Blondie, our 10-month-old Cocker Spaniel was diagnosed with ehrlichia canis back in September. It was caused by a tick bite, said the vet.
Blondie's our first dog. When we didn't have one, I heard stories of dogs being bit by ticks and getting sick, and heard it was very bad, but I never had any idea how bad it was.
Now the vet has explained me, that this kind of tick is very resistant to any kind of medication there is, and it's a special kind of tick that transmits it, mixture of ticks brought from vietnam after the war by the american army's dogs, and our native ticks. Those kind of ticks started coming down the continent and now this kind of resistant erhlichia is only present in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. (We won the "lottery", huh) So, according to the vet, that's why there's no medication for it, because who would research to find a cure for an illness that's only a problem in 3 Third-World countries?
It was kind of shoking because both of the vets I asked got very serious, looked at me, very sad and said "Your dog has ehrlichia". Knowing as little about it as I do, it meant nothing for me. Now I've come to understand it's like a kind of cancer, that it's never going to leave my dog, he'll never be healed, it's going to be in his blood all his life. Since there's no cure for it, we can only try to control the symptoms by giving him antibiotics, such as imizol and doxycycline... (I'm not sure I spelled those right).
His hemogram showed ++++ erhlichia in September. Thursday he had another one made, and he had ++. He doesn't have anemia anymore but is shedding a lot, so he's taking vitamins again. I was wondering, and I know it's hard about ehrlichia because most of you people are in the states, but I'd like to know if there's someone around who has had the same problem with ticks or any other illness that won't go away. We were even thinking about starting a foundation here in Costa Rica, or an online club, or anything, to reunite people who have dogs with erhlichia and do something. Any comments will be very appreciated.
Blondie's our first dog. When we didn't have one, I heard stories of dogs being bit by ticks and getting sick, and heard it was very bad, but I never had any idea how bad it was.
Now the vet has explained me, that this kind of tick is very resistant to any kind of medication there is, and it's a special kind of tick that transmits it, mixture of ticks brought from vietnam after the war by the american army's dogs, and our native ticks. Those kind of ticks started coming down the continent and now this kind of resistant erhlichia is only present in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. (We won the "lottery", huh) So, according to the vet, that's why there's no medication for it, because who would research to find a cure for an illness that's only a problem in 3 Third-World countries?
It was kind of shoking because both of the vets I asked got very serious, looked at me, very sad and said "Your dog has ehrlichia". Knowing as little about it as I do, it meant nothing for me. Now I've come to understand it's like a kind of cancer, that it's never going to leave my dog, he'll never be healed, it's going to be in his blood all his life. Since there's no cure for it, we can only try to control the symptoms by giving him antibiotics, such as imizol and doxycycline... (I'm not sure I spelled those right).
His hemogram showed ++++ erhlichia in September. Thursday he had another one made, and he had ++. He doesn't have anemia anymore but is shedding a lot, so he's taking vitamins again. I was wondering, and I know it's hard about ehrlichia because most of you people are in the states, but I'd like to know if there's someone around who has had the same problem with ticks or any other illness that won't go away. We were even thinking about starting a foundation here in Costa Rica, or an online club, or anything, to reunite people who have dogs with erhlichia and do something. Any comments will be very appreciated.
