Willow's got Lyme disease

Lori -- I have to say I'm truly impressed with your vet.  It is SO much better for the body to defeat the disease itself if possible. It forms better antibodies, it's less toxicity, less load on the organs (all medicines have side effects, even the most benign). 

Since she's asymptomatic (not showing any 'sign' of the disease) it is truly awesome that he's healthy enough to throw this off herself.  Because you are SO tuned in, you caught something that most wouldn't ever have caught. 

I don't know the ins and outs of doxycycline and which organs it is processed by, but the fact that your vet isn't just rushing in with antibiotics is awesome.  Taking good care of your dog -- that speaks so well of both the vet AND his respect for you.  Obviously this vet isn't afraid Willow won't be cared for, and it's also obvious he knows *you* will be right on it if she does show signs.  Some vets never trust their clients' ability to monitor their own pets and so they often give antibiotics "just in case". 

Because auto-immune diseases are so prevalent, it's great to see a vet take a cautious approach to something like this. 

I'll be honest -- I was the one who prompted MY vet to treat Billy with doxycycline when we first found that faint positive for ehrlichia and it was what undid him.  I will kick myself in the behind forever for that.  I was so terrified of IMHA that when we got tick disease as a potential 'cause' for the low blood reading I was tickled and encouraged the vet to start it right away. 

Had we waited I could likely have saved Billy such a heinous time with IMHA.  Obviously I'll never know but now we're all unbelievably cautious with antibiotics.

Normal platelet count is about ~175 - 550 thousand (at least at our lab), so she sounds fine. There's a good bit of leeway in counts because most blood analyzers are made for humans, not animals so they sometimes count things mildly wrong, plus the whole clumps issue. Most of the dogs I see are around 200-400. If they're dehydrated it can be higher.

Depending on the stage of the disease, you can also see very HIGH platelet counts, because the body keeps pumping them out to deal with the problems with the reds.

This happens first, then later the capacity of the platelet production is overidden by the IMHA and you get low counts - the bone marrow can't keep up as the disease progresses. So IF (if, if if !) Willow actually was to be developing IMHA, you'd probably actually see high counts at first.

 Some vets never trust their clients' ability to monitor their own pets and so they often give antibiotics "just in case".

 
Yeah, I completely agree antibiotics are overprescribed. But the problem is, the vast majority of clients DON'T monitor their pets, or don't know what signs to look for. I know people on this board are very in tune with their animals, but unfortunately most people aren't...so in a way I understand the "better safe than sorry mentality" - but, on the other hand, as a vet you also need to tailor it based on what you know about the client and not make over-generalization. If you know the client have a good head on their shoulders (like Lori), you can be more conservative with your treatment because you can trust that they'll keep a good eye on their animal and are knowledgeable. 

Thank you everyone.  So, we didn't retest for Lyme today and based on what I just read I guess a false positive isn't too common. 

Her platelets are around 163, 000 as of yesterdays reading and she will be taking the doxycycline for this week and the platelets will be rechecked on Thursday. 

The platelets were never high only low so hopefully that means she does not have or is getting IMHA.  I pray she's not. 

Her blood did clot quickly last night after she got into that scuffle with the fire house dog.  So, hopefully her platelets are even better than what the blood is showing us. 

She's still acting fine and eating and she's really fine.   So, I hope that will continue.

I am happy DH will be home all week so she won't be alone much which is nice because he can call me if anything comes up. 

Thanks so much for all the info and well wishes!

Lori

Wishing Willow the best, hopefully whatever the problem is it goes away fast and easy.

Thanks everyone, 

Willow oxoxoxo 

Aw, I'm glad Willow's not feeling ill, hope the antibiotics hold off any issues.

My Chow kids (and my non-Chow kids as well) send get well wishes

I'm wondering now if I should of had her retested for Lyme.  What if the others are right and she's naturally immune.  I'm getting worried I guess, this is a lot of antibiotics--120 total! 

Thank you everyone!

Oh Willow!  My husband was diagnosed with Lyme last week too.  It's definitely that time of year. 

Please don't beat  yourself up over the vaccine.  It's NOT the best way, or even an advisable way to protect a dog with health issues, against Lyme.  The protection rate is not good at all, and there have been problems that are attributable to the vaccine itself.  Probably someone else has already said this - I haven't read the - eek! - four pages of responses yet.

Ben had Lyme.  It was many years ago, and he had some joint inflammation from it, but thank God nothing permanent.  I would definitely put her on any kind of anti-inflammatory she will tolerate, plus a high-grade joint supplement aimed at repair (so high levels of glucosamine and paired with chondroiten).  Ben has no residual effects from that experience and he's twelve and a half now - no arthritis at all - lol - for all his problems he's very sound in his limbs and sight, and just recently has started appearing to lose his hearing.

Lyme is not one of the ones that messes with the GI too much, thank goodness.  Thank your lucky stars it wasn't RMSF.  Yikes, that was horrible - I had two dogs with that last summer (Ben was one).  Please put her on a really high grade probiotic while she's on the doxy.  I like Now Foods as the live organism count is in the billions, with a high level of acidophilus particularly (acidophilus is the only one studied specifically for its benefit to dogs). 

She needs to be on doxy for about 21 days minimally - and about twice the dose that vets typically use.  I can look that up if someone hasn't already provided that as a reference.  I used to know it by heart, how scary is that - I haven't had any "outside" rescues in about a year and that's when I treat prophylactically for tick disease.

Anytime the dogs are being subjected to a challenge like Lyme, where it's super important that the immune system itself do most of the work in handling the assault, I switch to a fresh, very bland diet.  For a dog that tolerates grains and poultry, I treat them to a few weeks of an egg, boiled chicken, and rice menu.  I throw in a children's multinutritional supplement as well after the first week (check for only natural flavorings or none at all).  I also use extra antioxidants if their stomachs aren't messed up, including CoQ10.  Keep up fish oil and E to ensure the body's ability to repair inflammatory damage.

Watch her down the road for any signs that the infection has returned, and if anything weird happens, request another course of the doxycycline.  Lyme isn't one of the worst TBDs in its acute form, but it is one of the worst, if not THE worst, to try to get rid of once it's taken up residence.  For Ben I had to continue immune support, and do two more courses of doxy, after his acute episode - and it took about a year before I could say it was definitely gone, and wasn't coming back!

Good luck and God bless.  She has a great mom and you'll get through this with no problem. 

She's going for a recheck of her platelets tomorrow.  She's been on the antibiotic for almost a week and she's holding her own.  She's still feeling pretty good and eating well, pooping fine--which we were worried about with her history. 

Good platelet vibes needed!!

Good!  I just had one of my rescues test positive, in spite of being on Frontline.  Lyme is everywhere this year.  A friend who does goose control up north just wrote and said TWO of her dogs came up with it, AND her boyfriend.  And my hubby is recovering from it, I think I already mentioned.  All the dogs I mentioned were asymptomatic, but both people had symptoms.  Apparently it's a bit more acute in people. 

Patrick was in agony - I couldn't hardly stand to watch him and I'm not squeamish in the least.  He was just writhing.  So it's just as well.  I'd hate a dog to be in that kind of unrelieved pain - and according to Patrick, narcotic drugs didn't help much at first, and like dogs, Patrick can't take most NASAIDs.

I remember when Ben had it (wow, it's been eleven years now), the only sign I had was that he didn't want to get up on the bed and acted kind of wobbly in the rear for a few minutes.  Then we got to the vet and he was limping in his FRONT leg.  The vet thought I was crazy at first, but then the light went off, thankfully - she had just gone to a conference on the growing incidence of TBDs in the Southeast.  As for me, I'd never even heard of Lyme - I'm from the city and I'd hardly heard of a tick! 

She started treatment - there was no SNAPP then and the test was over $300 - but she did all the bloodwork and whatnot and sent the whole case file as a sort of scholarly courtesy to Dr. Breitschwerdt at NC State.  Not that we needed any confirmation, it was pretty textbook.

Sorry, blah, blah - I hope everything goes well for Willow tomorrow!  Um, today. 

Thanks!  We are back and she had the blood drawn.  I don't know whether to laugh or cry--she's had this done three times in a week.  She knows where the room is, gives her paw for them while growling the whole time! 

Thanks so much!! We will get the results tomorrow. 

Lori

I was just reading today at work...there is a pill and I can't for the life of me remember what it is....but it works right away and a lot faster than NAMED Frontline (for ticks)......and is more short term...so they suggest both the pill and Frontline.

brookcove

Thank your lucky stars it wasn't RMSF.  Yikes, that was horrible - I had two dogs with that last summer

Becca how does that present in dogs?  That is the baddie around here, DH has had two tick bites in the 4+ yrs we have been here and been positive for RMSF both times

Bugsy has had several ticks this year - despite Frontline - and has had some strange goings on that are intermittant, stuff he hasn't experienced before and really too intermittant to take him to the vet.  I've got this nagging feeling something is wrong.

Willow you are doing really well with all this - keep on healing! No fighting with the firehouse dog though!