Ticks are Infecting Dogs

[charlie elk]

Unfortunately my turkey dog Vic is down with a severe bacterial infection, the vet assures us he'll be back afield within 4 to 5 days with his clindamycin treatments. In spite of all the tick treatments and inspections he has another case of anaplasmosis so right after he completes climdamycin he'll be on doxycycline for 60 days.
According to vets I've spoken to in West Central Wisconsin they are finding a sudden rash of tick infections. Lymes in those dogs not vaccinated and all the tick diseases which have no vaccine.
Hunting dogs should be examined at season's end by a knowledgeable vet.
Hunters by their doctors.

[Gopherlongbeards]

Sorry to hear that Charlie, hope Vic is feeling better soon. Seems strange to me that they are seeing all these cases suddenly, I haven't seen a single tick all fall.

[putt]

Thanks for the warning Charlie. Sure hope that Vic recovers quick & strong.

What were Vic's symptoms?

I just pulled an imbedded dead swollen tick off my dog today, in spite of my regular inspections & her regular Frontline applications.

[eggshell]

Our dog (ginger) had lyme disease late summer. We didn't catch it early and we almost lost her to kidney failure. She has been pretty much her old self around the house, but I took her behind the house to chase some squirrels and see if she could find our pet turkey flock and she had a hard go of it. I think her woods days are over. her joints are stiff and she gases out fast. Do as Charlie suggest and keep an eye on your canine pals. We first noticed her being tender in the joints then she got a fever and quit eating.

[Steve_In]

Charlie and Dana how do you check out? Seems to reason if the dogs are infected the owners can't be far behind. My biggest fear is that I will carry a tick home and have it infect one of my family.

[charlie elk]

What were Vic's symptoms?

The symptoms for the infection started out with over all tiredness not quite himself. At first I put this off as being caused by a little over hunting, on Monday and Tuesday we were up north grouse hunting with treerooster and his dog Pine. Put 4 dedicated hunters together and you would expect to end up with 4 very tired hunters. But in Vic's case he was slow to recover so I inspected him, detecting nothing let him rest and he seemed ready to go so we opened the pheasant season on Saturday. He performed very well putting up some roosters. After limiting out Saturday (1 rooster is the limit) we went out Sunday and after the initial out of the truck euphoria Vic didn't seem totally normal but still pretty good. We got our Sunday rooster within 20 minutes so off to re-gear for some turkey hunting but suddenly Vic looked terribly tired and soon began drooling (a very bad sign).
The vet instructed me to examine his mouth for injury or foreign objects, I found a couple of thorns in between his rear molars and lips, removed these and made an appointment for him first thing Monday for tick disease screening.
The vet found inflamed lymph nodes in his jaw under the tongue and back at the joint. She determined this a bacterial infection perhaps from something piercing his mouth while hunting. He also tested positive for anaplasmosis a disease transmitted by the black legged tick. General tiredness and flu like symptoms are common with this one.

Seems to reason if the dogs are infected the owners can't be far behind.

You are correct, if the dog has it I usually have it too. I take a regimen of doxycycline every Dec and Jan because the common screening test for humans only detects Lyme and not always.

Seems strange to me that they are seeing all these cases suddenly, I haven't seen a single tick all fall.

There were fewer ticks this fall. However according to reports there were a couple of late tick hatches in Eastern MN and Western WI.

Our dog (ginger) had lyme disease late summer.

So sorry to hear that. It is hard to know what bothers our canine friends since they can't tell us how they are feeling, we have to guess a lot.
A few years ago we lost one of our huskies to Ehrlichiosis a tick disease that is not suppose to be this far north. The vet misdiagnosed (he had not heard of it in WI) and treated with the wrong antibiotic; then it was too late.

[putt]

Thanks for the details, Charlie.

I don't know if I mentioned it on this forum, but my retriever Annie developed Lyme this past July. It came on very suddenly ... one night at 3am she woke us with a few sharp barks, & we found that she couldn't get up. Her hind legs weren't working. After the vet ruled out bone or joint problems via x-ray, he gave her a blood test that came back as Lyme. He gave her chewable Rimadyl for immediate relief from the pain & inflammation, & 22 days of antibiotics for the Lyme. She's recovered well, for a 9-year old dog.

The reason I'm writing this is to say that the blood test was relatively cheap & covered quite a bit. $39 at my vet. It's called the "4DX Snap Test. It's a standard test for heartworm given every year or two, but it also includes tests for 3 tick-borne diseases ... Lyme, ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis. You might want to make it a regular test if it isn't already.
Here's the 4DX website: http://www.idexx.com/view/xhtml/en_us/s ... SSOTOKEN=0

If anyone ever finds a tick repellant for dogs that actually works for a month (& isn't full of permethrin). I'd like to hear about it.