Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 11:18:11 -0500 (EST)
From: carole henry
Subject: Tick Borne Disease
TBD is a problem in North Carolina as in other states.
I had Rock Mountain Spotted Fever for years as did my dogs with out knowing it. No fever, no rashes, no bulls eyes. Just joint pain.
Around ten years ago, I started having joint pain. It was called old age, old joints. In the am, I had to shuffle until my joints ‘warmed up’, Lived with this for years. When I talked about it to others living in this same area, they laughed and said they had the same thing and that is what happens when you get old.
I also had a dog, who about four times a month use to yelp when getting up from a down position. This dog had never been sick or had rashes, fevers or bullseye. She had been taken to several vets and nothing wrong could be found with her.
One Friday night, I ran a fever of 105 degrees. I took myself down to Siler City emergency on Sat morning. There was a Doctor who was from Mass who saw me. He looked me over and stated tho I did not have rashes or bulls eyes, that he felt I had RMSF and that if it was, I would be fine before the test results came back. I had no insurance and so a test was not run. Was put on Doxy which is the antibiotic of choice for TBDs.
The next morning,not only was I feeling fine, All joint pain was gone. I had not mentioned the joint pain to the Dr. because I had it for years. I realized then that my dog may be suffering from the same thing tho she too never had the symptoms. I took her to the vet and a tick panel was run. She came back positive for RMSF. All my dogs were treated with Doxy
and all were stepping lighter after the treatment.
When friends dogs are acting ‘down’ and not preforming well in jumping or have off and on lameness problems, I tell them to get their vets to run the tick panels. Every time the dog has come back positive for a tick born disease.
Last fall, one of my dogs came up lame in the rear after coming down from the A frame in agility. Took her to the vets and they could not find the reason for her lameness. I asked for a tick panel to be run.
This dog came back positive for:
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Lyme
Elichia (spelling?)
Three TBD!
She never showed any symptoms other then the lameness. She was treated with Doxy and is now fine.
So if you are having joint pains or your dog is limping off and on or just not wanting to move like before, I would strongly reccomend having a complete tick panel run. If you or the dogs have it, the longer it comtinues the more damage to joints it can do as well as other organs.
Carole