Looking for information on the correlation between Lyme titer numbers and how severe the disease is/ symptom severity etc. (Cornell test). My horse had a chronic OspF titer of 4000 two years ago. Treated with 30 days of IV oxytet and a year later his titer was completely negative. Now another year later and my horse has a chronic OspF titer of 13,000! I know that the titer reflects antibody immune response and a higher titer is not good. But I’m not finding much data on how different titer levels relate to severity of the disease, symptoms etc. Any clinical experiences or references to read on the topic? This has made me curious since both times my horse has had symptoms and clearly has Lyme but why did he mount such a bigger response this time?
He may have mounted a bigger response because his immune system wasn’t Lyme naive.
I also had a chronic titer in that range. Couldn’t tell, looking at the horse. We tested her because of repeated cellulitis episodes.
I don’t think there’s any correlation between titer value & severity of disease. You’re looking at the immune response, not the actual infection.
Thanks, that’s very helpful and makes a lot of sense
Agreed! Once they’ve been exposed you don’t get much from testing (tho it is the only way to get your med insurance to cover it- including a month of gastrogard with some companies)- I treat with Doxy (usually signs show up twice a year- Dec and May I’d say) and I treat for a week and see if there is a change in behavior (add probiotics with Doxy, etc)- if so, I treat 8 weeks - if not, I stop and return to the drawing board
