More Lyme

[Guest brandi007]

Hi...me again.

 

Well Hannah has finished a month and a half of Doxy at 500 mgs per day and she still came back with a positive for Lyme...I don't get it! Should I wait a while to test? She's not even exhibiting any of the symptoms (limping, sore joints, etc)! It wasn't even a strong positive to begin with! I'm sooooo frustrated, anyone have any advice?

 

-Brandi

[kudzu]

If I remember correctly, you shouldn't expect her titre levels to go down for about 6 mos. Did they run a quantitative C6? If so, you would run it again in 6 mos. You are looking for it to go down by a certain amount, which escapes me at the moment. If it went down that much then treatment was considered successful & you test again in 6 mos. If it did not go down then you have to discuss further treatment.

 

How is Hannah doing? Does she appear symptomatic? Are her blood chem & CBC ok? If she is symptomatic then you need to discuss continuing treatment. (And I can't remember what the recommended doxy dose is for lyme.)

[Guest brandi007]

She's actually never had Lyme symptoms, I found out she had it when I tried to enroll her in a blood donor program. Thanks so much for the response Kudzu but your lingo confuses me! I know we sent the bloodwork to an Arizona lab since we don't have ticks nor tick problems here in Alberta and nobody really knew what to do with her. After the initial month her titter went down but then we did another 1/2 month of 500 mgs (100 mgs per 10 lbs) a day and it went up again.

 

If she doesn't have to go back on it I really don't want to put her on it again, it makes her sweet little belly all upset and she's definitely a happier dog without the Doxy everyday. Also I'm trying to treat her for Demodex and didn't want to run the two treatments at the same time. She finished her 1/2 month of Doxy about 3 weeks ago and I just got the results back today.

[Trudy]

If there are no symptoms, I'd not treat.

[kudzu]

Thanks so much for the response Kudzu but your lingo confuses me!

Sorry! The "quantitative C6" is a test run by IDEXX labs, a popular one with vets in US. I think the AZ lab you referred to would be Protatek. Either way, I think the same thing applies. You would expect the dog to still show as Lyme positive for quite a while after the original infection even with doxy treatment. As someone said, if she shows no symptoms at this point I would not treat further. (That's my personal opinion, of course, & I'm just in accounting not vet med.) Ask for the tests to be rerun in 6 mos & see if the titres have gone down significantly. If so, you're doing well.

 

My dogs are both Lyme positive & one is Babesia positive. Neither can be blood donors. Don't know if they ever could be. Did they say your could be a blood donor later?

Edited May 15, 2008 by kudzu

[Jackandgrey]

I'm not sure that she'll ever be negative once she's been exposed. If she's not symtomatic then she does not likely have active disease. Did you ever join the tick list. They talk about Lyme disease all the time!

[feemandvm]

The majority of dogs (95%) that test positive for Lyme disease will never be sick a single day in their lives. This is a MARKED difference from humans where about 90% of humans WILL get sick!!!

 

Treatment is only recommended for animals that are showing signs of Lyme disease. A baseline C6 titer should be done as well as a follow-up 6 months after treatment. Successful treatment in theory should show a drop in C6 titers.