canine ehrlichiosis (looking for recovery-stories..)

My dog was diagnosed with this illness yestorday, and now I`m searching for people with some experience of this disease. I live in Finland where this disease is quite uncommon. Sami is now on doxycycline, and he`s stable, allthought a bit tired and fevery. The lab results should have came today, but I didn`t got them, because the bloodsample got frozen on the way to the laboratory (That made me really mad..)So this diagnosis is based on the symptoms (rash, mild fever, discharge from the eyes..) and the antobody-test.
My vetenerian wasn`t too hopeful with this case. I`m so sad for the dog, he`s only 2 years old. So please, if your dog (or any dog that you know of) have had this disease, please share your experiences with me. I hope to hear some full recovery-stories, but also I want to hear about the sad stories. I`m really worried about the dog,..

 

WHat is it exactly? Do you know the non science name for it.

 

there isn`t propably any other name for it as I know..It`s a tick borne disease, like the Lyme disease.

 

I do know of a couple of dogs that have contracted canine ehrlichiosis and after treatment they are now living healthy lives. The best advice I can give is to look it up on the internet (I saw quite a bit of information some from different veterinary schools in the US) and even print it and bring it to your vet since you said that it wasn't very common in Finland. This is what I do when I have questions for my vet. I hope this is helpful.

 

I`ve been surfing on the internet all these past days, and I propably know every scientific detail of this disease. But it is like the more I read, the more confused i get.
I also thought about that I should print some information of this disease to my vet, but I thought it would be somehow awkward, like I wouldn`t trust to her professional skills or something. The dog`s on medication now, and doing just fine, eating and drinking well,( just got up from sleep and started barking like mad).
I`m glad to hear that there are dogs that have recovered from e. canis. I`m just extremely worried, because sami is a rescue-dog, and I`m afraid that he has had this disease for a long time, allthought there has been no medical signs. I just wish that it hasn´t progressed too far, and he can be still treated.
These past days have been really hard for me. I stay up all night, can`t get any sleep, just thinking about the dog. He`s very dear to me, I can`t stand the idea of letting him go.

 

I havent seen much of it but I have plenty of time on my hands to check through some websites also.
I do remember a dog that we treated a few years ago for it though, (the dog came in when the local shelter were trying to neuter him and he almost bled to death).
Take him to the vet if see any of the following:
any cuts, make sure you put pressure on them before moving him,
nose bleeds or bleeding from anywhere else.
Check his gum/tongue colour (providing the pigment is not naturally balck) if he is very pale pink or white he's anemic the vet should be aware of this.
The doxycycline will be long term, we had this dog on for over 8 months and he had to have a lot of follow up tests done, eventually he did okay and the last I heard about a year ago he was fine.

 

I sent you some basic onfo to your PM box, hope it helps a little.

 

Thank you for the information...We are going to our vet today. She`s going to take a new bloodsample (because the one we got earlier got frozen) and I`m going to get some new information about the dog`s condition tomorrow.
The vetenerian looked at his gums, and said that they are just a little bit too pale. His all lymph nodes are also enlargen. the dog`s has been bleeding today, simply because he was scratching his itchy nose with his nails. The blood didn`t come from inside of his nostrils, luckily, and got clot quite quickly.
There is one odd thing here..The dog has got really bad rash, especially on his ears, nose, and elbows. As I know sensitive skin might include to the disease, but it`s not that common. I`m suspecting it might be scabies (I`m not sure if I used the right word..)
Well we are going to the vet in a couple of hours. Hope I will gain some more information then. I`m really glad to hear that there are dogs that have survived from e. canis, even from the severe cases..Thank a lot once more for these piece of information..

 

Mention the rash to your vet, it could be related, it could be from the ticks it could even be a reaction to the meds he s taking. Anything you notice, even if it seems insignificant should be monitored and mentioned to your vet, not that Im saying you should be one the phone every hour but make a note of things.
Please keep us updated.
Thanks.

 

We just got home from the vet. According to the bloodsample, there was some increased kidneyrates and urea in the blood. Vet told me to calm down, and said that she wasn`t extremely worried about that. The rates can change, she told me. Tomorrow they`ll tell me the "official diagnosis", based on the echrlichia-bacteria in the blood. I already know that that is the case here, the dog has got canine ehrlichiosis (it´s always so hard to spell), just based on the antibody-test and the symptoms, so that`s not that big a deal now. The vet also thought, that there is a chance that the rash isn`t related to the disease, so she put Stronghold on Sami`s neck. She told me, that the skin-disorders looks exactly like scabies, though she didn`t see any parasites through the microscope. There are some bare spots in the dog`s nose, ears, elbows and hind legs, which are extremely irratiting. Bad luck for us, if it is both scabies and ehrlichia. Well, Sami is strong dog, you wouldn`t believe all the things he has gone through. I don`t think he`ll give up too easily. We`ll go on day by day, hoping that someday he will regain his health.

 

With a skin scraping, scabies is usually pretty easy to see under a microscope.
It is transferrable to people but it seems to be mainly people with compromized immune systems, Ive handled and worked closely with probably a few hundred pets with it over the years and Ive never had it. Im not trying to add to your worry but you should be aware of it, and its easy enough to get rid of once it is diagnosed.
I havent worked with that many cases of ehrlichia, probably maybe 10-12 but I have noticed that about half of them were also diagnosed with Von Willebrands Disease, its another disease that effects the clotting factors in the blood and its mostly found in Dobermanns but none of the ehrlichia dogs were Dobermanns. Maybe someone else in the forum has more information or knowledge on that that they could give you.
Hang in there, it sounds as though Sami is getting the best possible care that anyone could give.

 

Hi,
Just read this thread. - I know how hard it must be at the moment for you. My dog has had two cases of this, and the first time I was really worried about her chances of survival. But she did get through it and is back to her usual healthy, ebullient self

My vet did titer tests with the blood to work out the concentration of the
Ehrlichia. We're based in Bali where many of the local dogs are carriers and seem to have a bit of immunity to it, but the other breeds get pretty sick from it.
The titer test is pretty good as it can be followed up to checkk the serum levels later too. - This little bu** er can hang around for a very long time, and can recur when a dog's resistance gets low.

Don't know where you are based - and there may be v effective treatment where you are that renders my experiences irrelevant - but I hope whatever the case that your dog pulls through. Its pretty scary.

FOr the record mine seems to have mead a very full recovery and at the last titer blood test her levels were at the "inactive infection" level.

This is the recommended treatment I found on the internet - and brought along to my vet before i discovered they were alerady following similar protocol. hope it helps......

Hyperglobulinemia generally is present in dogs affected by canine ehrlichiosis. In some dogs experiencing the severe chronic phase of ehrlichiosis, bone marrow hypoplasia may occur, resulting in severe hypoglobulinemia with a concomitant decrease in serum antibody titers. Thus, serology results should be interpreted in conjunction with clinical presentation, hematology and biochemistry in order to establish a definitive diagnosis of ehrlichiosis.

TREATMENT RECOMMENDATIONS

Any dog seropositive for E. canis should be treated accordingly. The standard treatment for ehrlichiosis in dogs is tetracycline at 11 mg/lb t.i.d. for 3-4 weeks. However, some researchers suggest that more satisfactory results will be obtained with one of the following regimens:

Oxytetracycline at ll mg/lb t.i.d. for a minimum of 21 days

Doxycycline at 5-10 mg/kg (divided b.i.d.) for 14-30 days

(Note: It is recommended that dogs which demonstrate a chronic infection be administered 8-10 mg/kg doxycycline for 21-30 days.)

 

Thank for the answer! We`ve got the results from the bloodtests; whitecell-rate was normal (7,3), redcell-rate low (3,38 ), and he`s a bit anemic (hemoglobin 88 ). Platelets was 143, low but still normal. Sami`s on doxycyclene for at least six weeks now, first dose is 600 mg per day (the dog weighs about 24 kilos), next week we will propably reduce the dose. I think, that we must take the medication at least for two months. And there`s one problem now..He keeps on vomiting after taking the pills in the evening. Morningpills usually stays inside.I know doxycyclene might cause nausea, but how can prevent this? If he vomits right after giving the pills, I will give him new ones. I always give those pills with food. He won`t eat bread, so I usually put it into some sausage or other treat.These lactophilus-things helps usually with diarrhea, but not with vomiting, eh? Vet told me to keep the dog active right after giving the pill so the pill wouldn`t irratate the stomach so much, but is there anything else that I can do? He has not vomited much before, so I`m pretty sure it`s about the medication. Sami`s doing fine, he has even stopped scratching his skin 24/7, and the wounds in his ears have started healing.

 

When does Sami get his usual daily meal? Are you feeding him before both pills or just in the morning or in the evening? If you feed him in the morning but he only gets the treat with the pill in the evening it could be that he needs a littl extra food in his stomach first, sometimes this helps. If this is the case you dont necessarily need to feed him more just split his regular amount of food into two servings.

 

Basically Sami eats whenever he`s hungry. I try to give him food among the medication dose, but sometimes he`s really picky and won`t eat anything. The disease (with the urea in the blood)causes him loss of apetite, but I think that also the pills are making him less interested in food. Well, he`s been eating okay, and didn`t throw up his evening pills today.Meatballs are propably the only thing in this world that he can´t resist, no matter how sick he`s feeling.. Perhaps I`m imagining, but it seems like he`s been a lot more perkier today, he even had some sort of jumping-episode during our daily walk. Hope that the medication starts to improve his health, allthought it`s only 5 days ago when we started the treatment, and I know it`s going to take some time...We have a long way ahead to recovery, but I`m sure it`s going to be worth it.

 

It can be little frustrating sometimes when they are sick and off their food, hopefully his body is adjusting to the pills now.. just something to keep in mind though if there is some vomiting occasionally try and give him 2 meals a day, each about 20-30 minutes before the pill, if he's eating all day he wont be interested in food anyway by evening. Sometimes its a matter of 'whatever it takes' and adapting to get the best results.
Its great that he had a good day.
Keep us posted.

 

Balibabe, did your dog have swollen lymph nodes, when diagnosed with ehrlichia?

 

Hi,
Sorry I've missed a bit of the thread as I havn't been in much this weekend.
I don't think her lymph nodes were swollen - at least neither the vet not I picked up on it if they were

But her skin was itchy with it the second time.
The first time it happened my vet had actually thought it could be parvo despite her being up do date with jabs. But by the second incidence there had already been a lot more dogs on the island come down with it so the vet had much more info to hand and was able to test properly immediately and treat it.

Hope your dog is feeling better.
I'm trying to find out much more about this because some of the material I read says that it never leaves the dog and can be transmitted to puppies in vitro, but other articles dispute both of these points and I haven't worked out yet which is the most popular/researched/supported viewpoint. :?

 

I discussed in internet with this person, who is specialized in animals health (She`s a retired researcher of some kind) and she really had some useful information about the disease. She said, that as she understands it, it is more likely, that the disease will never reappear once it`s treated properly. But bacause the disease will not give any sort of immunity, the dog is likely to develop the disease once again, if bitten by an infected tick, if the dog`s living in area with a tick population carrying and infecting the disease. Luckily, in Finland where I live, there`s no vector for the disease (Sami caught the disease from Greece). But if the dog is infected with more than one form of ehrlichia, and treated only for the other form of the disease, the other form of the disease is likely to break out when the dog`s immunesystem weakens. This is just one opinion among the others, but it makes sense to me (or I would like to believe, that once treated there´s a big possibility that it will never break out again.)
Sami´s doing ok, allthought he likes to sleep a lot.And the pills have stayed inside. He`s a patient now, so I have to pamper him from dusk til`dawn..

 

I have good news...

He´s getting better already, after 10 days of doxycycline. We wen´t to the clinick today for a check-up, and the vet said, that he`s looking much better now, and even his lymp nodes have gone smaller, allthougt he still has a mild fever. He`s eating well, and seems to be much energetic. I`m so happy now..I know that the situation might change, but because there was a response to the medication, that might mean that the disease hasn`t progressed too far.