Willow's got Lyme disease

 I'm sorry, Lori, I don't have the answers to that but wanted to say good luck to you and Willow. 

Thank you very much Kate.

Hey Lori,,,I'm just now getting to read this thread and first want to say  I'm sorry that this has happened and you guys are going thru the worrying of it.  Second...Willow is not sick so THANK GOD FOR THAT.....

I am with Callies opinion 100%,  BRAVO to the vet that are NOT pushing all these vaccines.

I don't know what the answers are...I have been working for a vet now for 2 and 1/2 years..and can't remember one case of a dog coming up with Lymes illness...NOT that I see the results to all of them but between checking many of them in and out..and doing follow-up calls....or retesting on a follow-up......I have not seen it.       Of course that does not mean Willow doesn't have it, I must say.  My vet vaccinates against it...as she does ALL vaccines... my dogs get almost none of them.  ( he will get Rabies and is not getting Distemper/parvo )      

If there are false positives as in reading the above links...I would concentrate on THAT first...and make sure she doesn't truley have the illness. Work from there. 

And of course....good luck!

Lori,

 As a human with Lyme, I have all the arthritis symptoms since I have been treated they are gone.  I was re-infected after being treated initially and cured and as of today my Western Blot come back negative - it is not a reliable test and false negatives occur all the time with no false positives.  This bacteria’s ability to exit the blood stream, hide, and survive makes Lyme disease so difficult to detect with any one test. It is the unique microbiology of the bacteria that gives it the ability to hide and survive undetected within the body.  Willow could have been positive last time she was tested and it just didn’t show.  If Willows C6 test came back positive then Lyme is present. Get a copy of the test and read C6 results, Doctors and Vets alike would be more likely to say that Willow did not have Lyme if the C6/WB test came with no reactive bands indicating exposure only.

Either way why not treat?  I would!!!   ...  that is what they do for us humans to be safe and not sorry.  The problem is that it is not thought to be a much as a danger to canines then it is to humans, I think that is ridiculous! 

Dawn

Her platelet count is low so they want to do a redraw.  She said it's very common to get false reads on this particular count due to the blood clotting??  I just hope that's the case.  I'm starting to get scared.

 Lori,

 Sorry to hear this about Willow.  I hope it turns out to be a false positive and that she does well on the antibiotics! 

Have the vet redo the snap test. When we get a positive, we test again - just to make sure.

I would, personally, go through the treatment. Why wait for things to get bad to treat? I understand that there are risks to treating, but wouldn't those be greatly outweighed by allowing this disease to escalate? Whenever we get lymes dogs in (which we do get) we begin doxy treatment immediatly. We do not vax for lymes, my dog is not either. Ticks are not a huge problem in my area, but it's still something I test for once a year - 4dx snap tests are what we use. We use heprin in our tests to prevent clotting....might be something you want to ask about through your vet.

That's just my personal opinoin, I'm not a vet.

Thanks everyone.  We have no problem giving her the doxycycline.  It's the vet that's hesitant.  But, we have a side issue now of the low platelets so we are going to have those rechecked tomorrow.  At this point, I'm much more worried about the reason her platelets could be low than the Lyme.  Although, I'm curious if Lyme could cause that?  I know she said an infection could cause low platelets.  I'm assuming Lyme being a bacteria would be an infection? 

I'm really worried, the waiting is the worst.

low platelet counts is a clinical sign of Ehrlichiosis (another tick born disease). a higher protien count in the urine is also a common sign - I know you said you did a UA, but I don't remember if you have the results or not.

We did get the urine back and it was fine and all the other blood levels were fine. 

do you know if your clinic uses a 4dx snap? or the 3d? We've been using the 4d for a while now.

lymes isn't really an "infection" - causing lower counts, so low white counts due to that doesn't seem likely - however, a round on doxy may help to fight off any other infections that may be brewing that you don't know about. being that the urine was normal, I wouldn't think too much into anything but lymes then. Have you sent out blood to the lab yet? (sorry if that was already answered...it's been a long night, and I didn't reread this, but I probably should have...).

Her white and red cell counts are fine, it's the platelets that are low.  I've been doing some reading and I'm reading about other tick diseases that can cause low platelets so we are going to speak with her about this tomorrow.  I want to make sure she's getting tested for everything.  She'll be going tomorrow for another blood draw.  I didn't get a call back from the vet until almost noon today and I had to be at work for 2pm or I would of taken her today. 

willowchow

Also, if she is positive and we leave her "untreated"--I understand there are very real risks to treating her--what will happen with this bacteria--will it get worse, will she start showing symptoms later on?  I don't want to be all of a sudden blindsided by a very sick dog one day. 

Those are questions for your vet to answer.  Talk to your vet (call on the phone -- it's this type of serious stuff that sometimes makes that necessary).  Ask these questions -- ask what the vet's timetable is for treatment and what are the risks of waiting and what are the risks that the vet is trying to assess by waiting.