Babesia Canis Titer - Treat Or Not?

[Guest greysadv]

We recently adopted a 6 year old male greyhound. His lab results show a babesia canis titer of 1:320. We are his second adoptive home as his original adopter died this past summer. Before his original placement his babesia canis titer was 1:40. He raced 3 years exclusively in Florida. I've done some research on-line and there doesn't appear to be a cut and dried protocol for treatment. Some say treat all titers; some say only treat those at certain levels (1:160, 1:320, or greater than 1:320); still some others say don't treat unless the dog becomes noticably ill. While Grady isn't noticably ill, I've found that he does have some symptoms that could be atributed to babesia (i.e. his eyes seem sore (blinking, squinting, rubbing); he experiences occaisional lameness; he has some "urinary issues" that we've attributed to separation anxiety, but maybe not; bilirubin spillage (2+) in his urine which could be indicative of a liver issue; his von Willebrand factor is 9, which is way abnormally low; and he's a very good boy, which could actually be lethargy, but we don't know him well enough to know what "normal" activity level is).

 

Any experiences or inputs would be greatly appreciated. We see our vet tomorrow for a consult. She's also been doing some research.

 

Thanks,

Cindy

[SkipSailors]

Why not treat? It isn't very risky and it might help.

[greyhead]

Your boy sounds symptomatic, and 1:320 is a high titer. We treated a symptomatic grey with a Babesia titer of 1:40 1:80 saw nothing but improvement in all the areas you mentioned. Up until then, he had been living a sub-optimal life, with the lameness, overheating, low stamina, urinary leakage, etc. Clearly then, I'd treat that titer! Another consideration is if your dog ever has to take an immunosuppressant such as prednisone, it will be a bad business if he has untreated Babesia!

 

Edited to correct typo above.

Edited October 20, 2011 by greyhead

[Batmom]

I'd do a PCR and treat if that is positive.

[Guest Swifthounds]

I would treat.

[Trihounds]

We treated and both dogs had problems. Brucie developed an internal abscess and was incredibly painful and had to be re-hospitalized for 3 days.

 

I honestly think we were simply very unlucky. We were the 5% that don't take the treatment well.

 

Despite all of that, the benefits outweigh the risks if your hound is showing those symptoms, IMO.

[kudzu]

We chose to treat a 10 yo Greyhound with a titer of 1:80. I had adopted him some months before & he had acted like an old man that whole time. Like you we could not be certain if his behavior was normal for him or not. There was the outside chance his symptoms were related to babesia & it was clear something was having some effect on his immune system. It was not an easy choice for a dog his age. He handled the treatment well & without incident except... he started screaming bloody murder when they did the injection for his second treatment. He gave it away though by starting his scream fest just BEFORE they touched him with the needle. (He had done this for other things like nail trims & ear cleaning.) It would have been funny if it hadn't sounded so horrible. I am sure in reality there was pain related to the injection.

 

Make sure your vet knows the proper procedures. I can't find my notes right now but I know my vet administered something like injectable benadryl first, waited a certain number of minutes then did the imidocarb injection. She drew up the proper dose into the syringe & then switched to a new needle so that there was no imidocarb residue on the needle. I might be misremembering but I think once she'd injected all the imidocarb she left the needle in, removing only the syringe. She then used a new syringe with some sterile solution, maybe saline, to flush the needle before removing it. This was all to prevent the imidocarb from coming in contact with his skin & causing irritation or damage. We did also do a quick blood chem in house that day to recheck kidney & liver function before going ahead with the injections. The risk of serious adverse effects associated with imidocarb are real but low. However, those risks apparently go up dramatically if there is history of kidney or liver problems.

 

Good luck with your decision.

Edited October 20, 2011 by kudzu

[inugrey]

I'm conservative with babesia in particular, since the treatment can be painful and have side effects. I agree with Batmom, get a PCR through NC State's vet clinic to confirm before moving forward.

 

http://www.cvm.ncsu.edu/vhc/csds/ticklab.html

[Batmom]

Dr. Couto considers PCR the gold standard diagnostic for Babesia. I prefer it as the main and first diagnostic for most vector-borne diseases.