to keep take these toxic medicine which leads to liver failure. How can i help her ?

 

[Danefied]

Unfortunately this is rather common with tick-borne disease for them to have a relapse. One thing that I have found to keep my own dog from relapsing with erhlichia is to keep him on a rather high dose of MSM which supports his immune system.

I am not familiar with the treatment you describe, I am not a vet or even a tech, but I would wonder about steroid use in a dog with parasites? Seems counter-intuitive to me since a healthy immune system can help fight off the parasites.