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Lymes disease


TMAC

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My two year old yellow lab was diagonosed with Lymes disease last night after work. He was vomiting on Saturday night and didnt each much on Sunday, he did walk with me Sunday night and crashed pretty hard that night. By Monday night he could hardley get off the floor, walked with a limp and needed to be carried into the truck to go to the vet.

 

At this time I dont know much about what to expect other than there is treatment for it, but the long term effects are a bit of a mystery to me. I hope to find out more tonight, but if anyone has had past experience I would greatly appreciate your input.

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Thanks for the info Tucker. I did do some research last night and found some of the same written documents. Good news is the vet said he is doing alright and passed the kidney and liver function tests, and he is upright eating/drinking/peeing/pooping and all of that within 24 hours of recieving antibiotics and fluids.

 

I will pick him up tonight and medicate him for the next 28 days.

 

For anyone interested I will try to put together my findings once he fully recovered.

 

Regards,

 

TMAC

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  • 5 weeks later...

At this time my lab Tread is fully recovered, he looks and acts like his normal self but the vet wants to keep him on meds for a few more weeks. The vet told me the Lymes virus will always be with him and he will not become resistant to Lymes like we would to Chicken Pox, and in times of extreme stress the disease could act up again. No other long term effects seem visible at this time.

 

I am now a little paranoid about ticks, and keep him well protected with Front Line and a spray on touch up after water activities. Two weeks ago he came home with 10 ticks on him, I almost flipped - only common wood ticks but after you spend all that money and see your pet so sick you get a little jumpy.

 

The tick season ran well into fall in WI last year, so take care of your hunting partners.

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At this time my lab Tread is fully recovered, he looks and acts like his normal self but the vet wants to keep him on meds for a few more weeks. The vet told me the Lymes virus will always be with him and he will not become resistant to Lymes like we would to Chicken Pox, and in times of extreme stress the disease could act up again. No other long term effects seem visible at this time.

 

I am now a little paranoid about ticks, and keep him well protected with Front Line and a spray on touch up after water activities. Two weeks ago he came home with 10 ticks on him, I almost flipped - only common wood ticks but after you spend all that money and see your pet so sick you get a little jumpy.

 

The tick season ran well into fall in WI last year, so take care of your hunting partners.

 

Thanks for the update. Glad all is well with your buddy.

 

Mike

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Sorry to hear about your pup. Glad he's doing better.

 

As far as the ticks go, do you have him on Frontline or Advantix? Advantix works as a preventative where Frontline does not. Frontline does do a good job of killing ticks not long after attachment. The tick must bite for Frontline to work. But, a tick has be attached for a certain peroid of time before it transmits the organism that causes Lymes Disease.

 

With Frontline, they say that a few days after application the animal can have baths and be in the water with need for re-application.

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I used Frontline on him all last spring and summer and cut it out in the fall, but it seemed the tick season here ran much longer that in previous years. I use Fronline now as preventative measures and also with spray on tick/flea product for added affect.

 

Problem is we do a lot of water training all spring and summer long, and I mean every week several days a week so it seems the Frontline is wearing off rather fast and I wonder how often to reapply it. They say it last 3 or 4 weeks but I hardly believe it as often he gets wet. I will check again with the vet and see what they say.

 

Do you use both Frontline and Advantix or just one or the other?

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We only use Frontline. We take our dogs out swimming and to the lake but not near the frequency you do. So re-application might be necessary. We doth bathe them weekly. My wife said that while Frontline is a good product it seems that its effectiveness seems to dwindle after that third week. She also said that water and baths usually don't effect it when its been allowed to be absorbed into the oil glands and dispersed throughout the dogs coat. At least 24 hours after application and make sure their coat is dry and clean when you apply it.

 

I was wrong about ticks having to bite for it to work. If they come into contact with the drug it should kill them. But, most of the ticks we take off our animals are dead.

 

Highly infested areas can be a problem too. Re-application might be considered at that point as well.

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