Lumpy Hound - Positive For Ehrlichia

[Guest ChasesMum]

so she tested positive for ehrlichia, she is on prednisone already, but are we "too late" to start doxy? how fast is this needed if she is already in the chronic phase?

[greyhead]

I don't know about Ehrlichia; we just have Babesia in our house. But here's the URL for the tick list and it's worth looking at. You can look up posts about Ehrlichia in the archives.

http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/tick-l.html

 

 

[NancyB]

Click here for Susan Stack DVM erlichia info

[Guest leash]

I have heard that prednisone is bad for dogs because of the steroid in it. For most tick-borne diseases, doxycycline is the treatment of choice. My personal experience we treated Magnum with high doses and long duration doxycycline. I will ask my sister who is Vet Student at UC Davis Veterinarian School.

Edited July 2, 2010 by leash

[Guest ChasesMum]

thanks Nancy! That was a wonderful link! she has meds waiting at the vets office when we get there in the morning.

 

leash, she is on the pred because they assumed she was having a systemic allergic reaction last week. the specialist vet we consulted with thinks that this may have actually set everything off and caused the flare up.

[GeorgeofNE]

I have heard that prednisone is bad for dogs because of the steroid in it. For most tick-borne diseases, doxycycline is the treatment of choice. My personal experience we treated Magnum with high doses and long duration doxycycline. I will ask my sister who is Vet Student at UC Davis Veterinarian School.

 

Prednisone IS steroids, and it's very commonly given to dogs for a variety of conditions. It's a powerful drug, however, and needs to be given exactly as the vet tells you.

Edited July 2, 2010 by GeorgeofNE

[HopeForHounds]

I think I mentioned before that Jake has TBD, most likely ehrlichia. He has been having flare ups for 2 years or so before we figured it out. You got your answer much faster. The trick as we now know is to treat aggressively.

 

I will keep her in my prayers.

[JedsMom]

My Jed had ehrlichia. Our first vet wasn't able to diagnose him, he was treated for several bladder infections until we switched vets. Our current vet nailed the diagnosis almost immediately.

 

Stress would cause Jed to have a flare up. Now that you've got a diagnosis, Doxy is the key. We would pretty much get Jed on Doxy anytime he would start to act a little off. If he peed in the house, it was 8 weeks of doxy. When we first realized it was ehrlicha, Jed was also put on Prednisone (pill form) for the first 2 weeks and we treated with Doxy for 8 weeks. After that, when he'd have a flare, our vet would give him a shot of prednisone and send us home with doxy. Flares would also make Jed's temp shoot sky-high (105-106), so if he ever seemed off, I'd take his temp, too.

 

Jed lived a long, happy life post-ehrlichia diagnosis.

 

Daisy, our little found-hound, has Lyme disease. Because we caught it during her first flare-up, and treated it so quickly, my vet believes that it may not be an on-going condition for her - - that we may not have to worry about other flare-ups in life. I hope that the same is true for you and your hound, that you guys can knock this out now and not have to deal with it again later. But if you guys do have to deal with the occaisional flare-up, I hope that it's similar to my experience, and something that can be managed easily.

 

 

[Guest Cris_M]

If she was on the Prednisone because of suspected allergy and she's fine now, the vet will be titrating it down quickly.

 

And, yes, the Pred probably was the culprit in the Ehrlichia flare-up. It shoots the immune system.

 

You've gotten on things fast. Good for you.

[Guest ChasesMum]

he's titrating it down but over 3 weeks. hmmm

[Sirocco_Nikki]

he's titrating it down but over 3 weeks. hmmm

 

 

3 weeks is not unreasonable. Taking prednisone medication causes the body's adrenal glands to slow its production of steroids. Weaning off of prednisone too quickly does not give the body time to kick production up to adequate levels. Death can occur when steroids are stopped suddenly. Please talk to your vet or pharmacist if you are thinking of changing the weaning schedule.

[Guest tinams8]

I know several vizsla people who have dealt with ehrlichia. It seems to be becoming more common around here for hunting dogs. Like Diana said, the solution seems to be lots of doxy for a long time. It's not like lyme, which seems to go away more permanently.

[Guest ChasesMum]

i wont change the schedule but it was a surprise that one vet halved the dose every 7 days and the other did every 3 days. could be simply that the original pred was for a healthy dog for an allergy and the second was for a now ill dog with ehrichiosis. dont want to stress her poor body put even more was my thought.

 

i will be glad to be done with the 3 times a night pee breaks though!!