I almost didn't want to post this because in light of what K9Karen is going through right now with Cody as it seems trivial by comparison. I felt I just wanted to warn Pet Talkers, though, about the need for using tick blocking agents such as Frontline.
Yesterday morning around 7:00 a.m. I let Bella and Ripley outside and about 10 minutes later I looked out the window and noticed Bella limping. I assumed that she had twisted her leg in romping with Ripley and watched her carefully until I left for work about 2 hours later. By the time I was leaving the house she appeared OK. She had a grooming appointment at 9:00 and I was heading into work after I dropped her off. Since she appeared OK around 9:00 I kept the appointment and headed on to work.
In the evening she appeared fine, although during the night she jumped off my bed and would not come back on. I didn't realize it was because she couldn't come back on. This morning she was again limping as I was getting ready for work and was hesitant about using the stairs. When I came home I called the vet and got an appointment right away. He did a Lyme test because 200 animals in his practice in the course of a year have gotten Lymes. Well, it came back positive. He did admit that, since she got the Lyme vaccine about 2 weeks ago, there is a 2% chance that it is reading positive due to the vaccine. He did, however, give her a complete exam and feels that from her gait and the sudden onset of symptoms and the fact that it improved somewhat and then got worse all signs were pointing to Lymes.
She is now on antibiotics and we will check back in with him on Friday. If she is no better he will change her antibiotic and she will remain on antibiotics for a month. He said there is a small chance that there she may have injured her leg running yesterday morning but felt he had to err on the side of caution and treat her for Lymes.
For now he tells me there is a good chance we can totally nip this thing totally with the antibiotics. I am writing this note to let you all know of the very real threat of Lymes. I had seen the Frontline commercials numerous times but had never seen a small deer tick on my girl, although I had taken a couple of the larger ones off her last fall (our property backs up to the woods). I am having quite a bit of guilt over this but am hoping that she will be just fine. Please, if you live in a wooded area, get the vaccine or at least use Frontline. I wish I had. I'll keep you posted. She is my sweetie and I hate to see her suffering for something that I could have prevented.
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