DinoHagy wrote:I was hunting today my dog lost all energy and stoped hunting I looked at her gums an they were solid white what can I do for her she is bad sick.
PLEASE HELP ME
I would bet a million dollars to a penny that your dog has
babesia.
Babesia is a tick-borne parasite that is well-known in the greyhound and pit bull communities, but is still relatively unknown in other sporting dog circles. Most vets consider this disease to be "rare" in the United States, but the fact is
babesia is now in over 70% of the dogs in the southeastern US, but remains subclinical (unnoticeable) unless a dog gets run down.
Babesia directly attacks the red blood cells, gobbling them up like Pac Man. Typically, the body makes more blood cells than the parasite can affect ... but sometimes (especially when bitches come in heat and/or any other kind of stress) the disease begins to gobble-up red blood cells faster than what the body can manufacture. It is this status which begins to create the anemia, which can and will get to the point of death if intervention isn't accomplished. (Other signs of
babesia include fever, hence it's common name of "tick fever," and an orange cast to the urine and feces.)
Very often this disease is MISdiagnosed as "autoimmune hemolytic anemia," so if you ever get a vet report that says this about a dog, immediately run a specific test for babesia. In 20 years of breeding dogs, 100% of the diagnoses I have seen as "autoimmune hemolytic anemia" were in fact
babesia, misdiagnosed.
You will need special drugs to deal with
babesia. The preferred drug is Berenil (
Diminazene aceturate), but this is not available in America yet. In the US we have a drug called Imizol (
Imidocarb diproprianate) that handles
babesia. Other effective drugs are Antirobe (
Clindamycin) and Vibramycin (
Doxycycline).
What you need to do is go to a vet to get a RBC (red blood count) on your dog. Normal is 35-40. If your dog gets down to a 12 count, the anemia is life-threatening, and you will need to get her a transfusion. Rather than use donor blood, see if your vet has a product called Bio-Pure, which is synthetic blood. The advantage of using synthetic blood is that the
babesia cannot gobble it up, which bides you more time to get the required drugs. If your vet does not have Imizol onhand (and most don't) he can have it overnighted to him from the nearest veterinary university. (This is also where he should send the bloodwork, as they do specific DNA tests for babesia that your vet's "pet lab" will not be able to test for.)
Babesia is no joke. A person can and will spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars trying to figure out what it is ... if they don't know what to look for. If they know what they're doing, they can treat it with a $0.09 (nine cent) shot of Berenil. Here is a website to an South African company that will ship you Berenil for $24 (treats 250 dogs):
http://www.vetproductsonline.com
(Look under Dogs and then "antibiotics/antimicrobials" for the product Berenil)
PS: Those prices are in SouthAfrican Rand; the US price is like $20-$30
This is not a hoax and I am not a quack
Contact Dr. Adam Birkenheuer from the North Carolina State University School of Veterinary Medicine, who is our nation's leading researcher on
babesia ... and he will tell you it is the fastest-growing canine parasite/disease in the USA. In AL, GA, TN, and the Carolinas it is becoming as common as the basic roundworm. 70% of greyhounds have this problem now, and it is spilling into other breeds.
Anyway, enough of my infomercial (LOL), good luck with your dog, but any ghasly-white anemic dog should be checked for
babesia ASAP, especially if there is a concurrent fever and an orange cast to the urine/feces.
Jack
.