Pet Forum / Miscellaneous / Animal Health / September 2008

Been reading my physiology text, and a thought occured to me...

It is mentioned that platelets will endocytose albumin during their
maturation.

I'm also recalling some blood work we did on my dog (4 year old lab), who is
on long term meloxicam (he has nasty arthritis in his elbow). Anyways, his
total protein was a bit low, as was his albumin, and his platelets, and it
wasn't quite clear why that was. There was some thought that perhaps the low
total protein was a result of some damage to the kidneys, but that wasn't
backed up with subsequent tests (no protein in his urine).

Could the NSAIDs be responsible through a different route? If they are
interfering with the platelet life cycle, could this cause the platelets to
essentially knock back the amount of protein in the blood? (if they aren't
circulating as long and therefore being produced more rapidly, could this
cause more of a demand for the proteins, which isn't being met?) Is this
remotely plausible?

He's also on a relatively lower protein diet (Mobility Support).

Dale