A bit of a novel, but wanted to let others know of symptoms in case their dog ever gets them.
Sunday - 1pm - working on a black walnut live edge piece of wood in the shop (husband was peeling off bark and tossing on floor). I know its toxic to horses and dogs, but my girl followed me in the shop and ate a few pieces before I kicked her out. She is large and it was a few pieces, but I kept it in the back of my mind to watch her.
Had family and friends as well as 2 small dogs come to visit for the afternoon/dinner and my dog was acting totally normal - jumping around, trying to play with the small dogs, interacting with all humans. Happy and playful self. As guests were leaving I noticed my dog was holding her right hind leg up, her head was down and she was licking her lips (around 6:30pm now). I palpated her leg, no reactions from her, she went to lay down on her bed so I let her of course. Went to bring ponies in and I left her there (which is odd as she always wants to come out). Came inside after 7pm and tried to get her to stand up but all she would do was cry and collapse back into her bed. Now I’m thinking possible poisoning (but odd that its only effecting one leg and not all or both hinds) or crucial ligament tear - but she was with me all day with no crazy activity and no yelping at any point in time.
Called emerg vet about her symptoms and they told me to call poison control to get a case # started (they would be calling them on my behalf as soon as I got there and said they would charge more $). So I called them and they said to take her to emerg as black walnut is poisonous (I was going to go anyway as my in law literally lost one of her dogs the day before suddenly, and for no reason that the vet could see, so I was paranoid).
Could not get her to walk at all so I had the clinic meet me at my truck with a gurney (she is 115lb so not an easy lift). They took her vitals and she had a slight temp and would not let the vet palpate her leg really well and being so large, they needed to sedate her.
Got an update with the vet as she was stable and they called poison control with my case # and determined it wasn’t poisoning. We made a plan to do xrays to check her crucial and I did mention that she was on and off lame in different legs (but nothing crazy, just a slight limp then gone) the past few days but she was totally sound Sunday am. I just put it up to her running around on the farm and she tweaked something. He asked to do her 4DX bloodwork since I mentioned this, which I was totally fine with since I had her vet appt in April to have it done anyway. He wanted to keep her in overnight as the surgeon was in at 8am and could look at her xrays and perhaps even do surgery later that day if needed. I agreed to that but he was going to let me know how her bloodwork was, since it wouldn’t take too long to get those results.
A few hours later (the emerg clinic is triaged and since she was stable, they took in more extreme cases first - I have 0 problems with this of course) the vet said her xrays looked good (phew!!) but she tested positive for Lyme. He saw some fluid in her right knee on the xrays which is common with Lyme cases. So I was able to take her home that night (2am) with some meloxicam for pain and a script for doxycycline 500mg to take 2 x day for 1 month (I work for a vet compounding pharmacy so I brought my scripts into work Monday morning with me to have them filled). They did more bloodwork to check her kidneys, which came back with good results. They sent me home with a urine collector and asked me to take an AM sample from her and even just to drop it off at my own clinic to ensure there is no protein in her urine.
She was still unable to walk on her own Monday morning, so I kept her harness on her that has a handle, and I used a towel at her groin to help keep her up. Her hind legs would just buckle if I didn’t do this. I honestly can’t believe how quickly she declined. She was crying through the night so I helped her out to go the washroom around 4am (they gave her IV fluids as she was dehydrated) but didn’t want to pee with me right there, so took a little convincing. I was able to give her breakfast in bed with meloxicam then went to work to fill her doxy script.
When I got home around 1pm, I gave her the first dose of doxy and she got up on her own when I went to the bathroom (did I mention she’s a stage 5 clinger and has to follow me everywhere?? lol). She was able to get up and walk, but would not rest her weight on her hind right leg. I kept her quiet for the day, no barn trips, and by the evening, so was almost totally normal. Tuesday am, she was right back at it, but was tired, so I let her sleep when she wanted. That afternoon she was zipping around like normal so I let her come to the barn with me.
She is now totally normal on Wed night and I couldn’t be more pleased on how quickly she has recovered. I did call the emerg vet to give him an update and talk a little more about her xrays (I did ask the emerg clinic for a copy of her bloodwork, his notes on her and even her xrays as I like to keep them all on file). He wrote a note stating that she could possibly have OA in her right hip so I wanted some clarification on that (he did say he wasn’t too worried about OA as his rads were crappy as he was really just focusing on her knee and due to her extreme size, they were not the greatest rads to look at her hip).
I’ve had Lyme 13 years ago so know how totally painful and crappy it is - I’m hoping we caught it quick enough so she doesn’t have any ongoing issues. I never once thought she had it - I really thought she would need surgery on that leg, not thinking about Lyme at all.
I do use Advantix II on her, but have always stopped it from November to April. Now that we are having milder winters here in Ontario, I will be using it all year long. I just ordered a 4 pack on Amazon and have it on order every 4 months. I do use a pour on as her breed is susceptible to seizures, so I’m not comfortable with a feed through.
I just wanted to share my experience in case anyone else sees the same symptoms.
