IS this AIHA or a tick disease?

Kristina,
It is possible for tick diseases to become chronic and worsen over time as they spread throughout the body. Any responsible vet clinic should anticipate and test for tick diseases in any dog presenting like this. I don’t know why some vets fail to do this. The test is simple, SNAP4DX+. It requires a tiny blood sample, is spun and put into a machine in the vets clinic. It takes 8 min and immediately returns a yes or no for 4 tick diseases and heartworm. If there is a positive, for tick diseases the treatment is Doxycycline. If heart worm, there is a different treatment. There is one other tick disease called Babesiosis that she may have been exposed to. This is not on this test. Blood must be examined under a microscope to see it. This tick disease is mostly fought by the spleen and thus it can be quite enlarged. The treatment is less straight forward. Both of these tests are relatively inexpensive and would provide one more element to either rule out these causes or treat these diseases.

I want to briefly talk about the spleen. Bella is an older Beagle and it is quite possible that along with the enlarged spleen there may be growths, either benign or malignant, growing in the spleen. These growths can bleed a little, heal for a while and then bleed again. This would cause a cycle of fine PCV to a drop in the PCV.

Have another conversation with your vet. While I am cognizant of some benefits of holistic treatments, this is not one of those occasions where I myself would rely on. If you can’t get cooperation find another vet and get a second opinion.

I will respond with more later. My best Patrice

Hi Kristina, welcome to the site. I’m sorry you’ve come looking though, because I know that means you’re worried. We can all relate to that feeling.

I would have the snap test done first of all, bearing in mind Bella had the tick. It’s probably one of the most inexpensive test you could do and it would answer yes or no to tick disease and as Patrice says, the treatment is Doxycycline.

Atopica can certainly have the effects you mentioned of stomach upsets and diarrhea.

A couple of questions. Is she on anything to protect her tummy against the prednisone as it can cause ulcers – it did with my boy, Bingo. Are you giving the pred with food? What does Bella weigh? What antibiotic was being used and what dose? Sorry the more information the better.

Is she hungry? What are you feeding at the moment. Keep it very bland, and maybe do small meals. Cooked chicken (no bones) and mushy rice is good.

Patrice is very clever with blood results, so she’ll respond about that.

My very best.
Vally (my angel Bingo) and Saba

Kristina, I’m sorry to hear about the vets. It’s funny, I’m in Australia, which is supposedly lyme disease free, but because when Bingo was diagnosed, he was showing all the signs of the disease, and so he was treated for it. In fact, I don’t think we have the test available here. Well we didn’t in 2011.

So is the only drugs Bella is on now prednisone and doxycycline. She should definitely still be on the pepcid at least, which should be given away from other medications, or it may block them. That could be contributing to her not wanting to eat right now. The prednisone is very harsh on the stomach.

I’m also worried that the dose of the doxycycline is not enough. I work out it should be 135mg twice a day for 8 weeks. Patrice is the expert on this though. If the disease isn’t completely removed, it stays in the body and can cause more problems later, so it needs to be a strong course of the doxy. I know you don’t want to hear that as it is, again, very rough on the stomach.

Regards, Vally