Lyme test result

[Critter]

My gelding has not been right (intermittent lameness that is nonspecific and behavioral stuff - explosive, hyper, etc.). My vet was out 2 weeks ago and is worried about neuro (maybe cervical compression)…and so we’ve been waiting for an appointment (happening next week) at New Bolton. We are all set with possibly doing bone scan and myelogram up there. But, since we had to wait for the appointment, I had my vet send out labs for vitamin E (normal)…EPM (came back with 55% chance, given the area we live in, that can probably be considered a low likelihood)…and Lyme (test done by Cornell). Results are suggestive of a chronic infection.
OSPA: 220 Negative
OSPC: 62 Negative
OSPF: 6500 Positive

My vet is on vacation (her office sent me the results) so I will ask when she is back…and right now the results are going to the university vets to make the decision about. But, I am trying to find out if the level of chronic infection is significant or how significant? Have people had to do extensive treatment with levels like these? We live in a chronic Lyme area, so exposure is highly likely.

[Snowdenfarm]

Yes, that is high. I put mine on eight weeks of Minocyline for a chronic titer of 3300. Retested three months after completion of treatment and she was down in the 700s. Lyme causes all kinds of weird symptoms and his definitely fit.

[Posting_Trot]

Lyme disease often causes horses to look like they have neurological issues. Unfortunately, it’s also true that Lyme disease can cause neurological issues that persist even after the actual infection is gone.

It’s pretty inexpensive, as vet stuff goes, to treat for Lyme disease. In your shoes, I’d insist that the vet prescribe the treatment and get the horse started it on it now.

Good luck.

[joiedevie99]

I would definitely be treating that Lyme with that test result. I’m more familiar with EPM results in titer form, but if I remember correctly, that percentage is higher than the last two that we opted to treat.

[skipollo]

My horse was 3700 chronic on the Cornell test in May 2019. We did one month of doxy, and he was a different horse. I did retreat him in December 2019 because he felt like he was getting symptomatic again, but looking back it’s hard to tell if it was a Lyme flare up or his normal arthritic changes and me not keeping up with his maintenance as closely as I should.

A month of doxy cost me about $275. A month of mino would cost me like $900. I can get the capsule version for about $500. If I had to treat again, I would go with mino.

The trick with Lyme is it can present as so many other things, and you treat those things, which provides relief but doesn’t fix the root of the issue. Lyme can feel like symptom-chasing with no long-lasting solution. Luckily you got a DX pretty early on, so as long as you treat and keep on top of it, I would think it will be manageable.

[Critter]

Thanks - labs were sent to the university vet, so they will be making decisions on the treatment protocol. My guess is that they can start him with some of the IV meds while he is there and then he can come home with oral meds. I will do whatever is needed to get him treated for as long as we need to! Lyme is horrible in my area (along with erlichia, anaplasmosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and the alpha-gal protein issue). So whenever we get weird nonspecific symptoms, it’s one of the first things we test for. But this is the first time we’ve used the Cornell testing with the acute/chronic titers. So I am not as familiar with how that compares to prior testing we’ve done.

His EPM results were 80. UC Davis has the blood test of a titer of 40=33% chance, 80=55%, 160=76%, 320=89%, and >640=95%. We did the blood test, so higher chance of false positive…and we are in an area where most horses test with a low titer. So I will leave that up to the vets at NBC to determine if we need to pursue. My guess if that they will want to do CSF testing for EPM and Lyme anyway.

[walktrot]

My gelding had Lyme in 2010 when he was 16. He was pasture boarded in a small field visible from the BO’s living room. She noticed he had few little hints of lameness that switched legs. The test result was “moderately positive” and ELISA was 5120. The vet put him on doxy twice a day for 6 weeks and he fully recovered. The Cornell test was a few years in the future. Doxy was the antibiotic of choice. It was from a compounding pharmacy and had a touch of peppermint flavor. I was fortunate that a woman who was there everyday offered to do the evening dose and I did the morning. He missed one dose and it was mine.

Reading posts about Lyme for all these years has led me to conclude that many people don’t keep their horse on medication long enough. BO’s son had it a few years ago and went to a specialist. MD told her that spirochetes can survive after the antibiotic ends. They spiral into tissue and reemerge. We assumed this is probably true for horses, not just humans. Her son’s antibiotics were 2 weeks of medication then 2 weeks off. I think he did 3 cycles.

[phantomhorse]

We have dealt with Lyme in 4 of our horses - all showed different signs. The things you describe in your horse have all been things we experienced with Lyme infection. Chronic infection is a b*tch to treat as it’s already entrenched.

I will be interested to hear what protocol your vets decide on. The last horse we treated (an early-caught, acute infection found in 2019), we did 10 days of IV oxytet followed by 60 days of doxy.

[Weezer]

I just got the call that my 27 year old gelding tested positive for Lyme. I suspected as much since he has been kind of grumpy and yucky for the last year and no other adjustments seemed to help. We just did the snap test so now I’m waiting for the titre test to see how bad it is. The symptoms that he’s showing are very mild so I’m hoping it’s not advanced. He’s been getting the vaccine for a few years. Now I’ll have to test the other three in the herd.

It sounds like this is a fairly manageable situation? I know of one person who had to put her horse down because of Lymes disease but I don’t know the details of that case. I’m kind of freaking out!

[Posting_Trot]

Ask your vet about starting your horse on treatment for Lyme now, even before you get the results from the more sensitive test. The length of time the disease goes untreated makes a huge difference in terms of outcomes.

Good luck.

[Critter]

Fingers crossed they can get your guy on treatment and he perks up quickly!

I probably should have added an updated about my gelding…I think I posted an update on a different thread. We did get to NBC for a full work up…which include a myelogram and CSF testing for Lyme and EPM. He was negative for both on the CSF testing. The neurologist didn’t feel that the chronic Lyme was the current issue…though in the end she did think the chronic exposure may have contributed to more oxidative stress on his system.

My gelding was euthanized in early February with a diagnosis of EDM. We got the patho reports a month later (I had to know for sure)…and they confirmed bilateral axonal degeneration of the brainstem. They really don’t know why…his vitamin E was normal and he was raised on good pasture and has all normal siblings from the dam with no issues.

[Weezer]

I am so sorry about this. It’s so discouraging when we do everything right and it still ends wrong.

[Weezer]

Thanks for the advice. I have asked my vet to start treatment immediately. He’s never been tested for Lymes before and he’s been a little low key for a couple of years so I’m not sure how much of that is Lymes and how much is old man. His symptoms are fairly mild so hopefully he’s not far along. I’m also trying to tell myself that he’s 27 and has been happy and healthy all 23 years that I’ve had him. If he goes tomorrow, it will have been a wonderful ride.