Another Lyme thread (they're all so different!)

[JB]

My mare had been acting just the slightest bit off for a few weeks, still doing All The Things, normal appetite, manure, temperature, being a nudge about wanting to get to the GOOD grass in the barn pasture when coming in for meals, mugging me for treats, being all spastic when conditions were ripe, all the things. But she was just notched down in her general energy level for normal things. Originally I chalked it up to having a Winter coat and we hit a pretty good warm spell, but it continued when things cooled off. So, I had her tested for Lyme last week, and yep

OSPA and OSPC were very negative.

OSPF hit at 12,000

My vet is doing her legwork, as she has only treated a very small number of horses. Most of those got doxy, a few got minocycline.

I know there’s no black and white with this BUT, I would love to hear what has worked for you in a similar situation.

Did you make diet changes? Pasture is dwindling and I am getting ready to add Vit E, normally I toss in 2000IU, not sure if it’s worth testing her level, or just bumping up to 3000 or so for a couple months.

I’ve seen mention of choline, which I’m familiar with, but she doesn’t appear to have any neuro symptoms

I know the spirochete can feed on magnesium, so I’ll probably add 10gm or so of MagOx to cover that.

IV oxy-tet is kinda off the table for a few reasons, unless there’s something REALLY compelling to warrant it, so it’s down to doxy vs mino

Doxy is cheaper, mino has better absorption, but my vet did treat one with mino and he didn’t respond well, but did well with doxy, though she doesn’t remember anything about his numbers.

You know I love all the details, so whatcha got?

[Simkie]

One of mine had a titer like that. The first year we did doxy, the second we did mino. I think we started with a week of oxytet, or at least a few doses? Expect it to take some serious time for the titer to drop, at least that’s how it went for us.

We don’t use doxy anymore so all. You probably need more than 30 days of treatment. I keep oxytet in the house and administer myself when necessary.

[JB]

Thanks - the current plan is mino for 2 months, and go from there, and I expect we’ll do a re-test 30 days after that to see how things look. I’ve read it can take time for titers to drop, and you just have to wait a bit to see if the treatment was effective enough.

[beowulf]

Ooof, your poor girl. That’s a high titer. I hope she’s feeling better soon.

I think you know I just dealt with a Lyme spell this summer that caused a spate of odd things for my guy. At this point I’m treating at least one horse once a year for Lyme/Anaplasmosis/Ehrlichia, we live in an area where it is very common.

My protocol now, which has been tweaked over the years, is to double Vit E instantly. I have been told by my vet that Lyme impacts Vit E absorption and that they need extra dosage during treatment/recovery. My guy went to 8000 IU this time, for the 2 months he was on Doxy. For the duration of their ABX treatment they get Omega Alpha Probiotic 8, and I supplement Copper/Zinc. I don’t supplement MagOx. I double their alfalfa pellets and cut back on grain - I don’t work the horse while they’re on Doxy. You can, and many people absolutely do, but I have been told that there is an increased risk of soft tissue injuries while on Doxy. My horses tend to be so stoic that I don’t trust them to tell me that they’re not feeling well anyway, so they get the two months off.

I don’t supplement choline, would like to learn more about that.

At this point in my Lyme journey, I’ve ditched the Doxy for Oxytet – BUT! I just had an Anaplasmosis scare on a horse a few weeks ago that seems to get Lyme every other year and he reacted very poorly to the Oxytet… I’m not a fan of Doxy anymore when there are better alternatives (IMO) out there: Doxy puts all of my horses off of their food, even when it’s not top-dressed. It’s awful to get into them, and I’m not even certain it knocks down the infections at all – half the time when I retest I have to follow up with more treatment.

The benefits of Oxytet in my experience is it halves the treatment time (and takes all the guesswork out of ‘did he eat it? did it all get syringed in his mouth?’), and has very good results. Another benefit with the ulcer cases is that it’s short term versus 60+ days you’d need for Doxy. But it is not without complications – see my gelding, who had an awful reaction to it. My vet does 5 days of Oxytet, then I think it’s a week of Doxy.

Mino isn’t offered by my practice. My vet doesn’t feel it works as well in this area, where most horses are repeat Lyme/chronic Lyme patients, so I am no help there.

I’m not certain Doxy is that much cheaper a route anymore. I paid less for the Oyxtet + 5 days of Doxy ($600) then I did for my former full Doxy course ($630). One was only two weeks, the other was 60 days + 30 days after retest - for me that time is invaluable and I’d prefer less time on ABX/less days of infection.

Sorry, I know you were asking for Mino vs Doxy and I just totally went on an Oxytet tangent. Maybe this will help anyone debating the Doxy vs Oyxtet that reads this.

Definitely do the retest. The more time and money I spend on Lyme the more I realize it is chronic and not always knocked out in the first go.

[joiedevie99]

My vet’s base case is a week of Oxytet and a month of mino. She doesn’t think Doxy is working very well anymore. She also does 10,000 iu of Vitamin E until they finish treatment, then 5000.

[Simkie]

@JB

I expect we’ll do a re-test 30 days

My vet said retesting so quickly would be wholly a waste of money, advised testing a year later.

[beowulf]

My vet offers 6 months and 1 year retesting, so inline with your vet.

[ladipus]

Hi Jb…my 11yr old Dutch mare came down with Anaplasmosis and Lyme about 5 yrs ago …the only thing that was off with her was she went off her feed which is very unusual…took her temp and had a 103 fever …vet did IV Oxytet for 3 days then we followed up with Minocycline….interestingly though she later started to develop mild neuro symptoms that led us on a wild goose chase for the next several years …this mare now has suspected EDM.

Another one of mine is a TB geld who spiked a super high fever …he also came up positive for Anaplasmosis and Lyme …we treated him the same except for him we did Doxy he recuperated without any further issues.

[JB]

@JB

I expect we’ll do a re-test 30 days

I misspoke, I was thinking 1 month but really meant 3 months, and that was based on this, from Cornell

For chronic infection stages (OspC-/OspF+): Follow-up testing with the Lyme Multiplex Assays can be performed as early as three months after starting treatment.
Lyme Disease Multiplex Testing for Horses | Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine

[ladipus]

I wanted to add that you should not be giving probiotics, electrolytes or anything that contains magnesium at the same time as giving the antibiotics as it affects absorption