erlichiosis? tick born disease autoimmune ? - Page 1

Okay, my friends gsd( a five year old female) Has recently appeared lethargic and has had trouble running, getting up and has a general lack of energy and enthusiasm for the past three weeks. My friends brought her to two different vets and they are running some blood tests..ect. They have been told it may be a tickborne disease(erlichiosis)/or auto immune issue. This dog has otherwise been healthy/ofa excellent ect. No recent change to her routine.She continues to have a good appetite. She regularily gets advantix and has not had a visible tick/flea problem(she is regularily(daily) groomed and handled...that being said this is in northern california and where they live are numerous deers. Curious if others have any knowledge of erlichiosis. Also I realize the symptoms I am giving you are pretty non specific...thanks in advance for your info

Would be checking also for Lyme's disease, and check cardio. The one case of Erlichia I have seen resulted in the dog having pure blood - liquid diarrhea, and the dog was dangerously anaemic. He did, however, respond to Doxycycline, and recovered 100%.

I don't believe there has been any bloody diarrhea, and I will be sure to ask how her cardio is going...thanks for the quick reply.

Give the doxycycline for a full 60 days. Improvement of symptoms will occur in the first 3-7 days. These tick born diseases are extremely hard to erradicate and need triple and quadruple rounds of antibiotics to conqour. Don't give the organism a chance to rebound...do 60 consecutive days of doxy straight away. Good luck!

Ehrlichia: In addition to doxy ask your vet about Imazol (not sure of spelling). My male had similar symptoms--lethargy, etc. He's only 5 but I though he was aging until he began to be lame. within 5 days he could hardly move, all joints swollen, bloody diarrhea, bleeding from the mouth, lesions on tongue, etc. Near death. After massive IV doxycycline , Baytril, amoxycillin, intensive care for 5 days (many dollars), he got better, but it returned a couple of weeks later. New vet--imazol (3 shots over 6 weeks), more doxy and amoxycilline, and added prednisone (steroids) he is finally acting like a puppy, gaining weight, etc. BUT it left him with autoimmune disease (lupus) which we'll have to treat forever. He had also been on Frontline, etc., but now that I see how much energy he has, I'm thinking he was sick for several months before it was severe enough to diagnose. Some folks here in TX give their dogs (unless pregnant) a six week course of doxy once or twice a year as preventive. Frontline doesn't keep the tick from biting--only kills it after. It is a dreadful disease. the first test at the vet's office (SNAP test) did not pick it up. You should also get the dog tested for Lyme and babesia, although treatment will be similar for all the rickettsial (tick borne) stuff. Humans can also get it, so if you have weird symptoms months from now, remember the episode, as it can be difficult to diagnose. Feel free to email me separately if you need more info.

How accurate are the tests? My dog has been very low on energy for a couple weeks now. I had removed a tick abotu 5 weeks ago. The vet office test and full tick tider (Antec) both showed negitive for all tick born diseases - but I'm not so sure... -calvin

My experience, with tick tests, human or canine: Not too reliable! Early infections do not always show up. Our vets will always treat first, saying "if it looks like (lyme in my case) and acts like (lyme), treat for (lyme)." That's because if it IS the tick borne disease, the sooner you start antibiotics, and strong ones, the better. From the Land of Steady Habits. ~Deb

I should have said, "Our vets and Dr.s will always treat first...." sorry!

Are there swollen joints.........usually slow to get up - may have have swollen hocks. If so they can do joint taps and diagnois. It may be Immune Mediated Arth..............

For tick and flee control, an old farmer told me kero on a rag, rung, then wipe it all over the dog, re wet the rag and ring it before you wipe over the dog always. It works very good, it takes a day or two for the smell to fade. I don't know if we have tick borne diseases here in Australia but we do have cattle ticks and they can kill all up to a calf size. Treatment I swear by is garlic in honey as a medicine. It works for everything. Put cloves of garlic in a jar and cover it with pure honey. The longer it sits the better it is, 10 yrs would be good. The honey can draw the good stuff out of the garlic (natural antibiotic), and our bodies can get it from the honey. We can't absorb all the garlic has to offer on it's own. I use this ointment for all animals and people. I have brought dogs back that have been near to death, as well as other animals. Also garlic in the water helps repel ticks and flees. Hope this helps everyone. ena