Hi all! My 12yr gelding recently got his lymes diagnosis (2630 titer, has had for 8wks+) and we are starting with 30 days of Doxy and going from there. Is there anything you did during treatment, or after, to get the best possible outcome for your horse? Im hoping everything resolves itself with treatment but i want to be on top of it. Thanks!
Sorry, we don’t have Lyme around here, can’t help with this part of it, but it is “Lyme”, not Lymes", I think:
—“The correct spelling is Lyme disease, not Lymes disease.
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection spread to humans (here horses) by the bite of an infected tick.”—
Good luck all goes well with your horse.
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my guy had Lyme. the doxy worked great and he had no further problems. It’s been a while, but I’m pretty sure I gave him several weeks off. Your guy should do fine, you caught it early.
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Lyme is usually a non-event if treated appropriately and on time. There doesn’t seem to be much supporting literature suggesting chronic issues like there is with humans, but as always YMMV.
If you are dosing doxy orally consider adding probiotics to his grain, it’s a hard course on their system. Some horses will go off their feed if they are dosed it in their grain (I own one of those), this is where a livestock drench gun comes in handy to dose it as you would a dewormer. Just fill the syringe with the ~50 little pills and pour in hot water (electric tea kettle at the barn comes in handy for this). Add flavor of choice - molasses or fenugreek syrup works for me. I also up their Vit E dose during treatment and a few months after as a supportive measure. No science there, just something I personally do.
Whether or not you give him time off depends on him and you, what things made you discover the lyme, etc. Sometimes a little vacation is a nice break but in my experience is not always necessary. You know your horse best, so trust your judgment there.
I’ve moved onto oxytet - it is more expensive but it is a shorter duration of treatment and just in my personal experience, seems to knock out lyme better/more efficiently. It’s also given IV, so I don’t have to fight with the horses to get it in them. One year we had about six horses on doxy at the same time and it was a nightmare getting it all in them.
It’s very hard to prevent, since ticks are everywhere. Chickens and guinea hens might help keep the local population down some, if that’s something you want to arrange or can do. I have started giving my horses lyme vaccines (and a subsequent booster halfway thru the season). Since all of my horses live out 24/7 it’s been a good measure for me. I have one gelding that seems to get it almost every year - since I started doing the lyme vaccine he hasn’t gotten it. Knock on wood.
I pull lyme titers every late fall as a baseline.
Hope your guy is on the mend soon. 
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My vets have gone to minocycline instead of doxy for oral treatment of Lyme. At least six weeks on it. I’ve never found it terribly hard to get into them, but using a feed bag can help a lot. It is definitely hard on their belly, and I treat for ulcers with it.
I was treating at least one horse for Lyme yearly despite nearly never seeing ticks on them. The deer ticks nymphs that are likely to carry it at SO SMALL. I’ve gotten Lyme (twice!!) myself despite very careful tick checks and repellent. So now I also use the vaccine. I’m so tired of dealing with it.
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I’ve dealt with it (both acute and chronic titers) in a few horses. Make sure to treat long enough…I had one horse in training down in KY and the vet only wanted to treat a week. Um…nope! My normal vet made them do a full month. Mine were always good about eating the powder mixed in their grain (even the picky ones). I always treat for ulcers if they’ve had to be treated for Lyme. I’ve had really good results with treating and any symptoms resolving…we live in an area with a ton of tick borne disease (we’ve had horses and dogs test for Lyme, anaplasmosis, and Rocky Mountain Spotted fever…and we have multiple neighbors with alpha gal).
Thank you soo much, very helpful! Im glad to see someone upping vit e, i was planning on doing the same but wasnt 100% sure haha. Thanks again!
Minocycline here too, it’s just more effective.
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Yes to 6 weeks of minocycline, and a probiotic.
Yes, vitamin E helps! I’ve had several go rounds with Lyme in several horses. The first time we used Doxy for about 3 months. After that I think went to minocycline with one. Another one we did the IV oxytet with and that worked great. Then my mini got it and he had a reaction to the Oxytet (immediate colic withing minutes) so he ended up on minocycline. All recovered well except for the first one, she exhibited some neuro signs with when she was diagnosed and was never quite right afterwards, she developed headshaking syndrome a few month later and I think it may have been related.
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I live where Lyme was first identified. 
I have had it and my horse has had it. The newer testing for it is really useful as you get an idea of how longstanding and how bad the infection is.
As I recall, that titer is not terribly high, though definitely positive. Did you get a read out of A, B, and C? (See Cornell website for info) My horse did well with minocycline (which vet recommended as he showed evidence of some chronic infection) He has eaten both that and doxy in his grain with no issues. Used to be that doxy was much cheaper, but they are pretty comparable now. I had a titer pulled six months later and it is much lower. He will always show evidence of his prior exposure.
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My Paint gedling had Lyme when he was about 16. The vet put him on an antibioitc for 6 weeks. Another boarder who was at the barn daily said she would give him a dose if I was not able to make it to the barn. He only missed one dose. He fully recovered, which the vet confirmed via a blood test.
They start looking better within a few days of starting on meds. However, I think the 6 week plan is better becasue it is the hardiest bugs that last the longest and are hardest to kill.
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Are you on the HS FB group? Your post reminded me of that group because I remember seeing a few people report that their headshaking started around the time their horse was diagnosed with Lyme. Your poor mare. I wonder if you (and others) are onto something there thinking they are related.
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No I’m not. This was about 12-15 years ago and since then we lost the mare to a strangulating lipoma. She was older by that time and we had gone through quite a few treatments. She was a photic headshaker that would start the 1st week in April and end the last week in Nov like clockwork. The first episode was the April after Lyme. Initially, I actually had a vet tech blame me for it (the way I rode without seeing me ride), and the vet she worked for denied there was such any such disorder, fortunately it’s more well recognized now. We had to retire her which was a shame as she was just starting to show talent as a pony jumper with a good little pony jock that was working with her.
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