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Post by wiscwhip on Feb 21, 2017 8:14:28 GMT -6
Found out my beagle has Lyme's disease yesterday. Started him on meds and he appears to be feeling a bit better already. Really put him down for the count after the first day or two before we realized he just wasn't sore from running him 4 days in a row during the nice weather. We took him on extended walks for 4 days straight last week and over the weekend, so we just thought he may have strained something or was just sore from the walks and then "visiting" with his pitbull buddy at the bonfire on Friday night. He couldn't even get up the stairs on Sunday evening and Monday morning I had to carry him down to do his business, at that point I called the vet as soon as they opened. He had all the classic symptoms, albeit they were not as severe as they could have been since he had been vaccinated for it. The vaccine is said to be only 75% to 80% effective, I guess he was in the 20% this time. Looks like he is on the road to recovery, pain meds for 5 days and antibiotics for 30 days. We will continue to get him vaccinated, because he may fall into the 80% next time he gets bit? Or is the vaccine a waste of money since he has had it once? Any thoughts Art?
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Post by kl9 on Feb 21, 2017 8:19:09 GMT -6
Do you go to TAMC?
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Post by smsmith on Feb 21, 2017 8:20:08 GMT -6
Do you give the pooch topical or oral meds for ticks?
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Post by wiscwhip on Feb 21, 2017 8:33:45 GMT -6
I don't know what that is? We take him to Hillside Veterinary Clinic.
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Post by kl9 on Feb 21, 2017 8:35:00 GMT -6
In between Walmart and Wendy's. Real good place, but I've also heard good things about Hillside.
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Post by wiscwhip on Feb 21, 2017 8:36:34 GMT -6
Do you give the pooch topical or oral meds for ticks? He gets Frontline and Heartguard each month from April 1st through December 1st. In hindsight, maybe he should just be on it year around?
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Post by Sandbur on Feb 21, 2017 8:40:23 GMT -6
Found out my beagle has Lyme's disease yesterday. Started him on meds and he appears to be feeling a bit better already. Really put him down for the count after the first day or two before we realized he just wasn't sore from running him 4 days in a row during the nice weather. We took him on extended walks for 4 days straight last week and over the weekend, so we just thought he may have strained something or was just sore from the walks and then "visiting" with his pitbull buddy at the bonfire on Friday night. He couldn't even get up the stairs on Sunday evening and Monday morning I had to carry him down to do his business, at that point I called the vet as soon as they opened. He had all the classic symptoms, albeit they were not as severe as they could have been since he had been vaccinated for it. The vaccine is said to be only 75% to 80% effective, I guess he was in the 20% this time. Looks like he is on the road to recovery, pain meds for 5 days and antibiotics for 30 days. We will continue to get him vaccinated, because he may fall into the 80% next time he gets bit? Or is the vaccine a waste of money since he has had it once? Any thoughts Art? I will try and get some opinions from our small animal vets. I spend 95% of my time on cows and just go by whatever they tell me about dogs. (Most of the time anyway)
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Post by smsmith on Feb 21, 2017 8:43:28 GMT -6
We were giving our Golden Frontline (same time frame as you), but my vet tech step daughter got us to start using NexGard instead.
The kiddo was dog sitting for us and had our pooch inside (she's normally an outside dog). I'd given her Frontline for a couple months, but she was still getting ticks. Kid gives her a NexGard and the ticks started dropping off in a couple hours. I believe she ended up having over a dozen ticks on her that I had never seen. Goldens have two layers of hair and it's thick on outside pooches.
At any rate, I'd check into an oral tick med instead of the topical. Maybe Art will chime in on this
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Post by wiscwhip on Feb 21, 2017 8:44:22 GMT -6
In between Walmart and Wendy's. Real good place, but I've also heard good things about Hillside. Oh, LOL. They are literally 5 blocks from my house, I just didn't put the acronym to the name, lol. But then again, Hillside is only 10 blocks from our house, so no real difference there. Our pooch loves his vet, he cried when we pulled in yesterday and hobbled straight for the door because I think he knows that she makes him feel better when he is sick. She fixed him up when he was a puppy when he dived into a slimy patch of algae and got really sick from some amoeba or something when he was only about 6 months old.
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Post by wiscwhip on Feb 21, 2017 8:51:46 GMT -6
We were giving our Golden Frontline (same time frame as you), but my vet tech step daughter got us to start using NexGard instead. The kiddo was dog sitting for us and had our pooch inside (she's normally an outside dog). I'd given her Frontline for a couple months, but she was still getting ticks. Kid gives her a NexGard and the ticks started dropping off in a couple hours. I believe she ended up having over a dozen ticks on her that I had never seen. Goldens have two layers of hair and it's thick on outside pooches. At any rate, I'd check into an oral tick med instead of the topical. Maybe Art will chime in on this Thanks Stu! I will ask our vet about this. I trust her opinion very much and I think she just typically recommends the Frontline as I think it is considerably cheaper than the NexGard. Just looked it up and the Frontline is $100 cheaper per year than the Nexgard, but it would be worth it if it would have kept him from getting bit by a Lyme's infested tick, his bill yesterday with meds was $140, so I would be $40 to the good on that deal.
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Post by chummer16 on Feb 21, 2017 9:19:09 GMT -6
We swithched to the oral tick medice after she had to embedded ticks on frontline. Last year she had no fleas or ticks. Picked up 3 at my parents in November and the next day they were dead in her fur. I will check on the name but it is one pill in the spring and it lasts all year.
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Post by wiscwhip on Feb 21, 2017 9:24:26 GMT -6
Thanks Chummer, I would be interested in hearing about this option as well.
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Post by Bwoods11 on Feb 21, 2017 9:29:10 GMT -6
My lab got Lymes from a one time grouse hunt up by Roosevelt Lake/Emily MN area. Supposed to be a bad area I guess?
Anyway, full recovery after treatment...good luck
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Post by wiscwhip on Feb 21, 2017 9:59:01 GMT -6
Thanks bwoods! I just got off the phone with the wife and she says he seems to be doing better after only the second dose of meds, so we are very hopeful. He is only going to be 7 years old in June, so it isn't like some of the stories you hear of 11 or 12 year old dogs who never really recover from it and suffer kidney failure and such, at least we are optimistic that it won't be....
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Post by Tooln on Feb 21, 2017 10:14:31 GMT -6
Dale, I hope your dog has a full recovery.
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