Lyme Disease - did your dog respond to treatment immediately?

Question

Have you had a dog with lyme disease that didn't respond to antibiotics? Please tell me about your experience with your dog and their treatment of Lyme. What were the symptoms? What meds did the vet give? Did first meds work? What ever information you can share is most appreciated.

Dog was on doxycycline, didn't respond. Went on clavamox, also non responsive.

They did do inhouse testing for Lyme which was positive.

Answer 1

Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi, which is passed to dogs through a bite from the deer tick. The tick must remain attached to the dog’s skin for one to two days before the bacteria can be transmitted.

Lyme disease can be a multi-systemic illness, with signs that may include fever, swollen lymph nodes, lameness, loss of appetite, heart disease, inflamed joints, and kidney disease. Disorders of the nervous system, while uncommon, may occur as well.

more info
http://www.vetvax.com/lymediseasedogs.html

http://www.thepetcenter.com/gen/lyme.html
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Fortunately, over ninety percent of dogs treated within the first week of obvious signs of Lyme Disease will respond rapidly to treatment with a tetracycline antibiotic. This medicine is administered for at least three weeks. In my experience, five percent of dogs will have some type of relapse of signs such as cardiac or neurological difficulties even after treatment . Some of these patients will experience chronic, lifelong joint pain from the damage caused by the bacteria and its direct and indirect stress to joint tissues. The earlier the antibiotic is started in the course of the disease, the better the patient's chances of a complete recovery.
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Did your vet run a test to confirm that is it lyme, and did he check for other forms of tick disease such as Ehrlichia and babesia?

Another treatment other than the doxy(which is a semi-synthetic tetracycline) is tetracycline

Some vets do not prescribe the correct dosage as it is twice the dose as when the drug is used for treating infections

THe following is the treatment for Ehrlichia, Lyme is usually treated for 2 to 3 weeks
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Doxycycline*** (a semisynthetic tetracycline) at 10 mg/kg of dog's weight (2.2 pounds = 1 kg), twice per day given 12 hours apart for 6 weeks or longer. Sometimes more than one course of therapy is necessary. Doxycycline should not be given with food (milk or yogurt) or supplements containing calcium iron or magnesium (like antacids) because these agents will interfere slightly with the absorption of the antibiotic. (Allow at least two hours pre or post doxycycline administration.) Do not give Doxycycline on an empty stomach--so administer the medicine with food or 30-60 minutes after the dog has eaten. Wrapping the pills in piece of bread often helps alleviate the upset stomach. Another thing some owners have found helpful--if you can do it with your work schedule--is to keep the dog somewhat active for a while after giving the doxycycline--if the dogs go and just sleep right after administering the doxycycline--the medicine sits in one spot in the stomach and seems to be more irritating to the stomach lining.
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http://www.mirage-samoyeds.com/tick.htm

Most of the greyhounds we test for tick diseases are non symptomatic at the time of testing and more commonly having babesia or Ehrlichia and even a combo that can include lyme We have their bloodworked tested in Arizona at the lab in the link below testing for Ehrlichia(2 strains), Babesia and Lyme, they use IFA test which is more acccurate than in house tests


http://www.adopt-a-greyhound.org/advice/hemotropic.html

Cynthia Holland from the above link the doctor at Protatek has been studing tick diseases for many years and has written several articles and has always beeen great about answering questions and offering advice on treatment, her contact info is here
http://www.protatek.com/contact.html


This article discusses an alternate med for lyme tha t is supposed to be particularly useful when there are neurological complications and also discusses diet for dogs with tick disease

http://www.vintagegoldens.com/tick.htm

Answer 2

Friends credit Tick -L with saving their Lyme affected dogs life....

http://www.minden.com/nowhereelse/sub_on.htm

Med of choice Doxycycline, you should see improvement in 24 hrs.
It may take a very scarily high dose...

Answer 3

2

Answer 4

1