Lyme Disease

[Guest brandi007]

Well....after having a few senior hounds that were too old to enlist in a blood donor program - I enrolled Hannah. Much to my dismay her initial blood work came back with a slightly positive trace of Lyme Disease

 

We don't have ticks or fleas in Calgary, but when she arrived I noticed a few flat things on her - I assumed them to be freckles until one night I was really rubbing her belly and noticed that they weren't freckles but bugs. Asking my roommate what he thought they were and finding out that she had ticks we promptly grabbed some matches and burnt them off of her. Looking at pictures of ticks now I think they were deer ticks and I don't know how long she had them.

 

I'm not sure how common vaccinations are against this in the states and we're trying to find out exactly what she's been vaccinated against as the paper work she has just says she received vaccinations on August 11th but does not specify which ones. There's a chance that the Lyme Disease they found in her blood could be from a vaccination but we just don't know yet. She's hard to track because she never raced. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had a lot of experience with this before? I'm curious about the cost and effectiveness of medications that you used for your pooches? I'm doing some internet research, just looking for some personal experience too.

[turbotaina]

The vaccination for Lyme has about a 60% efficacy rate, low enough that many vets, including mine, will not use it. It is possible that at some point she was vaccinated for it and that's what's showing, however, if she was indeed carrying deer ticks, there's a fairly good chance that she had Lyme and cleared it. What was the titer? For what it's worth, my first vet vaccinated my boy for Lyme in 2003. I haven't had him vaccinated for it since, and it does not show up on his yearly SNAP tests.

 

Treatment for Lyme is usually a course of doxy, though it won't necessarily knock the bug completely out. Many dogs who have Lyme have flare-ups later on, which are also treated with doxy.

[BootsyCollins]

I had a dane/lab mix that had lyme. It wasn't that bad. He got treated, can't remember with what, but it wasn't expensive. It flared up again, or he got it again, every year for about 3 years after that, got treated, and was fine again. It never slowed him down. good luck!

[Guest brandi007]

I'm not sure what her titter? is. I'm getting the blood donor program to fax over her blood work to the vet and waiting on word about her vaccinations. It's good to hear a positive bit of info though - all the internet reading makes this seem really grim D:

[Moonsmom]

When I adopted Moon back in March of '98 the group we adopted from (now no longer in existance)

gave rather sketchy medical info him..just really the bare bone basics. When I brought him to our vet for his "get to know you" physical he wanted to get some more tests for a baseline and also in his exam noticed Moon reacted when he touched his shoulder; as if it hurt..and I told him I noticed over the last day or two he'd been favoring it.

Welll....Lyme Disease test came back positive.. I don't remember the numbers but he was in active Lyme.. it took about 6 weeks of antibiotics to get it down.

I got to where I could almost use my "mother's intuition" to know when it was flaring it again.. Doc would run a test and sure enough..every now and then it'd go up again and back on the antibiotics.

He was 4 and a half when we adopted him.. 12 and a half when we lost him; (2 years ago next week, sniff).. and other than the occasional flare ups he was very active and otherwise, very healthy and happy.

We do live in an area where deer ticks and Lyme Disease are a big problem...for pets and people.

I've had to pick them off of myself. Moon, his brother, Journey, (now at the bridge) and our current girl, Minty, we treat monthly with the flea & tick stuff from the vet. Plus, of course...keep weeds down; do body checks.. etc.

[Trudy]

Jessica (Jessbooch ??) is dealing with Lyme in her Bugsy and we are treating Ryan for Lyme though we still don't know what the heck he's got.

 

I can't say I've ever heard of a vet willing to treat for lyme when there are no symptoms. My vet doesn't feel the results from the lyme tests are accurate enough, so we have skipped that testing. A positive result means she was exposed and if she was in an area with Lyme, then yeah, she was exposed.

 

Is she showing any symptoms of Lyme?

 

[Guest brandi007]

She was really, really, really itchy last week - to the point where she was pacing all night trying to scratch her shoulder. I wasn't sure what it was and checked for more ticks but she seems to be okay now - she does tend to scratch more than any of the other dogs I've had. She hasn't been limping or anything that I've seen other than cold feet outside but that's normal. I know Lyme gives you rashes/hive things and I'm wondering if that's what made so itchy. I'm sorry - I've had no experience with ticks / fleas or anything having to do with them.

 

By the way - thanks so much for the feedback, was really worried about my little Bean when I heard the news.

Edited February 8, 2008 by brandi007

[dmswartzfager]

I wonder which test they used for the Lyme disease - SNAP or actually measuring the titer with a quantitative C6 test? The C6 would be the more expensive way to go....

 

The antibiotic used would be doxycycline, and as antibiotics go, it is quite inexpensive - maybe $30 for a month's supply???

 

We (at Highway Veterinary Hospital - where I work) would treat with doxy even in an asymptomatic dog, and we would recheck the titers after 6 months (with the C6) and then check again yearly using the SNAP 4Dx tests (as part of heartworm testing).

 

Hope that helps, gotta run - we're late for poker night!

[lothianjavert]

Sebau has/had lyme. She was 6 or so the first time around, and presented with slight stiffness, and just being "off", no profound lameness or lethargy, she just wasn't "right", so off to the vet we went, and she had Lyme. She went on a long course of doxy (8 weeks), though she felt much better after just a week. She's had a few flares (or reinfections, hard to say) over the years, and all were treated with a long course of doxy at the dose of 10 mg/lb (so a 50 lb dog would get 500 mg/day of doxy for 8 weeks or so). She's now 13. We check her yearly w/ the snap, but also are very aware of the symptoms, and if she shows any, or is off in any way, in she goes.

[Guest MZH]

Yes, we've been through Lyme 4 times. If the titer is positive and not caused by a vaccination, I'd treat. I know many vets disagree with this, but they may not have lived with a dog who had untreated Lyme and then tried to treat after the symptoms got bad. I would never take that approach again. Your heart may be broken because Lyme really can't be cured when it's too far along. One of our dogs died because we waited too long before treating. He also had the early Lyme vaccine, so he was hit doubly hard.

 

Lots of groceries stores and even Target charge only $4 for doxy, (I'm not sure how much they give.) Here in SC Publix gives antibiotics away for free! They are probably located elsewhere.

 

Marcia in Anderson SC who came from CT, the hotbed of Lyme disease

 

[lothianjavert]

Yes, we've been through Lyme 4 times. If the titer is positive and not caused by a vaccination, I'd treat. I know many vets disagree with this, but they may not have lived with a dog who had untreated Lyme and then tried to treat after the symptoms got bad. I would never take that approach again. Your heart may be broken because Lyme really can't be cured when it's too far along. One of our dogs died because we waited too long before treating. He also had the early Lyme vaccine, so he was hit doubly hard.

 

Lots of groceries stores and even Target charge only $4 for doxy, (I'm not sure how much they give.) Here in SC Publix gives antibiotics away for free! They are probably located elsewhere.

 

Marcia in Anderson SC who came from CT, the hotbed of Lyme disease

 

Yes, my old vet would treat if the titer was positive, even if the dog was asymptomatic. He would also treat if the dog was symptomatic but was NOT coming up positive. (The latter had actually happened to him when he had Lyme-- he had all the symptoms, but tested negative, so the doctors wouldn't treat him. He got REALLY sick, and said screw it and gave himself a nice long high dose course of doxy. And it worked.) Lyme is so prevalent in our area that if there was any possibility it could be Lyme, he would treat. In part because the treatment was safe and inexpensive, and the risks of waiting too long are high.

 

He also did not like the vaccine for two reasons. One was the lack of efficacy. He guessed that at BEST it was maybe 60% effective. (Sebau was vaccinated, and it didn't do any good) The second was that a sizeable amount of dogs acquire all the symptoms of Lyme after vaccination, and that can be even worse to treat than Lyme itself.