Lyme disease in Dogs? - Page 2

That's anaplasmosis.  Wikipedia claims it is most present in the South and West, but I can vouch for it being in the Northeast as well.  

My current 4-year-old male has tested positive for both that and Lyme disease, with treatment for both being a 30-day course of Doxycycline.  He was completely asymptomatic and exposure was only found via bloodwork during his annual physical.   He and my young female are now getting vaccinations against it. 

Both of my late males also tested positive for Lyme disease antibodies during their lives, but they too never developed symptoms.  The same goes for me as well.  I live in an area that is overrun with deer with little land that can be hunted and only coyotes as natural predators, and since my 4' property fence is no match for them, they and the ticks they host are an ongoing fact of life.   

 Char, 

You are correct about the two schools of thought. Thank you for adding your information and experience. 

As well, DD is also correct in the name anaplasmosis.  There is an interesting "white paper" on false positives and test methods used for these rickettsial diseases that you might like to read at this link:

http://www.idexx.com/pubwebresources/pdf/en_us/smallanimal/reference-laboratories/lyme-quant-c6-white-paper.pdf

If the vet did a snap test, you might consider asking to have the test repeated using an ELISA test like the one from Idexx. You probably want to know whether it is Lymes or anaplasmosis, a similar organism, and you would like to know some quantitative measure of the infection to gauge whether treatment is effective or not.

There is a very good article on anaplasmosis at:

http://veterinarymedicine.dvm360.com/vetmed/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=506867

Now, aren't you sorry you asked? LOL......Tick borne illnesses are nasty and more common that one thinks, both in humans and canines.

Sorry to hear of the impacts on your relatives, Char.  I consider myself fortunate to have never developed any Lyme-related illnesses. 

I live in Lyme CT (lucky me)  so am quite familiar with Lyme Disease.  My experience:

None of my dogs have ever contracted Lyme, however, they do consistently test positive for
anaplasmosis/ equii erhlichia (which I think can be worse than lyme).  My male gsd passed
away one year ago, due to complications (neuro) resulting from anaplasmosis that we could
NOT clear up.  He was symptomatic.

My others have not been symptomatic but come up positive ALOT.   Once they get it, they will
most likely always have it in their system to some degree.  

I treat with 5mgs per body weight  2x a day.  My 40# aussie takes 200mg twice a day. (if your doing
100mgs twice a day, most likely the amount is not going to be effective)   and I treat  for atleast
two months.  I want to pack a high hard punch.

An aunt of mine had a chessie who contracted lyme, years ago, they treated, however, the dog
constantly was having set backs and 'incidents' of lyme, where it couldn't get off the floor.  This
continued thru out the dogs life, Now this was years ago, when Lyme first came out, so whether
the treatment wasn't good enough, the dog was just susceptable to reoccurrances I don't know.

I do not do the Lyme shot on my dogs, (for various reasons)  however, my vet told me that
they see more dogs WITH Lyme that have NOT received the shot, vs dogs with Lyme that DO
recieve the shot...The vac is obviously only good for lyme, not the erhlichia strains.

My sister had a golden who had lyme, no symptoms, yet went straight into kidney failure which
by then was to late to save the dog. Another scarey thing about tick diseases, some have no
symptoms until it's to late.

Many take tick disease to lightly, (vets) this can be a silent killer. 

Personally I would up the dosage on your dog and go for a longer period of time and retest in
6 months.
Good luck
Diane

I do get the shot for my dog. My son contracted Lyme last summer. Pretty much all ticks in CT are considered infected with Lyme disease.

I also agree with the treatment, 3 weeks of Doxyclycline. And the prevailing wisdom here is, if for any reason you think the dog is having a set-back after the initial treatment, hit them again with another round of antibiotics. This is what we do with our people, and I would do it for my dog.

Definitely not a disease to be ignored.

Thanks Jakoda & Beetree,

He is taking 2 100 mg pills twice a day for a total of 400 mg a day. He weighs 84 lbs.

So I think the dosage is pretty much in line with your recommendations.

He is going back in two weeks so I will pursue a lot of things with her at that time.

Ninja, I would be giving him 400mgs TWICE a day,  it's 5mg per weight TWICE a day,,5 x 84=420  
the dose you are giving I would give my 40# aussie :))

Good luck with him :))