Jim,

If it is Lyme or another TBD that responds to doxy or amoxi, I know for lyme diease with doxy the dosage (agressive dosage that you should try to strive for with the vet) is 10mg per lb so you are looking at 500mg twice a day. Usually the vets give 4 weeks of doxy but some research has been done that says 8 weeks or longer may be needed. You want to hit lyme hard the first time around to get the levels down quickly so the bacteria does not relapse. A C6 Quantiative Assay blood test (available through Idexx Labs only) should be done if he is lyme positive to get a baseline to see in 6 months how successful treatment is (you want to cut the lyme level down by at least 50%). I only know really about lyme disease but I have heard through a message board about other tbd's and the complications from those diseases. If may also be helpful to run a full cbc blood panel to check white blood cell levels or to check kidney functions.Try subscribing to the board at:

http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-PLUTO.exe?A0=TICK-L

Tom Beckett DVM (very knowledgeable on tbd's) or Gil Ash may be able to help directly as they answer some of the messages or any one of their helpful members who have been through the mess of trying to get their dog diagnosed properly. They can also tell you the correct labs to send samples to, but you will have to get a vet that has their accounts or will be willing to send samples to those labs. Some of the tests if not done properly can cause false readings and not give you the answers your looking for.

If it is lyme within a couple days of a high dose of doxy your dog should be less symptomatic and running around again. Remember Walmart (at least in my area you may want to call them first) has antibiotics for $4 a script without insurance purchasing them through the vet will be more expensive.

Kimberly

Kimberly and Claire,

Do you think it is possible that the degeneration seen in the discs may have flared from acute overexertion and then the Pred allowed TBD to gain hold. Is it likely that the TBD, if verified by blood work, could be complicating the recovery from the 'back/rear leg issues?

He has a strong appetite and is alert.

Claire,

How did you discover that something was wrong with your dog? Also a GSD or another breed? I live in the city but spend alot of time in the country and the mountains of the mid-atlantic region.


Thanks,

Jim

Jim,

In reference to homeopathic meds for lyme I have heard of them but don't remember what it was. The Tick-List should have some posts on it, but I think the best way is to go with antibiotics for lyme. Doxy is the recommended choice but some use amoxi because the dog cannot tolerate doxy (stomach issues), but this can usually be relieved with probiotics given a few hours after/before the antibiotics.

I have 2 dogs that were positive for lyme one was treated the other was not because her antibody level run from the C6 Assay test was too low for recommended treatment (she was 24 they recommend treating at 30 and above at her level it will most likely not drop with treatment) I believe 10 is the level that will result in a positive Snap-4dx test I can't remember the units for the test levels.

Kimberly

The degeneration in the discs could be arthritis from lyme. Lyme bacteria lives in the joints and tissues. Even dogs asymptomatic with lyme on necropsy will have the bacteria pretty much everywhere. Let's not forget the dog could have a co-infection with lyme and another tbd. This site gives lots of info on tbd's and testing labs:

http://blackgsd.googlepages.com/

Also, I live in Philadelphia (not much country here) but tbd's positive dogs are more common now everywhere in endemic areas.

Kimberly

Again,

I can't thank you enough. This was not something on the radar in any of the discussions with the vets. I am going to contact my vet tomorrow and at least ask that we eliminate TBD as a possible root cause.

Jim

Just a bit more advice, print out information from the internet to bring with you. The black gsd site I gave you is a good reference. Also Idexx's website has information on treatment protocols if the dog tests positive on the Snap. They also have how to read positive results on the Snap 3DX or 4DX (both are available for vets to buy but are read differently b/c the 4DX includes anaplasmosis so it can be read incorrectly). Make sure you see the test when they are reading it, but just because a test is negative does not rule it out completely because many of these types of tests show positive once a certain antibody level is reached. No matter what the level each dog is individual as to when they will show symptoms if they do at all. This is usually why further testing is done or treatment is just started because of obvious symptoms like lameness.

http://www.idexx.com/animalhealth/testkits/3dx/
http://www.idexx.com/animalhealth/testkits/4dx/

This is a good research paper on treatment on nonclinical lyme positive dogs.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=2223868&blobtype=pdf

Your dog would be clinical if it is lyme but it is interesting to see the results on different treatments for lyme positive dogs with different lyme levels.

Another test that you might want to run is a protenuria on a urine sample to check the kidneys are functioning properly. Good luck and let us know what you find out.

Kimberly

My 5 yr old (at the time)GSD female which had never had any problems, started showing a little pain when she would be out running, at first we thought she had just bumped her self, it was so mild and then would go away, then it happened again,but with a fever, and couldn't hardly walk, so we took her to the vet, thinking she had really hurt herself, he did a blood test and that was what showed up.

I had another pyrenees that also had it, but he did not show symptons, it showed up on his yearly heartworm testing.

A friend of mine that has GSD has had 2 that has showed positive for this during the routine test.

Luckly with treatment they all did fine very quickly. But, it is something that we watch for. It seems to be very common.

Good luck with yours, I know how scary it is when something goes wrong, especially when you don't know the real cause. It sure does sound like what my dog experienced, so I would definately have the vet do a blood test.

 Quote: Jim-Davis

Again,

I can't thank you enough. This was not something on the radar in any of the discussions with the vets. I am going to contact my vet tomorrow and at least ask that we eliminate TBD as a possible root cause.

Jim

Hey Jim.

In the other thread that you started, you mentioned losing a GSD.

This one? I'd been following this thread, and was just curious.