Lymes

D

Deweybagger

New member
This weekend we picked piles of deer ticks off my lab as they walked on his coat, he's got his lymes shot and on frontline.
He's energetic, athletic and ready to go all the time......

BUT, my wife took him to the vet Thursday for a checkup and she told the vet about the ticks. So they did a blood draw and sure as $hit he's got lymes...

My wife asks how's this possible, vet said different strains of bacteria....she said he could have been fighting it off on his own, $90.00 test to find out how long he's had it.
So now we have 4 weeks of antibiotics and hope he never shows signs of this BS
If we caught it early enough.

What good are ticks?? I'm going to slowly kill every one I find :mad:
 
shots

I have read many times that the shots are suspect to begin with, as much as good for business as protection. they pretty much stopped them for humans cause they didn't work. basically there are two kinds of ticks, one can be treated with antibiotics and the other can't. dog ticks can't be, lymes can be treated and if caught soon enough in humans, quite easily and cheaply. I would like to see some science that says the topicals have any effect on keeping ticks off dogs or anything else. I know for a fact that deet in any concentration has no effect on ticks what so ever

cheers
 
Deer ticks are nasty little ba$tard$. Period. I hate the damned things. I pulled two off my dog in the last week, little suckers, dug in hard. With the swelling around the area, I had a hard time getting a grip on them.

What's disturbing to me is that we're picking up the deer ticks in an area we have never encountered them before. Two dogs ago I had a hunting spot in which we repeatedly cleaned up on grouse and woodcock. Took the next pup in there a couple years later and it looked like someone took a container of coarse pepper and dumped it on him. We don't hunt there anymore.

I used to use Bio-Spot. The ticks did not stay on the dog and I thought it was effective, even though it's not waterproof. The Vets all push Frontline and I find ticks imbedded. It's like with dog food... why does every Vet push Science Diet, when we know it's not the best food out there?

Having spent $2,000 the last few months at the Vet, with him not having any answers other than "we can do more testing", etc., I'm not too fond of them right now. I think too many of them don't have a clue and are too willing to take in more and more of your hard earned cash.

Good luck on treating the Lymes. Sounds like you caught it early enough that it shouldn't be a problem getting through it.
 
nasty little bastards

in as much as deer tick infections are bacterial vs. viral, they can be easily treated. deer ticks are moving about the country pretty quickly, the buddy the red legged tick sometimes called the texas red leg is also on move. the brown tick as I stated earlier can not be treated, they are also all over the place, should learn the diff. tetracycline used to be the go to choice and it is cheap but you need a prescription, should be easy to get. that med. mostly has now be replaced by doxycycline, also cheap. you can read up on this stuff on the internet. only about 20% of these bugs carry the bacterium so the odds are in your favor. when I was confronted with them, I gave them a small dose of the med. right up front, assuming they had it. if given early, it is easy to stop, cheap and effective, vets, while sometimes necessary are often oversold just like your family doctor is.

cheers
 
mustistuff said:
in as much as deer tick infections are bacterial vs. viral, they can be easily treated. deer ticks are moving about the country pretty quickly, the buddy the red legged tick sometimes called the texas red leg is also on move. the brown tick as I stated earlier can not be treated, they are also all over the place, should learn the diff. tetracycline used to be the go to choice and it is cheap but you need a prescription, should be easy to get. that med. mostly has now be replaced by doxycycline, also cheap. you can read up on this stuff on the internet. only about 20% of these bugs carry the bacterium so the odds are in your favor. when I was confronted with them, I gave them a small dose of the med. right up front, assuming they had it. if given early, it is easy to stop, cheap and effective, vets, while sometimes necessary are often oversold just like your family doctor is.

cheers
Click to expand...

Where are you getting Doxi cheap? Since it became the treatment of choice for humans with anaplasmosis the price has gone through the roof! Lyme is expensive to treat now days. The last prescription I got was from Target pharmacy and it was around $200 for 21 days if I remember right
Steve
 
med stuff

maybe things have changed since I needed the stuff, even then I likely got it from my fishing buddy the vet. tetracycline is just about the same stuff and will kill it, also if you pull up the class of these pills, there are 5 or 6 of them that will work, the low tech stuff your kid gets for sore throat like amoxiclyin (sp) will also do the job and at about 25 cents a pill I think.

cheers
 
mustistuff said:
maybe things have changed since I needed the stuff, even then I likely got it from my fishing buddy the vet. tetracycline is just about the same stuff and will kill it, also if you pull up the class of these pills, there are 5 or 6 of them that will work, the low tech stuff your kid gets for sore throat like amoxiclyin (sp) will also do the job and at about 25 cents a pill I think.

cheers
Click to expand...

Ok?? I do not agree.
I hope your buddy is a better fisherman than vet (just kidding).
Please don't trivialize Lymes, it's a bitch.... Some of us have lost dogs to it. I wish there were 5-6 easy antibiotics that cured it. If you don't live in deer tick country it probably is easy to underestimate the risk Trust me it is real, I can show you the vet bills. Or the bill for 2 days at North memorial (me not the dogs), I have pretty good insurance though

Steve
 
serious

I am not making lite of the problem, in my life of hunting I am not much around the stuff very often. in my conversations with the vet and also a md. I hunted with, the theory goes that when confronted with a possible infection whatever it may be, a dose of antibiotics up front before the bacteria get a hold, is easy to stop or even keep it from getting started. this is also true say should your mutt get in a fight with a skunk, coon or whatever, a 1000 to 1500 mlg. up front is likely to stop the problem in its tracks, if that doesn't work, then to the vet i go, you could look it up but I suppose that injectable penicillin would also work and that is cheap, just has to be kept cold, you can buy it over the counter small bottles of the stuff, ya might check it out or might approach your vet and ask this type of stuff explaining how to use it in emergencies while on the road etc. he should understand, if not find another one,

cheers
 
mustistuff said:
I am not making lite of the problem, in my life of hunting I am not much around the stuff very often. in my conversations with the vet and also a md. I hunted with, the theory goes that when confronted with a possible infection whatever it may be, a dose of antibiotics up front before the bacteria get a hold, is easy to stop or even keep it from getting started. this is also true say should your mutt get in a fight with a skunk, coon or whatever, a 1000 to 1500 mlg. up front is likely to stop the problem in its tracks, if that doesn't work, then to the vet i go, you could look it up but I suppose that injectable penicillin would also work and that is cheap, just has to be kept cold, you can buy it over the counter small bottles of the stuff, ya might check it out or might approach your vet and ask this type of stuff explaining how to use it in emergencies while on the road etc. he should understand, if not find another one,

cheers
Click to expand...
Your intentions may not be to make lite of Lymes but you are certainly naive. In many parts of the nation you risk exposure every time you hunt or train. I think administering antibiotics 3-4 times a week is ridiculous. Plus what effect may that have in the long run? I always hear bacteria can become antibiotic resistant. Not to mention the digestive track issues, antibiotics kill the good stuff too.
I do not know anything about your qualifications in health care (other than you fish with a DVM). Maybe your dispensing of treatment advice over the Internet is a bit irresponsible.
Take this for what it's worth:
During peak tick months I apply frontline every 3 weeks. During the lighter months I stick with the monthly application. I get an annual Lyme shot, I question the value but it's worth the money(probably). I run an annual Lyme test (the new titer test) and I watch for symptoms like a hawk.
Steve
PS the vet by my cabin has a white board in the reception area with a tick mark (pun not intended) for every case of Lyme or anaplasmosis treated. In July it was somewhere around 70 cases.
 
where to hunt

I am really glad I hunt out west where the problem is minimal and my system seems to be working, when I hunted a great deal in Vermont, that was the case there also. when push comes to shove, frontline and that other stuff you can apply to the dog are slowly killing it also. surely you are ahead of me with your problem and I am thrilled that I don't have it, good luck keeping up with your situation and in that I am not being a smart ass either


cheers
 
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