Lyme Disease

nygspmom · Post by **nygspmom** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 11:55 am

Hi all. had a bad weekend with my gsp. he was fine on thursday after the dog park, friday he started to limp and guess he must have pulled a muscle or something. saturday both of his front legs, shoulder and neck were hurting and he was scared to move. not sure if taking him to the emergency vet clinic saturday night was a good idea...bc they weren't able to tell me much. they gave him a shot of buprenex for his pain and sent us home with tramadol and amoxitabs he seemed to get worse after that spent the entire time laying on his side and not moving. never been so scared in my life. he had a fever, was lethargic, wasn't eating or drinking (except for the baby food and water i was giving him with a baby medicine dropper), and couldn't walk. his usual vet is closed on saturday and sundays. so, early monday morning took him right to his vet. the tests came back positive for lyme disease. he stayed there for two days. now he is back home feeling way better and still on antibiotics (doxycycline). now i am worried about the long term affects of this thing. he just turned two. they want me to bring him back to get a lyme disease vaccine and i keep doing research on this and having second thoughts bc nothing i am reading sounds positive about this vaccine as of yet. anyone have experience with this - lyme disease and the lyme disease vaccine? thanks in advance. he loves being in the woods and loves chasing birds, geese and deer... i guess, we won't be doing much of that now.

kerplunk105 · Post by **kerplunk105** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 12:20 pm

Has he had the lymes vaccine before? My dog got it years ago before I knew any better. The vaccination a lot of times may show a false positive.

Karen · Post by **Karen** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 12:26 pm

Lyme is extremely prevelant in my area. We treat for 30 days the first episode, and 90 days if there's a 2nd episode of Lyme, and when with the trainer, they are put on Doxy the first week of every month (per the advise of Dr. Hunter Wilcox). Your boy should improve quickly on the Doxy.

The Lyme vaccine is one of those things that you have to decide about on your own. Mine get it. I also use Frontline Plus monthly AND spray them with Adams flea and tick spray when we work them outside the yard, where there's tall grass or in the woods.

remmy · Post by **remmy** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 12:44 pm

It sounds like you caught the Lymes early on. Therefore, there should be no long term affect. Once the doxy is complete he should be back to normal with no other episodes.

As far as the vaccine, like Karen said that is up to you. My dogs get it also and will show a false positve when tested for it. Also, I use biospot every month and/or adams spray whenever we go into the field. You should take all precautions when entering the woods/fields.

One question for you though. How come the emergency vet did not detect Lymes? They didn't even test for it? Those are common symptoms of Lymes and would have been my first thought.

Post by **Sharon** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 4:40 pm

I appreciated your post outlining the symptoms. I didn't realize the onset was so fast. From what I've read , your dog should make a complete recovery.

We have heavily infested areas of deer tick here in Ontario too.
My 3 get the shot yearly ( Has a short life span but we only need it to last 6 months here before winter sets in.)
Also use Advantix.

RayGubernat · Post by **RayGubernat** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 5:31 pm

The only thing you can do wrong now is to allow the vet to take the dog off the Doxy prematurely.

As Karen said, 30- 45 days is about right for a first episode. You want to make sure the bug is competely eradicated from the dog's system.

By the way, I vaccinate my dogs yearly for Lyme. I had myself vaccinated when it was available for humans. Now I just put myself on Doxy for six weeks every January.

It is true that the vaccine is not a 100% sure thing as far as eliminating the infection. However, if it prevents infection in 80% of the cases(which is their claim, I believe) that is still much better than the zero percent prevention you will get without it.

Anytime a dog comes up with an unexplained limp, especially in a front leg, I suspect Lyme. I immediately put the dog on Amoxicillin 3X a day. If the limp disappears in a day or two the dog goes on Doxy for six weeks because the limp was almost certainly caused by lyme.

RayG

rightturnclyde · Post by **rightturnclyde** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 7:28 pm

last summer my gwp got lymes even though she was vaccinated...
we caught it early too i guess. scaaaaary!
i was worried about side affects too. but none that i could see
my vet told me not to worry about vaccinating her anymore,but stressed tick prevention, advantix
seems to be working..
good luck

nygspmom · Post by **nygspmom** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 6:17 am

thanks all for responding. they didn't give him a lyme test at the er vet clinic and i don't know why but told us to get one at his regular vet. they should have admitted him bc he couldn't walk and i was afraid of dehyrdration since he didn't drink any water on his own. read somewhere that dehydration happens quickly and is fatal. this is why i kept giving him water with a baby medicine dropper. his regular vet kept him at the vet for two days and on IVs - one to rehydrate him and another with antibiotics.

oh, he never got a lyme vaccine before.

Post by **ezzy333** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 7:22 am

nygspmom wrote:thanks all for responding. they didn't give him a lyme test at the er vet clinic and i don't know why but told us to get one at his regular vet. they should have admitted him bc he couldn't walk and i was afraid of dehyrdration since he didn't drink any water on his own. read somewhere that dehydration happens quickly and is fatal. this is why i kept giving him water with a baby medicine dropper. his regular vet kept him at the vet for two days and on IVs - one to rehydrate him and another with antibiotics.

oh, he never got a lyme vaccine before.

It would be my guess if they had done one at the ER you wouldn't have been able to afford the bill. Plus they are for emergency and don't always have the equipment to do all of the more routine tests. Those should be done at your own vet so he/she can followup on it.

I do hope they decided it wasn't critical though when they sent you home. Probably did or they wouldn't have sent you.

Ezzy

gar-dog · Post by **gar-dog** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 12:41 pm

My wife just pulled a small tick off my daughter's torso a couple of days ago and the tick tested positive for Lyme. It couldn't have been there long but there was a red mark. So she will start antibiotics. Ginger has tested positive for Lyme before in a routine check, with no symptoms, but she also did antibiotics for 30 days. Dang I hate ticks!!!

Post by **Sharon** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 2:51 pm

Where did you get the tic tested?

gar-dog · Post by **gar-dog** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:35 am

My wife took it to a typical medical diagnostic lab that a physician would use. Since my daughter was involved, she had gone to the pediatrician first, so she had a "prescription" from the doctor. I would assume someone can just bring one in directly, however.

cheezehead · Post by **cheezehead** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 8:17 am

i had a really bad experience with lymes at the same time my pup got her distemper and rabies shots. she developed auto immune induced poly arthritis. she would be fine for a month, then go lame. we'd do the doxy and prednisone steroids for a month. this went back and forth. 2 vets told me to put her down(she was 8mo.) 2 told me she'd never hunt again, and only be a lap dog. my primary vet just kept telling me to be patient, that she would snap out of the cycle. 8mo latter, i pulled a deer tick off of her, and she went lame. took her in, and she tested positive for eurlikia(?), another tick born disease. did a course of doxy again, and she snapped out of it. no more steroids, fevers, lameness ect. the vet figured the eurlikia shocked her immune system, and she's been fine since. she's hunted the last 7 yrs without a problem. but she only gets distemper every other yr now. by the way, all my dogs have had the lyme vaccine. she was the only one to contract it. i think she was exposed before she was vaccinated. i'm not sure if it works or not, but after what i've been through, i figure it's cheap insurance.

nygspmom · Post by **nygspmom** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 3:11 pm

ezzy333 wrote: It would be my guess if they had done one at the ER you wouldn't have been able to afford the bill. Plus they are for emergency and don't always have the equipment to do all of the more routine tests. Those should be done at your own vet so he/she can followup on it.

I do hope they decided it wasn't critical though when they sent you home. Probably did or they wouldn't have sent you.

Ezzy

hiya ezzy. they didn't have the test available. i just spoke to them bc i was curious. i hope they decided it wasn't critical enough but, lately, i haven't been hearing good things about that er vet clinic. have been told that many bypass that clinic and go to another town where there is a better one. he had to be carried in a stretcher in and out of the clinic.. so i makes me wonder. even our vet asked me how i liked the services at that er clinic. i was honest and told him.

Post by **ezzy333** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 9:24 pm

Sounds like it just might be a good one to pass. Some of them are really good but it seems tome they take advantage of the situation and charge way more than they should.

Ezzy

briarpatch · Post by **briarpatch** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 10:54 pm

Sounds like it just might be a good one to pass. Some of them are really good but it seems tome they take advantage of the situation and charge way more than they should.

Very true our local Vet ER charged my buddy $1800.oo for a few antibiotics and put the dog on an IV for a night.
They got me once for my bulldog for $375.00 for some anti diareaha meds and sent me on my way. I took him as it was a weekend my vet was closed and my bulldog got the runs bad then started falling over sideways so had me a bit worried..

nygspmom
Keep an eye on your dog after the treatment for lymes for possible reocurrence, If lymes is caught early it can easily be treated with antibotics, if it is not caught early on it can cause numerous problems to a person or dog's neurological system, not to scare you but my sister had it for quite some time before being properly diagnosed, she had to undergo several long term doses of strong antibiotic's through IV's and she developed serious health problems that she will have to live with the rest of her life due to it not being caught early on. I also had several other relatives that have gotten it and caught it early on and a 30 day regiment of antibiotics was all that was required for a complete recovery. I also get the vacine for my dogs my vet strongly recommends it for animals in this area,

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