Australian Cattle Dog keeps getting sick

Hi:
I am new here and hope I am doing this right. I am really worried about my dog. Chevy is a 10 month old rescued dog who looks like an Australian Cattle Dog.
I have had Chevy to the vets 3 times since I have had him for the last 3 months and I think he is getting sick again.
Everytime I go to the vets the dog is running a low grade fever and is acting like he is over a hundred years old. Doesn't move, does not want to eat when he gets up he trembles all over.
The vet says he is picking up some kind of infection but no ideas as to what. He keeps putting him on antibiotics and within 3 days Chevy is back to normal. Now 15 days after his last set of antibiotics and he is getting sick again. My question is does anyone know what may be causing this.
We have checked for worms, parasites etc. I do not allow him to associate with other dogs as I originaly thought he picked this up in the dog park. He is fed a diet of dry Pedigree puppy food and we do not feed him table scraps.
The only other thing he does is he chews every stick he can get his hands on. Any ideas?
Thank you for all suggestions.
Sue

It sounds a lot like the symptoms of Lyme's, anaplasmosis, and ehrlichia. Granted, our ticks are bad this year and I'm sort of paranoid and hyper about them (4 of our 6 dogs and my husband have contracted anaplasmosis within the past year), but the symptoms are so similar. (Actually, your dog's symptoms match hubby's perfectly :o)

These diseases can be hard to treat--one of our dogs was on antibiotics for 12 weeks and may need more. If you don't treat it for long enough, it comes back...

I know there aren't a whole lot of ticks in Canada, yet, but there seem to be a few. You might want to have your vet send a blood sample out for testing.

I agree, this sounds a lot like a possible tick-borne disease. Lyme is the most common where I am, and it is treated by a long course (usually a month, sometimes more) of certain antibiotics. My vet does 4-D tests, which test for heartworm, Lyme, erlichiosis, and anaplasmosis. Ask your vet if they can do the same.

Also Pedigree is considered to be a very low-quality food because of the ingredients. There are many foods out there of much higher quality. You can check out the food forum on this board for some suggestions of good foods.

Is that the Idexx snap test, Sable? Our vet uses that, too, but because ticks aren't as prevalent in Canada, I'm not sure how available the Idexx 4DX test is there. It sure gives quick results, though, so if your vet has it available, marsboss, that would be the way to go.

I believe it is a snap test. We use the 3DX and FIV/Felv snap tests at the shelter because they are quick and relatively inexpensive. My vet recently switched from 3DX to 4DX (the 4th being anaplasmosis, even though they have only seen one case of ana, and that was in a dog brought up from the southern states).

I believe it is a snap test. We use the 3DX and FIV/Felv snap tests at the shelter because they are quick and relatively inexpensive. My vet recently switched from 3DX to 4DX (the 4th being anaplasmosis, even though they have only seen one case of ana, and that was in a dog brought up from the southern states).

Sigh, we've had 5 cases of anaplasmosis right in this household alone in the past few months... Seems like it's an up-and-coming disease... :frustrated:

I don't have 1st hand experience on this but here is a similar story my friend once told me. A golden has a lingering low grade fever and has been to a few vets. Finally one vet discovered he has a piece of small bone lodged way back in his throat. None of other vets had look into it. They all relied on X-ray pictures of the abdomen etc. and found nothing. It may worth a look on your next trip to the vet.