Low platelets can come from different reasons. We commonly see this when the blood is drawn in to an anticoagulant tube called EDTA. The platelets clump and make the number of platelets low on the automatic cell counters. Do you know how low the platelet number was? Is there any bleeding anywhere on the dog. Look in the mouth and on the thin skin of the belly to see bleeding. We see this when the platelet count is below 35,000-50,000.

If there platelets are actually low, it is because they are not being made inthe bone marrow or they are being destroyed or used up. Bone marrow suppression is common in many virus diseases. It is also common in tick born diseases like Ehrlichia. The platelets can be destroyed by an autoimmune disease called auto immune thrombocytopenia. IF there are blood clots somewhere in the body, the platelets may be getting used up to plug the holes where there is bleeding. This can be on a microscopic level rather than seeing bleeding anywhere. Then the platelet count would be low.

Your vet can evaluate the bone marrow to see if there are platelets being made.

If that is her platelet count, then that is quite low. If it is her white blood cell count that may be a little high.