lyme disease

[bluemouse]

Just thought I would let yall know that I learned something new at the vets office yesterday, Had the hounds in for their yearly rabies shot and check up, about every other year I have them checked for heart worms with a blood test, they are on heartgaurd plus for prevention. back to the point, the blood test for the heart worms came back on one of my hounds with exposer to lyme disease. Thats when things started to come together about my hound, after being run hard he would seem to come up every other outing with stiffness and favoring one of his legs. last year after a hard three day hunt he got down the the rear for a day or so, I just thought that he just maybe blewup or in older words had the gears run out from under him. At the time he was down last year I checked him over with a fine tooth comb looking for a tick on his spine, because a tick on a dog spine can take a dog off his feet. Doc said there is no cure for lyme disease in dogs but antibiotics would help. Just thought I would share..

[beagle crazy]

Thanks for sharing bluemouse. Every time we take the dogs out runnin', we give them the once over and look for ticks, wounds and such when we get back home. And always treat anything that needs treated before putting them back in their kennels. Just part of beagling in my book.

[bluemouse]

beagle crazy, I do the same thing by checking all my hounds from their eyes to in between their toes. Another good thing to keep in the truck is a good first aid kit.

[beagle crazy]

I actually travel with two first aid kits--one for the humans and one for the beagles And, of course, every body has something to drink.

[joe kaschak]

Doxycycline is the treatment of choice for lyme (in humans as well as dogs). While your vet is correct that there is no cure for lyme, the doxycycline will go a long ways in putting it into "remission". Doxycycline also has a anti-inflammatory effect so it can help ease the inflamation in the joints. There is also a vacine for lyme that is very effective in preventing the lyme infection in the first place. The lyme vaccine should be given even if the dog has already been infected with lyme as each tick bite from a "carrier tick" can cause the dog to be re-infected with lyme. This is serious business. The spread of lyme is bad and more dogs (and humans) are being infected that ever before. Also, evan though it only happens in about one half percent of lyme cases, renal failure can occure. If that happens there is no hope. I urge all beaglers to get your dogs vaccinated and spread the word to all dog owners.

[bluemouse]

Joe can thsi product be bought over the counter or do you have to get it from the vet, thank you for the info.