Lyme disease help!

T

tessiesmommy

Forums Novice
Hello sheltie lovers I need your help!!

My girl Tessie who is 14 months old tested positive for Lyme but is showing no symptoms. This was at her routine checkup. Our vet told us that they won't vaccinate her or treat her. We are very confused and concerned about this. From doing research I have found Lyme disease puts Shelties at risk for renal issues. Have any of you had this come up? If so, what did your vet do? We love our vet but don't like that they won't do any preventative measures. Please help?

Thanks!

Ashley and Tessie
 
tessiesmommy said:
Hello sheltie lovers I need your help!!

My girl Tessie who is 14 months old tested positive for Lyme but is showing no symptoms. This was at her routine checkup. Our vet told us that they won't vaccinate her or treat her. We are very confused and concerned about this. From doing research I have found Lyme disease puts Shelties at risk for renal issues. Have any of you had this come up? If so, what did your vet do? We love our vet but don't like that they won't do any preventative measures. Please help?

Thanks!

Ashley and Tessie
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They probably won't do the vaccine because most of the time it doesn't work -- I've read countless stories of dogs who have lyme, but had the vaccine. I've also read, and would follow the same path, if they don't have symptoms, not to treat it. I'm leery of the test and have read it shows false positives quite a bit. I'm sure if you'd like to put the pup on medicine as a precaution, it won't be hard to find one to give you the medicine. Just remember if you do, use milk thistle as the medicine can cause issues, too.

Someone else will chime in with experience, though, as lots of pets are testing positive to Lyme these days.

Sending positive vibes to you as I'm sure you're a nervous wreck at the thought of your pup possibly having this.
 
marymrumfelt said:
They probably won't do the vaccine because most of the time it doesn't work -- I've read countless stories of dogs who have lyme, but had the vaccine. I've also read, and would follow the same path, if they don't have symptoms, not to treat it. I'm leery of the test and have read it shows false positives quite a bit. I'm sure if you'd like to put the pup on medicine as a precaution, it won't be hard to find one to give you the medicine. Just remember if you do, use milk thistle as the medicine can cause issues, too.

Someone else will chime in with experience, though, as lots of pets are testing positive to Lyme these days.

Sending positive vibes to you as I'm sure you're a nervous wreck at the thought of your pup possibly having this.
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Thanks for the good vibes :] I'm indeed a nervous wreck! Tessie is my fur child and I can't stand the thought of her being sick!*

I'd honestly prefer not to medicate her since she has a sensitive belly and is a whimp of sorts lol. Last summer she ate something that didn't agree with her and ended up in the doggie hospital and they called her the worlds whimpiest dog. I'm torn though because I wouldn't want to be the blame if she does become sick.*

I assumed she'd test positive, we live in MA where it's tick central and the mild winter didn't help. She gets her monthly tick ointment but I've plucked many a tick off her in the past 11 months we've had her.*

I'll keep a close eye on her and keep researching.

Ashley and Tessie
 
First, stop and breathe. It's ok.

There are two schools of thought here. First is to treat anything that pops positive on a snap test. I see that as giving abx for a cold. Not necessarily useful, but makes you feel good.

The other school of thought is to take the information, stow it away and wait for symptoms before treating.

I have two formerly Lyme positive dogs. One was symptomatic before we figured it out. We treated, and 60 days later he titered "clinically insignificant." Last year his snap test was negative. He never relapsed.

My other Lyme positive dog popped positive on a snap test, but had no symptoms. We opted to wait for symptoms before treating. No symptoms ever appeared, and she tested negative last year. Yeah immune system! This means it's doing its job.

So if you are nervous, here would be my course of action. Ask your vet for a C6 Lyme titer. This will tell you exactly how much Lyme is circulating, and it will give you a good baseline to make decisions from. The titer is about $100 and has to be sent out.
 
ClantyreSheltie said:
First, stop and breathe. It's ok.

There are two schools of thought here. First is to treat anything that pops positive on a snap test. I see that as giving abx for a cold. Not necessarily useful, but makes you feel good.

The other school of thought is to take the information, stow it away and wait for symptoms before treating.

I have two formerly Lyme positive dogs. One was symptomatic before we figured it out. We treated, and 60 days later he titered "clinically insignificant." Last year his snap test was negative. He never relapsed.

My other Lyme positive dog popped positive on a snap test, but had no symptoms. We opted to wait for symptoms before treating. No symptoms ever appeared, and she tested negative last year. Yeah immune system! This means it's doing its job.

So if you are nervous, here would be my course of action. Ask your vet for a C6 Lyme titer. This will tell you exactly how much Lyme is circulating, and it will give you a good baseline to make decisions from. The titer is about $100 and has to be sent out.
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I was going to recommend the Quant C6 test if you are worried. I forget the level off the top of my head. I think it is 30. Below that it is do nothing and monitor, above that treat. I also like to get a Urine protein/crea ration to make sure there isn't proteinuria. I treat if there is proteinuria.

Frankly these are the tests I would recommend but I am not a wait and see kind of person.
 
Sandstorm tested Lyme positive with no symptoms and we treated it with doxycycline. I never thought it a big deal to treat with this med at all, although if she tested positive again soon, I would hesitate.
 
Hi--

I have a rescue Lapphund who has chronic ehrlichia (another tick-borne disease) and I've spent a good deal of time reading about TBD as a result.

A lot of dogs test positive for Lyme but show no symptoms; it's possible that the disease will affect the dog, but also possible that it will not. Since we can't be sure, the best idea, vets are now saying, is to treat the Lyme-positive dog with high-dose doxycycline for 30 days. I can find a link to the info on recommended dosage if you would like.

This is a pretty informative link about Lyme Disease in dogs:
http://www.2ndchance.info/lyme.htm

Personally, I would jump on this and treat it. Untreated tick disease can become chronic and then the problems really start. :( My Lapphund was severely neglected before he was rescued and I adopted him, so his TBD *is* chronic and we have to monitor his blood platelets pretty frequently. If he has a flare, we put him back on Doxy and I have supplements that help his immune system also. It would be a lot easier if his TBD had been treated when it first showed up.

Good luck!
 
I know I'm a little late to the party here, but I usually leave these sorts of discussion to Dr. Shelli, as operating in the academic world she is more in tune with the cutting edge.

However on this subject I would draw the attention of those interested to a very interesting article in last December's 'Clinician's Brief', the official publication of the NAVC. Your veterinarian may have a copy you can borrow, or maybe you can ask around.

The article in question is a debate on the 'A Matter of opinion' dept., labeled 'Should We Treat Asymptomatic Nonproteinuric, Lyme-Seropositive Dogs With Antibiotics?
The debate is between two high powered specialists- Dr. Littman, a board certified Internal Medicine specialist from the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Goldstein, a board certified Internal Medicine specialist form Cornell and the AMC in New York. it is written in a very user friendly style which the readers of Sheltie Nation should find very understandable if they have followed the Lyme discussion here at all.

Put simply, Dr. Littman's answer is 'No.' Dr. Goldstein's answer is 'It depends.' Note that neither expert's answer is 'Yes.'

It goes on to discuss the quantitative test, (Dr. Littman- ' However, there is minimal evidence that the magnitude of the quantitative C6 titers will predict illness or that treatment options should be based on these titers.' )(Whoa!), the dangers of Lyme nephropathy (kidney failure), and the concerns of unnecessary antibiotic use.

Dr. Goldstein's, (the It Depends guy), opinion of what he calls 'Path 2 - Do not treat any asymptomatic pets' is - ' The evidence -based approach suggests that beneficial treatment of asymptomatic pets has not been documented. This is an approach with solid scientific grounds and one that is clearly valid.'

As you can see, these decisions are challenging for the super-stars, let alone for well meaning but rather confused GPs and concerned clients. - Dr. Mac
 
tessiesmommy said:
Hello sheltie lovers I need your help!!

My girl Tessie who is 14 months old tested positive for Lyme but is showing no symptoms. This was at her routine checkup. Our vet told us that they won't vaccinate her or treat her. We are very confused and concerned about this. From doing research I have found Lyme disease puts Shelties at risk for renal issues. Have any of you had this come up? If so, what did your vet do? We love our vet but don't like that they won't do any preventative measures. Please help?

Thanks!

Ashley and Tessie
Click to expand...

Hi Ashley,
My Bentley tested positive for Lyme about a 1.5 years ago during a routine Heartworm/yearly exam. We adopted him from NVSR and they don't test for Lyme. Our vet immediately followed up with a more detailed test to find out his numbers, which turned out to be very high (304). She was shocked because he didn't have ANY symptoms. She immediately started Bentley on a four week course of antibiotics, waited a short period after he finished his meds and repeated the test. His numbers had come down to about 150, so at my request she retested yet again about 6-8 months later. His final number was 50, which she seemed quite pleased with. Because he's had Lyme they won't vaccinate him, but with all I've read the vaccine is only about 60% effective and is not totally free of side effects, so I don't get them the Lyme shot.

I find that when it comes to vets you'll benefit by researching the disease yourself and asking a lot of questions. Good luck!!
 
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