My dog has B. gibsoni, no symptoms. Is he a lifelong carrier?

Hello. As I said earlier, in some dogs B. gibsoni many NEVER clear the blood & will always test positive by PCR. This does not mean your dog has an active infection but total remission seldom occurs. There was a paper presented in 2017 where a dog was treated with clindamycin, doxycycline & metronidazole for 6 weeks, & was tested negative at 3 & 6 months after treatment was stopped, so you might want to discuss this with your veterinarian & see if this is possible for your pet. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Many dogs will remain positive. Some others don't remain positive. Every dog is different. A dog is a living organism, not a machine. Every dog will be different. That is all I can tell you. We do not know why this is happening. It just is that way. Here is excellent information on this disease. Under "Treatment" you can read about "B. gibsoni infection: In most cases, the parasites are not totally eliminated.". http://www.vetfolio.com/infectious-disease/babesia-gibsoni-an-emerging-pathogen-in-dogs This is basically all the information we have and is known. Here is another article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304401718301018

Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Itis good that Bruno is feeling better. Babesia gibsoni can be very hard to completely clear and is an infection that can remain in hiding/dormant with no outward clinical signs. Therapy with variety of different medications has been tried with varying success. Months (2-3) of therapy is often needed. It is important that control of the vector (ticks) be a priority in preventing reinfection if the current infection is cleared.

Your dog has a blood parasite transmitted by ticks, ie Babesiosis. Up to now, no single drug has effectively and consistently eliminated B. gibsoni from infected dogs and the side effects, as well as availability, of some of the medications limit their use. Here is information on B.gibsoni infection. You may want to discuss with your veterinarian, whwther he wants to proceed with treatment or just use supportive treatment. There is no virus involved. http://www.vetfolio.com/infectious-disease/babesia-gibsoni-an-emerging-pathogen-in-dogs

Well it looks like he is making platelets again which is good, however B. gibsoni also attacks red blood cells so it is important to have him also checked for a red blood cell count. Since you are in contact with a veterinarian and are having blood tests done, listen to your veterinarian's recommendation on when to do follow up blood tests.

Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! As long as your dog has been treated and is now healthy, there should not be any long term effects of the infection. However, in the future, testing for these infections may be difficult, as false positive results are possible. Your dog may be a carrier of Anaplasmosis and Ehrlichia life long, but this disease is not transmitted to humans. You should be careful if you are planning to, or have, another dog. I hope this helps and that all is well!

If Buddy was already treated for me canines and is clinically normal right now I would not worry about a positive test result. You can discuss with his vet but many tests are for antibodies to the disease. Which will still be circulating in the blood from the initial infection. It does not necessarily mean there is an active infection at this time.