Tick Borne Diseases

[evolutionkennels]

My beliefs being what they are, I think that the only thing you take with you when you die is the effect you have on others. You can be a negative force or a positive force . I choose the positive side, as the negative hurts yourself more than the people you harbor ill will against. This article is to help the fellow American Pit Bull Terrier fancier. Please read it, it may save your dogs life. In my experience, the most important thing to do if your dogs life is on the line is to take the animal to the vet at the first sign of sluggishness, orange urine, or white gums. Imozol is a great drug to prevent your dog from dying. Doxycycline is a life saver as well. What I have found is that most dogs that get bitten by a tick and have one of these diseases have a co-infection of one or two other ones as well. The most deadly I have found is the Babesia Gibsoni. It can kill your dog within 5 days of the onset of the symptoms. There are vets who never see these diseases in their whole careers. You take your dogs in, they draw blood, and say lets wait a few days for the results to come in before we can give you a treatment. By the time the results come in, your dog will be dead. Then they'll say, I guess you were right. That however , wont bring back your dog. If the HCT (Hematocrit) of the dog is less than 15 in the bloodwork, do a blood transfusion immediately. An Imozol shot at that point can buy you time. Also, be FIRM with your vet, they have old manuals from when they graduated medical school that aren't up to date. Have them EARN their money and research what the latest treatments are at THAT TIME. I've sat there and argued with a veterinarian on treatment protocol, to later have them apologize and say, "you were right." A veterinarian, like any other doctor is only as good as how up to date he/she is with current illnesses and current treatments. What I recommend any responsible owner do is do a full tick-borne panel to cover :





Babesia Gibsoni

Babesia Canis

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (Rickettsia Rickettsii)

Anaplasmosis (Anaplama phagocytophilum)

Bartonella ( Haemobartonella canis) now called (Candidatus Mycoplasma Haematoparvum)

Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi)

Ehrlichia



The reason you should do a full tick panel is because it is of the utmost importance to know exactly what diseases your dog has, in order to treat them effectively. Treating a dog blindly can have your dog undergoing long treatments for no good reason. Because most dogs have a co-infection, using the wrong antibiotic first will make the other diseases resistant. (See below referenced links)



Doxycycline is the starting antibiotic for most of these diseases. It on its own will kill off most of the diseases on the above list. There are a few of them that although it will weaken, will not cure. Bartonella and Babesia are the real tough ones. The treatments that I recommend are as follows:





Babesia Gibsoni :

Atovaquone (Mepron) 13.5 mg/kg PO TID (with a fatty meal) and azithromycin 10 mg/kg PO Q24 in combination for 10 days.



Babesia Canis

Imozol 1.25 cc /55 pounds

Repeat in 14 days



Bartonella Haemocanis Henselae

Doxycycline (5 mg/kg) and enrofloxacin

(5 mg/kg) Q 12 H for 6 weeks. Start Enrofloxacin 7 days after doxycycline for total 35 days only . (see #9 on 3rd article cited below)





Elrichia :

Doxycycline (5 mg/kg) 28 days

with 2 Imozol shots at 14 day intervals



Now, lets say that you have a dog with a Bartonella and Babesia co-infection. Then you would want to treat the Bartonella first before the Gibsoni.


The same applies for Elrichia and Gibsoni. Again, treating the diseases in the wrong order can make it impossible to cure the other one later on. DO FULL PCR TICK BORNE PANEL, KNOW THE ORDER OF TREATMENTS, and be absolutely timely with the administration of the drugs. it's vital to the efficacy of the drugs.

If you don't want to ever have these issues, use Bravectil, it lasts 12 weeks, and you won't have a flea or tick on you. Like the old proverb, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.


As many people will read this article, I am not a veterinarian, This is based on my experience. Use these treatment protocols at your own risk, and do your own research. I hope it helps







Albert Ramirez (Machobuck.com)








1.Elrichia Treatment Trials: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1....tb02226.x/pdf

2.Bartonella article: http://www.galaxydx.com/web/pdfs/Can...tonellosis.pdf

3.Bartonella Treatment : https://cvm.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uplo...tonellosis.pdf

[skip11]

Thanks a lot for this Evo! Great article. Appreciate the studies links too.

[evolutionkennels]

Thanks a lot for this Evo! Great article. Appreciate the studies links too.

. For dogs that are reasonably stable (for example Bartonella polyarthritis) try starting oneantibiotic (for example doxycycline at 5 mg/kg every 12 hours) and then add the secondantibiotic 5-7 days later. The reason to not start both antibiotics simultaneously is associated witha Jarisch Herxheimer-like reaction, which is a common occurrence in cats and dogs during theinitial treatment for this infection. The reaction (lethargy, fever, potentially vomiting) tends tooccur 4-7 days after starting antibiotics (but is even more delayed in some animals) and is aresult of bacterial injury/death and cytokine release, presumably after achieving high intracellularantibiotic concentrations. Because the patient’s condition can be worse than before startingantibiotics, the clinician often suspects an adverse drug reaction and either stops or switchesantibiotics. This reaction (lethargy, fever, vomiting) generally lasts only a couple of days. Givinganti-inflammatory steroids for a few days may help dogs through this period. Unless clinicaldeterioration continues to progress, it is best to continue the antibiotics that were initially started.The fact that the antibiotics induced a reaction is most likely a reflection of adequate intracellularand intravascular drug concentrations resulting in bacterial death.

very interesting

[evolutionkennels]

A Jarisch–Herxheimer reaction (English: /ˌjɑːrɪʃ ˈhɛərkshaɪmər/) is a reaction to endotoxin-like products released by the death of harmful microorganisms within the body during antibiotic treatment. Efficacious antimicrobial therapy results in lysis (destruction) of bacterial cell membranes, and in the consequent release into the bloodstream of bacterial toxins, resulting in a systemic inflammatory response.
Jarisch–Herxheimer reactions are usually not life-threatening.

The Jarisch–Herxheimer reaction is classically associated with penicillin treatment of syphilis. Duration in syphilis is normally only a few hours. The reaction is also seen in other diseases caused by spirochetes, such as borreliosis (Lyme disease and tick-borne relapsing fever) and leptospirosis, and in Q fever.[1] Similar reactions have also been reported to occur in bartonellosis (including cat scratch disease),[2][3] brucellosis,[4] typhoid fever,[5] trichinosis,[6] and cerebral trypanosomiasis.[7]

[evolutionkennels]

Also , look up Q fever. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_fever

[Rainman]

Thanks for sharing!

[S_B]

Evo great contribution and experience shared. I will challenge you to study further on newer treatment for Babesia Gibsoni. Studies are showing anti malaria drugs are not having as good of results as intermittently treating with anthlamentics (Ivomec) which also helps with Herx.

Humans who've shown to be co-infected with lyme/babs are being treated on a regular cycle of Ivomec paired with combination abx.

I find myself very passionate about this disease, I put a very promising young dog down about 15 years ago that tested positive for B. Gibsoni as the general consensus was "no cure" at that time. Then had another young prospect the following year also come up positive who's initial treatment was Imizol + Doxy. He relapsed and after a strong effort to save him he was too put down. I've not let the parasite take another victim.

Like CA Jack, I believe it is just a parasite we must all learn to effectively treat and control. We must adapt and deal with all diseases that effect us and the dogs, as those diseases will continue to do the same.

Thanks for sharing,
S_B

[EWO]

Good post.

My vet retired a number of years ago. He had a sign in his office that said, "Medical conditions and their treatments change faster than Medical Practitioners".

It is a hard sell sometimes to convince a vet that you may be a little more up on things than them.

Fila Brasieiros, although quite heavy, require a minimal amount of anesthesia when undergoing a procedure. My vet listened, inquired and investigated. His response was pretty much if you had not been that forceful/direct odds are I would have killed your dog.

Good post with some seriously important information. Big time information for all.,

EWO

[S_B]

Hey EWO, it's cool you mentioned that with the Fila. An old timer I've become quite fond of sent me to his vet after I went through 3 in short order....lmao He didn't have a whole helluva a lot of faith in her, but he said she was pretty good, just didn't listen to him. Well he's a bit out dated bless his over sized heart. I really respected the hell out of that young woman vet after I left there that day. She was able to determine what 3 before her failed to do, they also failed to listen to me. I'm pretty steadfast in my beliefs, but I'm not a dumb ass, prove me wrong and I'll humbly kiss your ass.

Anyhow during her vet school ventures they used Greyhounds for all of their blood donors. Reason being they can have normal RBC's in the 60 + range. Well above the average of what a text book will say is normal. At her practice she used her Mastiff who's normal range is 35. That's right 35 is HER normal. A Bulldog would be sick there often times. So while text books are a good measuring stick, they can be WRONG! Point being although their blood volume is high (size) their hct/rbc are often times lower than that of a more active/fit smaller dog. Hence why less anesthesia is needed.

S_B

[BSK]

A-1 READ.