Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Rifampicin treatment helps dogs recover from acute monocytic
By Theodorou, Konstantina et al.·Published in The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy·2013·Companion Animal Clinic·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Efficacy of rifampicin in the treatment of experimental acute canine monocytic ehrlichiosis.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
Five Beagle dogs infected with Ehrlichia canis, a bacteria that causes a serious illness, were treated with rifampicin, an antibiotic, to see if it could help them recover. All the dogs showed signs of illness and low platelet counts, which are important for blood clotting. While the dogs that received rifampicin had quicker improvements in their platelet counts compared to untreated dogs, the treatment did not completely clear the infection in all cases. By the end of the study, some treated dogs still tested positive for the bacteria, indicating that while rifampicin helped with recovery, it wasn't fully effective in eliminating the infection.
People also search for: dog ehrlichiosis treatment · Beagle low platelet count · rifampicin for dogs
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To assess the efficacy of rifampicin in achieving clinical and haematological recovery and clearing infection in dogs with experimentally induced acute monocytic ehrlichiosis. METHODS: Five Ehrlichia canis-infected Beagle dogs were treated with rifampicin (10 mg/kg/24 h orally for 3 weeks), nine E. canis-infected dogs received no treatment (infected untreated dogs) and two dogs served as uninfected controls. Clinical score, platelet counts, immunofluorescent antibody titres and PCR detection of E. canis-specific DNA in blood, bone marrow and spleen aspirates were evaluated on post-inoculation days 21 (start of rifampicin), 42 (end of rifampicin) and 98 (end of the study). RESULTS: By day 21 post-inoculation, all infected dogs became clinically ill and thrombocytopenic, seroconverted and were PCR positive in at least one tissue. Clinical scores and antibody titres did not differ between the treated and infected untreated dogs throughout the study. The rifampicin-treated dogs experienced an earlier resolution of their thrombocytopenia (Kaplan-Meier survival plot, P=0.048), and the median platelet counts were significantly higher in the treated compared with the infected untreated dogs on post-inoculation days 42 (P=0.0233) and 98 (P=0.0195). At the end of the study, three treated and six untreated infected dogs remained PCR positive in one tissue each. CONCLUSIONS: The rifampicin treatment regimen applied in this study hastened haematological recovery, but was inconsistent in eliminating the acute E. canis infection.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23475646/