Bartonella and Hemangiosarcoma link

[Miss_Fortune]

I wanted to share this info with you all, as not only does it affect our dogs (Bartonella) but I believe it also affects our horses. I found out last year that 3 of my dogs had bartonella, subsequent testing showed that my husband and I had it as well. Bartonella, also known as cat scratch fever, is a bacterial infection. As I started researching the bart. a lot of things that had been happening at my place started to make sense. I have Border collies, I’ve lost so many to hem, sarc, then I had 2 dogs diagnosed with cancer (2 different cancers, 2 rare cancers) in the same week. As I researched more, I came to believe that the bartonella was responsible for the cancers I’ve been saying since last year that Bart caused hem sarc, and lo and behold here it is in black and white.

I know way more about bart than I care too but let me tell you this. Bart. is not on most vet’s differentials (or MD’s for that matter) It is basically a stealth pathogen. On a CBC the blood will generally come back unremarkable. I had a dog running a 105 temp, gums as white as a sheet, and her bloodwork was pristine…It’s taken me 6 yrs to find out what the hell was going on with my dogs…symptoms of bart are all over the place, similar to lyme disease…anyway, my advice to you all is if you have a dog that presents with strange symptoms, skin issues, constant gastric issues, sudden onset high fevers, that resolve on their own (usually cyclical, ours occurred in 6 week intervals) It can also mimic immune mediated disease, as well as cancer, lots of cases of it mimicking inflammatory breast cancer in women, and mastitis, in bitches, ask your vet to test for bart. Bart by the way is very difficult to test for, and most vets will send the blood to NCSU for testing.

Also, I don’t think bart is limited to just hem. sarc. I just lost my older dog, (who was pos. for bart) to bladder cancer I also can’t rule out my old gelding’s recent death to bart either.

Here is the public announcement https://cvm.ncsu.edu/bartonella-bact…USNY9P7IVuKgIc

And here is the absract

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0227234&fbclid=IwAR02ICoEmUEEfKs

[Marla_100]

Interesting, thanks for posting this.
One of my sons was diagnosed with “Cat Scratch Fever” at 4-5 yrs. old. We knew he had been scratched or bitten by
several different critters within a 2 wk. period , including a monkey, as he was an animal crazy kid. Once treated he had no more problems.
How do you suppose you have so many cases within your family and animals? How is it being transmitted?
Have you tracked it down to a common cause?
Sorry you’ve had so much experience with this.

[Sswor]

Thank you for this

[Miss_Fortune]

If you catch the initial infection/bite, and treat it right then, you have a chance of clearing it. The ABX of choice for humans is Rifampin and Doxy. The drugs used for dogs, Baytril and Doxy. Doxy won’t touch bart. but it’s used to treat any biofilm residual. Most people don’t realize they have been infected…the most common strain is Bartonella Henselae (what we have) there are estimates btwn 60-80 % of cats are carriers of the bacteria. Cat’s are generally asymptomatic, so you don’t know that they have it. Feral cats are high % carriers of Bart. You can be infected by a bite a scratch or a flea that bit the infected cat, then bit you. If you get infected, and don’t realize it, it then becomes chronic, or it goes into what they call the stationary phase. It will migrate to particular organs, and basically start “cooking”. Bart likes the liver, spleen and heart.

About 6 yrs ago, 3 of my dogs started spiking these sudden onset high fevers…just out of the blue…it would resolve then come back 6 weeks later…I drove myself crazy trying to figure out wth was going on…then they got cancer, then they died About a year went by, I thought ok, we’re going to be alright. Last Nov. I had taken my young dog to a sheepdog trial (that’s what we do) On the drive up to the trial, all of sudden she became lethargic, and just acting off. By the time I got to the trial site, she was spiking a near 105 temp, gums were pale as a sheet…I was beside myself…thinking OMG not again!!! Raced her back home and to the vet. As its typical of bart. blood work came back unremarkable. She had 3 more episodes, before my vet said this was all above her pay grade, and sent us to a specialist. THAN GOD he tested for Bart. He saved our lives.

So we began to treat for bart, and it helped somewhat, but didn’t clear. My young dog also presented with billiary sludge (it was the bart, even though the vet didn’t believe it, and basically told me I wouldn’t be able to clear it, and that she’d have to be on synthetic bile for the rest of her life) She’s a 3 yr. old athletic Border Collie!! didn’t make sense to me…

So when you get Bart or Lyme or any of the TBD’s vets and docs will tell you, you’ll never be cleared of it, you’ll probably have to do reoccurring treatment…that didn’t make sense to me either.

It’s a long story, but through tons of research (fascinating by the way) I figured out (IMHO) Basically what I think was happening is this. You get the bacteria (bart is a gram neg. bacteria) and lets say you have parasites residing in your body (Most Americans won’t admit to having worms, but they do ) Now in the case of Lyme disease, they found round worms residing in ticks infected with Lyme, and those ticks could actually infect you with the worms along with Lyme. But let’s get back to Bart. So you get infected with bart, you or your dog, also have parasites in you, the parasite ingests your infected blood, then lets say that bart infected parasite encysts…maybe your liver, maybe your spleen…maybe your heart…YOu can take all the abx you want, but it’s not going to kill the parasite. So this parasite is sitting all cozy, and shedding the pathogen, non stop…you are constantly being reinfected…

So this is what my protocol was. What takes out encysted parasites? Fenbendazole, and Moxydectin…pretty much the only 2 antiparasitics that get encysted worms. As an aside, it’s no surprise to me that antiparasitcs are being used in the treatment of cancer Do a quick google search of it and you’ll see what I mean.

My husband, me and all my dogs went on a protocol of Fenbend. Strongid and NAC within 10 days we were nearly back to 100%. At 3 months, I took my dog with billiary sludge back for a re ultrasound, and she was totally clear, something the vet said would not happen, and most literature on the subject says, you’ll ultimately end up removing the gallbladder…

Bottom line, I don’t know how we can keep from getting reinfected…all I can do is treat prophylactically, to keep the bart from gaining a foothold in us. So we remain on the fenbend. strongid and NAC.

Also just FYI, bart also causes reproductive issues in both livestock as well as humans. PCOS, in women…and in the case of my sheep, I had 3 rams no lambs forever, finally had 2 ewes lamb, had to pull them both, and all were stillborn I started the sheep on my protocol in May as well, (we don’t normally treat sheep with fenbend) but I had my first lamb born (no help from us) about 2 weeks ago…IMHO there is def. something to this.