My dog tested positive for Ehrlichiosis and is miserable. :(

[Freebird]

Has anyone else gone through this with their pups? My girl is 9 or 10, and we’ve had her since she was a puppy. I took her to the vet for a routine yearly exam, as well as for what I thought was just a sprained leg. She seemed OK a few days ago, but all of a sudden when she was going with me to feed some horses, she started yelping. The vet also thought it was just a strained hip, and prescribed Rymadyl and Tramadol, but during the exam she also tested positive for Ehrlichiosis. Since she didn’t have a fever or any symptoms, she said to call back the next day if she was still acting lethargic. Yesterday she was still not wanting to get up, and was not wanting to eat or drink either, so the vet called in some Doxy. Today she is still very lethargic, but will eat canned food - how I give her her meds - and I am making sure she is getting water by using a syringe. She acts like her whole body hurts though.

Anyway, sorry to ramble. Has anyone else been through this? Also, how common is it for dogs to get it even when they are on Heartguard and Frontline - and checked every night for ticks?

[GypsyQ]

By day 3 or 4 of the Doxy you will have your old dog back. So sorry she has to go through it

The topical tick meds are helpful, but not foolproof. I have one who has been treated for Lyme, shown positive for ehrlichia and anaplasma with no syptoms, and another also positive for anaplasma exposure. They are all on regular Frontline and tick checked. Sometimes you miss one. Especially on a farm dog with high exposure.

[Freebird]

Thanks - that makes me feel better. She has been there for my kids and I when my first husband left, and then two years ago, when husband #2 died. She was an outdoor dog until last year, when it was decided that 16 degrees is too cold for any dog to be outside, and now she is a spoiled rotten indoor dog - who is currently snoring away on my couch.

When I got more Heardguard and Frontline, I got this new Oral Flea med that Frontline has just come out with. I’m not sure if it works any better, but the vets seemed to like it.

Here she is last night in her Temperpedic bed, with a toy my 3 year old gave to her to keep her company.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204214765345547&set=pcb.10204214765505551&type=1&relevant_count=1

[Calamber]

The vet’s may like the oral flea med but you are giving them an internal pesticide treatment that is fairly toxic. I don’t like them as I think it contributed to pancreatic cancer in my sweet Boxer girl. Good healing to your sweet old girl.

[Freebird]

True. But on the other hand, the Frontline is a chemical too - and chemicals that I am not crazy about my kids being around. That said, I am not ever wanting to go through this again. I guess the question is which is the lesser of two evils? My son asked me why God created Fleas and Ticks, and why did Noah bring them on the Ark. Good question.

[Calamber]

Internally and externally are a whole different kettle of fish. I just bathe my dogs, I don’t use either now but we have few or no ticks here. Both of my dogs tested posted for both Ehrlychiosis and Anaplasmosis when in Virginia, were treated and are fine many years later.

[LauraKY]

Calamber, Heartgard prevents heartworm in dogs. Every dog should get heartworm preventative 12 months a year. You are in an area with a low heartworm infection risk, those of us in the south are at high risk.

If you’ve ever had to treat (and lose) a dog with a heartworm infection, I think you would change your tune. Many of the dogs coming into rescue have heartworm infections.

Freebird, when I lived in MD I had to use both Frontline and a Preventic collar.

[Freebird]

I just checked, and the medication I got is called NexGard made by Merrill - the makers of Heartguard

[LauraKY]

[QUOTE=Freebird!;7739323]
I just checked, and the medication I got is called NexGard made by Merrill - the makers of Heartguard[/QUOTE]

That’s for fleas and tick instead of a topical. I’m not really fond of the combo products, there’s more of a chance of a problem. What kind of dog do you have? Some breeds can have a gene mutation and the combos can be problematic for them…collies for instance.

I have switched to Sentinel for my dogs (HW + fleas), but we don’t have a tick problem here.

[Calamber]

[QUOTE=LauraKY;7739316]
Calamber, Heartgard prevents heartworm in dogs. Every dog should get heartworm preventative 12 months a year. You are in an area with a low heartworm infection risk, those of us in the south are at high risk.

If you’ve ever had to treat (and lose) a dog with a heartworm infection, I think you would change your tune. Many of the dogs coming into rescue have heartworm infections.

Freebird, when I lived in MD I had to use both Frontline and a Preventic collar.[/QUOTE]

I am aware as I am from the Delmarva Peninsula, the Eastern Shore of Maryland to be specific and lost a dog to heartworm treatment while living in southern Virginia and treated a few more (rescued out of Georgia and Virginia). I think the problem with the boxer was the flea medication that also kills eggs, pretty sure that was Sentinel. My dogs are 13 years old and lived for seven of those years in north and south Virginia and have never been on any heartworm preventative, all my dogs live indoors and while in the area I had them checked for heartworm yearly.

Edited to add that I lost the dog to heartworm treatment (with Immiticide).

[LauraKY]

[QUOTE=Calamber;7739348]
I am aware as I am from the Delmarva Peninsula, the Eastern Shore of Maryland to be specific and lost a dog to heartworm while living in southern Virginia and treated a few more (rescued out of Georgia and Virginia). I think the problem with the boxer was the flea medication that also kills eggs, pretty sure that was Sentinel. My dogs are 13 years old and lived for seven of those years in north and south Virginia and have never been on any heartworm preventative, all my dogs live indoors and while in the area I had them checked for heartworm yearly.[/QUOTE]

Heartgard just wasn’t covering mine for whipworms. I really like Interceptor but they don’t make it anymore, so I switched to Sentinel (same as Interceptor with flea protection). My ancient cocker reacts to topicals (seizures) and we do have a flea problem here…so it’s working for me.

[Ghazzu]

Well, there’s also the fact that boxers, as a breed, have an insanely high rate of malignant tumors…

[Calamber]

True, and pancreatic to boot, but she was only six and it was less than a year after her one and only dose. I just bathe for fleas, we had a problem recently, fortunately not in my yard but an infected barn which took three baths and of course bedding washes. I just don’t like using these internal poisons, especially for fleas and thankfully have been able to stay away from them for all of my dogs.

[crosscreeksh]

I’ve been using diatomascious (sp) earth for several years to keep fleas and ticks off with great success. Nothing against chemicals, but they weren’t working for my dogs.

[Horsegal984]

[QUOTE=Calamber;7739743]
True, and pancreatic to boot, but she was only six and it was less than a year after her one and only dose. I just bathe for fleas, we had a problem recently, fortunately not in my yard but an infected barn which took three baths and of course bedding washes. I just don’t like using these internal poisons, especially for fleas and thankfully have been able to stay away from them for all of my dogs.[/QUOTE]

It was also less than a year after her last meal, last bath, last treat, last everything.

I’m sorry, but Sentinel has been on the market for years and years. You cannot actually believe that a year after ONE dose it caused cancer?! That’s the equivilant of “a year ago I gave my horse ONE dose of bute and now he’s colicing! It must be from the bute.” Not logical thinking. (BTW, we’re discussing tick borne illness, which has nothing to do with Sentinel anyway. NexGaurd is a totally different product.)

I’m getting very tired of hearing how other people shouldn’t use a medication that works for them/their pets because some other being MAY have possibly had some idiosyncratic reaction.

[betsyk]

Back to the OP’s original question: we’ve had anaplasma around here and several horses I’ve known have had it. They’re pretty miserable when the fever is high but the antibiotics do really help. Nurse her through these few days and I bet she’ll feel better. Don’t you wish you could park her on the couch in front of an old movie and feed her tea and Popsicles like a kid?

[scierra]

Years ago my heart dog, a Rottie, had this. Unfortunately after 19 months of treatments I lost her to an autoimmune disorder brought on by all the meds she had to take. Katie was fine one day and the next had no feeling from her neck down and back. She could walk, but had very little control over what her body was doing. She did get feeling back, but never completely recovered, for the rest of her life she had an odd gait. It was a long hard battle, lots of Doxy and Prednisone. A couple months before I lost her she was diagnosed with poly arthritis. Then her immune system shut down. :-(. I hope your girl gets better. I hate ticks!

[Freebird]

Thanks betsyk! And goodness, I was not trying to start a big debate on flea and heartworm meds. To each his own as far as that goes. My point for even bringing it up, is that I was surprised that she god a tick disease even though she is on monthly meds and bathed regularly, and my OCD son does a tick check on her every single night.

Thankfully she h not had any issues with the preventive meds, other then still having a few fleas, which is why got the oral med this time (she isn’t due for a few weeks, so no idea if it works)

She seems much better today, though she still sleeps most of the time, she seems to be in less pain.

[Calamber]

[QUOTE=Horsegal984;7739920]
It was also less than a year after her last meal, last bath, last treat, last everything.

I’m sorry, but Sentinel has been on the market for years and years. You cannot actually believe that a year after ONE dose it caused cancer?! That’s the equivilant of “a year ago I gave my horse ONE dose of bute and now he’s colicing! It must be from the bute.” Not logical thinking. (BTW, we’re discussing tick borne illness, which has nothing to do with Sentinel anyway. NexGaurd is a totally different product.)

I’m getting very tired of hearing how other people shouldn’t use a medication that works for them/their pets because some other being MAY have possibly had some idiosyncratic reaction.[/QUOTE]

Poisons do not cause “idiosyncratic” reactions but they do kill and heartworm preventative is known to cause immune system damage.

http://vitalanimal.com/heartworms/

[RiderWriter]

My 11-year-old Springer is on her second round of treatment (Doxy) for Erlichiosis. As with the first time she had it, which was about four years ago, she was completely asymptomatic. I had no idea until it showed up on her routine heart worm test. It feels awfully strange to be giving her meds when nothing appears to be wrong, but I know the disease can cause a lot of trouble so of course we’re treating.

I am aware of her having exactly one tick this year… it wound up exploded on the kitchen floor. I have yet to figure out quite how this happened; we came home to blotches of blood in several places (like an inch across, not just drops) a still-alive squirming tick and a dog with no visible bloody bite area on her. It was all very weird. I equipped her with one of the new-fangled, very expensive ($40) tick and flea collars after this incident. We still had fleas, so now she has drops AND the collar. Sigh.