I used GoodRX for Stelgatro. It saved $75.00, if I remember correctly.
We vaccinate for Lyme! Twice a year. Where I boarded was a wicked hot spot for Lyme in Maine, and we had at least one case a year prior to starting to use the vaccine. The last horses that had it came in from another area and hadn’t been vaccinated, and they could have had it before arriving at our barn.
I treated one of my horses before we were vaccinating. It was a 10 day stay at the vets for IV Oxy-tet. followed by a month of doxy. This was before they started using the mino. My new guy is getting his first Lyme vaccine tomorrow. 
*edited for a spelling error
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I vaccinate my mare for Lyme. I am a bit more proactive and vaccinate every three months since I live in a higher risk area for Lyme, and my mare loves woody, wet areas. I have pulled up to a dozen ticks off of her at once. The vaccine is pretty expensive, but I get it through academic vet colleagues so I get it cheap. I am fortunate that I know people who help me out.
I actually had Lyme and it was not fun. Thankfully, my doctor caught it early through bloodwork and the classic “bullseye,” so she treated it for six weeks with doxy. I felt really, really rough. I thought it was just my autoimmune stuff, but when my neck became very stiff and achy, I went in. Bloodwork came back positive for Lyme.
I’m glad you figured out what was going on with your boy. Lyme is hard to diagnose and sometimes even harder to treat. It is even harder on horses than us humans. I hope that he makes a speedy recovery.
ETA: I should clarify that I am always out in the woods or grass, and I often pull up to thirty ticks off me. It’s a shock I didn’t test positive for Lyme before.
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I see my rheumatologist in July and am going to ask for the chronic Lyme test for me. I had the acute test done a couple years back shortly after I plucked a couple ticks off me, but I have had a lot of exposure over the years. And my neck has been a mess again recently.
I stopped by the clinic yesterday to discuss, our vet was out on a call but her tech is going to call the minocylcine in to the pharmacy today. She said it may be a couple days before they can get the full supply of caps for the first month of treatment. I should have more details from the vet today.
For those of you that have treated, did you change anything during treatment? IE, am I ok to continue on at the work level we are at? Light riding/driving a couple days a week plus lots of groundwork. I had a couple shows that I was tentatively planning on taking him for showmanship and in hand trail, but if that would be too much stress, they can wait until another time.
Any additional support? He’s already on a gut supplement (Tractguard), pre/probiotics (Vermont Blend Pro), omega 3/flax, colostrum, and a total of 6500 IU of Vitamin E. I also just clipped most of him to help the heat stress with some hot days coming out of left field.
Sounds like you’re doing all the right things. My gelding had a forced 10 days off as he was at the vet’s for the IV, but when he came home and was on doxy, I worked him as I normally had been.
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I do find it’s hard on their belly and generally treat for ulcers either concurrent or on the tail end. Your tractguard might be enough, but just something to keep an eye on.
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Wait, is this a thing?? I have been having weird neck issues for a few months. I had a negative Lyme test but I had not considered that chronic Lyme would be a different test (of course I expect details for my horses but accept just “negative” for myself 
)
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Full disclosure, I have diagnosed disc Degeneration Disease in my cervical spine so that’s a known thing that I actively manage with a physical therapist. It’s attributed to my autoimmune conditions, but its been ongoing, chronic pain now for about 3 years.
That said, in later stages/chronic cases, while Lyme arthritis typically affects large joints like the knees, some people develop neck pain and muscle stiffness due to widespread inflammation. The test I had was in 2021, Lyme AB Early Disease test, and that was designed to detect any initial immune response to the infection (early IgM and IgG antibodies) and doesn’t differentiate between early and late stage. But boy, it wasn’t long after that my neck started going haywire. I used to be able to crack both sides, then one side, now I cant do either. My last couple PT sessions were more painful than ever before so it makes me wonder.
Digging around, it looks like chronic Lyme disease is a clinical diagnosis made by a doctor based on symptoms, exposure history, and sometimes additional tests (like Western blot or PCR in certain cases).
The same test antibody test is often used for both early and late Lyme disease, but interpretation differs based on when symptoms started. So…clear as mud!
I was pretty feral my whole life, granted ticks were not as prevalent when I was younger, but its something I am exposed to so I’m just curious at this point if its a factor in all my autoimmune crap. Never once have any of my doctors brought it up other than my PCP when I went in after the tick.
I was recently diagnosed with late-stage Lyme and am currently on my second month of Doxy. It presented in Nov '24 as on/off pain behind the knee, which I wrote off as tendinitis or another overuse injury. I finally went to the doctor at the end of Feb, x-ray was clear, referred to PT, etc. It would resolve for a few weeks and then flare again; finally progressed to swelling/pain in the whole joint that did not go away. I ended up in the ER one afternoon in early April because the discomfort was too much; ER doc still thought it was a ligament, but planted the seed that it could potentially be Lyme. I put the timeline and other pieces together and convinced myself it was Lyme - a couple days later a positive Lyme A/B test and then a positive Western Blot test confirmed the diagnosis.
Based on my timeline and symptoms, I’ve had it for probably 3.5-4 years. In July '21 I went to the doc for a suspected bullseye rash. They told me it was fungal and sent me on my way. 3.5 years later I developed debilitating Lyme arthritis and only time will tell if I’ll ever be completely symptom free. Bottom line is that doctors, even in endemic areas, are TOTALLY behind the science in diagnosing and treating Lyme. I am lucky that I had a very positive test and my doctor is open to a longer course of antibiotics. She initially prescribed 3 weeks of Doxy. Standard treatment for Lyme arthritis is 30 days, then a second 30 days if symptoms persist, and then IV abx if warranted. I am back to being fully functional, but my knee is still stiff and cranky. I expect this to be a very, very long road and will be seeing a Lyme specialist if I need additional treatment.
If you have weird aches and pains, malaise, fatigue, etc. it’s worth exploring Lyme as a cause. I easily attributed all of my symptoms to aging and lifestyle. Some people are hit very hard with the initial infection and it gets diagnosed and treated very quickly, others become a boiled frog. I was a boiled frog.
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This hits home. I have a doctor appointment coming up to discuss ongoing pain in elbows and knees that PT is not really touching. My two planned topics to discuss were an ortho consult and HRT, but I’ll add Lyme to the list.
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Thank you for sharing, I hope that you are get to get some additional relief and halt what would be any future progression.
Boy isn’t this the truth and a half.
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So, my neck pain was similar to meningitis, and I was running a high fever, e.g. my temp was almost 102. By meningitis, the ER doctor wanted to check me for meningitis, but I had my baseline range of motion. I had very, very swollen lymph nodes. I have normal neck issues due to my ankylosing spondylitis, but I had the classic bullseye, and when my temp spiked, I went in. My bloodwork came back positive for Lyme.
I think if you have chronic neck issues, I would say my neck pain was very severe. I have a very high tolerance for pain (I didn’t take meds after my hysterectomy and I was up and running around-- literally running-- the next day), and this made me very sick.
ETA: I’ve known two people with Lyme that made them essentially permanently disabled. I can share their experiences. They had to get IV antibiotics.
Also, Lyme was similar to having a very bad case of the flu.
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I have a friend who presents with extreme fatigue and flu-like symptoms, so she’s able to catch and treat new infections early. I also know multiple people who, like me, felt ‘fine’ until one or more of their major joints got painful/swollen/non-functional. It’s a fascinating disease/organism if you can look at it objectively, which is hard to do when you and your animals are suffering.
I caught a new infection in one of my mares last year. At the last show of the year she just didn’t seem like herself. She was low-energy and generally blah, which I could have chalked up to any number of things. She wasn’t lame, but she had also been doing this weird thing behind that felt stifle-y. It was imperceptible to people on the ground, but I felt it undersaddle. My gut told me to test her for Lyme and it came back as positive for a recent infection. Two of my others also tested positive for chronic Lyme. Everyone got treated over the fall/winter and retested this spring when two more of my horses lit up positive. Ugh. Thankfully the others’ levels had dropped more than 50%. This is not to mention the dog we almost lost to anaplasmosis a couple years ago. Needless to say, my husband and I are in a very hot war with ticks right now.
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About the showing. When mine had Lyme the vet said it was ok to show as long as they were feeling good. Your vet might think differently though. I did show toward the end of treatment, it was 2-3 in hand classes that was it. Low key show, short trailer ride. Pony was fine.
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One reason for this may be that certain minerals…specifically calcium, magnesium and iron can bind to the tetracyclines and decrease their absorption. So unless the oral is dosed on an empty stomach which is hard to do with horses, it may not be getting absorbed as completely as it otherwise would be. I guess if I was having to give it, I might go for the longer treatment regimen.
Still waiting for our meds to get called in…I’m going to lose my mind. Spoke with the vet Tuesday about the treatment plan (mino for 3 months), she said they would call it in Wednesday, called the pharmacy this morning, and nothing. I sent the clinic another email…hopefully they will get it in today. If I don’t hear anything back by 3 or so, Im going to call them. AGAIN. I hate being that client, but this is definitely inconsistent with the other vet practices Im used to. I’m thankful the Equioxx seems to be holding him pretty steady, but good grief.
I know it’s not urgent urgent…but I’d really like to get this show on the road!
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Meds are called in and they should have the full load tomorrow!!
Can you share a little more about how you supported the rounds of antibiotics?
We’re already on Vermont Blend Pro and TractGuard, which both include probiotics. He gets 2 cups of beet pulp AM/PM which should give him some hindgut prebiotic support. The TractGuard has butyric acid and zinc oxide which are supposed to support the gut barrier and reduce inflammation so I think weve got a solid foundation to start. With that said, I’d like to try and avoid as much in the way of gut issues from the meds as possible.
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I just treat with nexium. But def wouldn’t want to do that for 90 days. Hopefully your other belly supps will cover you, but just keep an eye out for ulcery looking stuff.
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We put them all on Succeed, and the ones that have had serious ulcer issues in the past also get Ulcerguard.
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Thanks! @Simkie
I was just looking at Succeed! I’ve never had him scoped, but to date, we have no known ulcer issues or signs and he is super low key/easy going which should be in our favor.
I think Ill just bite the bullet on the Succeed. It looks like it will add some additional support that the other two supps don’t. I should be able to pick it up today and at least get a couple feedings of that in his system before we start the mino.
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