Lyme disease – Page 2 – Second Chance AIHA Dogs

Keymaster

Jen,
I am glad that your other vet agreed that the higher dose is more important than the first vet did. Some vets stay on top of the current literature and apply it quickly to their clinic protocols. My own vets attended a conference a few years back and at one of the presentations about treatment, she told me that there were such variable opinions that it broke out into a “brawl” as vets argued about dosing protocols. She told me “it’s a no brainer, hit the tick disease hard, fast and long the first time out so there won’t be a relapse.”

The length of the high dose treatment is important for the long term “suffusion” of the body tissues as it can get to ALL the spirochetes hiding in the body. If you want to think of this as something like a fire you want to put out, imagine how you keep spraying water on it for a long time until all embers are completely burned out.

I am not sure if you have mentioned if either of them contacted Dr Holland at Protatek Labs? It’s important to monitor how “well” the doxy is working with testing. She could advise them of the steps they need to take to determine if the disease is diminishing.
http://www.protatek.com/reflab/contact.html

It is well known that in dogs the kidneys can lose a significant amount of function before symptoms are even noticed. I hope you will read this information written by Mary Straus at DogAware about kidney disease. Mary is a consummate researcher and I trust everything that she has on her website. Here is her webpage devoted to canine kidney disease.
http://dogaware.com/health/kidney.html

Specifically I am pointing you to her information about the new SDMA Idexx lab test, please read this information carefully so that you understand it. I suggest that you encourage your vet to use THIS test.
http://dogaware.com/health/kidney.html#sdma

And note that Mary has a specific section under SDMA, devoted especially to proteinuria, that explains this topic. Please read all of this carefully.
“If your dog has protein in the urine (proteinuria), that calls for additional diagnostics.”

Also read this section carefully;
http://dogaware.com/health/kidney.html#protein

I’ve not seen any of your lab tests so I am blind about what your vet is seeing. However I know that spilling protein into the urine is not normal and should be carefully examined.

There are other reasons, for instance a dog with a UTI (an infection that is causing the problem) or an older dog that has a heart condition (may spill some protein into the urine as the heart fails to pump enough blood to the kidneys.)

Chance developed some degree of uremia when he had heart failure. He began to spill protein into his urine and the goal was to adjust his meds so that his heart would function better and get more blood to the kidneys. So his problem was not related to kidney disease.

So follow me carefully, there can be uremia due to “pre-renal” causes (heart disease), renal causes (damage to the structures of the kidneys), and post-renal causes such as infection or structural damage to the kidneys or bladder or associated ducts. For instance scar tissue or neoplasia.

So it important to follow up on what is really wrong.

Out of all the conditions that Lyme can cause, I am always most concerned about kidney symptoms (protein in the urine) and neurological symptoms (such as facial paralysis). This means that the spirochetes have managed to invade areas that are more sensitive. The earliest signs tend to be general musculoskeletal such as pain in a limb, areas that are easily reached by the spirochetes.

So the kidneys have delicate filtering structures that perform all the work. What Mary is trying to explain is that nearly 75% of them can be damaged before there may be signs of kidney disease.

Lyme nephritis is one condition that can cause this kind of damage. Once these structures are damaged, they cannot be recovered. However the long term use of doxy can protect the kidneys from further damage. Many many dogs live a long time with carefully managed kidney disease. And there are several groups on the internet that have true experts in helping owners care for their kidney dogs. I have read all the information, but I am not an expert. Diet is incredibly important, especially when it comes to managing protein intake (there are many misconceptions about this). Mary covers this in detail on her website.

Please read this information and have a chat with your vet about it. They will appreciate that you have taken the effort to educate yourself and will be willing partners in providing Maggie the best care.

One last thing. My vet is an incredibly smart and compassionate person. When we were discussing Chance’s problems, she told me that the kidneys are so incredibly smart that in comparison her own knowledge about them is extremely tiny. She indicated the tiniest tip of her pinkie what she knows. Your vet will probably agree that they are very complex organs.

Let me know what you find out asap.
my best
patrice

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