Dog limping

[pambandit]

Hi there - i hope someone can help me! my vet sure isn't! On New Years my dog was diagnosed with a tick-born disease (he had lameness, etc.) so my vet gave him meds and he was back to normal. My dog is a black lab mix and he's 9. He has always been active and loves to walk. Well now he has been limping in one paw. I checked it and checked it.. nothing. So we went to the Vet twice,, spent alot of money doing blood tests, x-rays and they COULD NOT tell me why and what was causing him to limp. He is fine and healthy otherwise; i just hate that his foot hurts to the point of not wanting to walk and my vet couldn't help him.

I decided maybe it was a tick problem again.. so he's now on Rimadyl and the medications he took at New Year's for the tick problem.. I'm so frustrated... Can anyone shed some light on this??

thank you,, Pam in Connecticut

[rainbow]

Originally Posted by pambandit

I decided maybe it was a tick problem again.. so he's now on Rimadyl and the medications he took at New Year's for the tick problem.

I wouldn't put him back on those medications until he gets a proper diagnosis. I would take him to a different vet for a second opinion. Good luck and keep us posted.

[pambandit]

thank you rainbow... you're right.. i stopped the meds and i'm calling a vet tomorrow for that second opinion... the vet came recommended so I pray he can help.. thank you again,, Pam

[hazelrunpack]

Hi, Pambandit. I think I'd keep your boy on the meds while you're getting the second opinion. Tick-borne diseases are notoriously hard to treat, and sometimes notoriously hard to detect. We have one dog with chronic Lyme's and we have another who is currently on his third 4-week course of antibiotics for anaplasmosis. Although the one with Lyme's disease is currently not acute, she shows long-term effects of the disease. The dog with anaplasmosis just doesn't seem to be able to kick it, so we've switched antibiotics and we're trying again. Both diseases can have some pretty dire consequences if they become chronic, so if there's even a chance that your lab is having a recurrence, I'd keep him on the antibiotics at least until you've seen the second vet.

Good luck! Please keep us posted on what the second vet says.

[pambandit]

Thank you Hazelrunpack for the great information! I printed your bulletin and took it to the vet.

I love the new vet - boy if anyone out there is NOT happy with their vet - FIND A NEW ONE!

He wanted to examine my little guy on his own first then he looked at all his paperwork (and yours) and his x-rays; and the blood tests came back negative - which he said could happen but a dog could still have lyme. He put Bandit on Amoxicillin and I pray to God that it takes care of him. What is your dog on for an antibiotic? Sorry to hear also about your dog. Doesn't this just stink when your dog isn't himself? I hate it so bad. If this antibiotic isn't effective and perhaps it's not lyme the vet made mention of doing joint tests next - joint taps? have you ever heard of this? Are any of your dogs on joint supplements? Well thank you so much for replying and your help. Keep me posted on your dogs as well.. Pam & Bandit

PS: How does 6 dogs and yourself all fit in the bed??

[hazelrunpack]

I hope the amoxicillin works for Bandit. Did the vet check for Anaplasma? There's a snap test available for it from Idexx. The symptoms can be pretty similar to Lyme's. You're in a prime area for both diseases, I think.

Maybe Bandit is lucky and doesn't have either? (I always hope for a sprain when one of ours comes up limping... Doesn't usually end up being that simple, but I can hope, can't I? )

The dog that is still on antibiotic has Anaplasma phagocytophilum (it used to be classified as Ehrlichia equii). He started out on doxycycline (8 weeks), was moved to amoxicilin (which he didn't tolerate well so was only on for 10 days), and then was switched to Baytril. Baytril is not the drug of choice for anaplasmosis, but another vet at the clinic had good luck using it on one of his goldens with anaplasmosis and at the two week recheck on our dog, Cole, it seems to be working well for him, too. His WBC and platelets were back up into the normal range.

Doxycycline is the drug of choice for both Lyme's and anaplasmosis, but it doesn't always completely work.

I started a thread when we found out Cole had anaplasmosis...let's see if I can find it.... Yep, here it is:

http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=34891

We've never had joint taps done.

Four of our dogs are on glucosamine/chondroitin (2 capsules a day). It really seems to help. Since dogs aren't big on the placebo effect , the improvement we saw when we first started it convinced us it really does have benefit.

Beds at our house are always very crowded. Sometimes I need a shoe horn to wedge myself onto a sliver of bed and sometimes I can't claim any of the covers. Luckily, six dogs give off a prodigious amount of heat!