Actually Frank is my “grand-dog”. His true owner is my daughter Paula. Paula and Frank like to work and play with horses. Paula as a veterinarian and Frank as an active observer. As such, he and ticks have a very close relationship. In fact, so close that he has been infested on several occasions. Frank taught me that November can be the worst month for tick attachment. I remember petting him on the couch after he visited the horse barn one bright and crisp November day. We pulled off about 30 ticks in that one sitting!
Frank has also taught me how rapidly dogs can respond to the antibiotic doxycycline. After one of his first Lyme disease infections, we found that he went from a very sad and painful dog to nearly normal in only 20 hours after his first dose of doxycycline. I have seen the same phenomenon may times with other dogs since.
Frank also taught me how Lyme and Anaplasma do not confer life long immunity in a dog. He has had had both diseases many times and he always responds to 1 month of morning and night doxycyline.
One such event was quite memorable. He once tested positive for Anaplasmosis but did not seem that sick to me (the veterinarian). I then tested his blood with a Complete Blood Count to try to confirm the diagnosis. All was well except that his platelets were just a little lower than expected. I declared, as the doctor in the family, that he was fine farmacie-romania.com! All the 4 ladies in the family said NO! and they insisted that we treat him. Again, he responded very quickly and soon felt better when placed on doxycycline. We have since seen this scenario in dogs and cats many times.
The summary of this story is that dogs present with many subtle signs of tick-borne disease and the decision to treat is often not an easy one. Please be sure that at a minimum, your dog is tested for tick-borne disease at least once a year.
