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My dog has Ehrlichia. Is it curable, fatal, and what about retesting?

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Medium (23 - 60lb) | Male | unneutered | 1 year and 3 months old | 55 lbs

my dog was tested positive for Ehrlichia. we'll be going again in 3 weeks to be retested but after i wanted it better explained to me. a few weeks ago i found a tick on him so i think its from that one. Our vet said it wasn't curable i think and that if symptoms get bad he'll give us antibiotics. before he had a rash on his belly area and diarrhea but both have passed, i told him but he said it was fine. Is this disease fatal if so how long would he have? can it be explained to me?

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

Answered By Daniel Fonza, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on August 19th, 2017

Hello and thank you for your post! I am sorry to hear that Spock has ehrlichia. This disease is treatable and can be cured. However, you should know that the test most veterinary clinics use is a snap test to detect antibodies against ehrlichia. If you are going back in 3 weeks to have this same test performed, Spock will likely continue to show a positive result. This is because his body has made antibodies against ehrlichia. If he had a previous infection and ehrlichia is not causing any of these symptoms, he will still show positive on this SNAP test so if you are going in to have the same SNAP test performed I would have your veterinarian send out a tick fever PCR test to the laboratory. This will detect DNA to ehrlichia and not antibodies. If Spock is positive on the PCR, it means that he has a current active infection. If you do not know if Spock has ever had your licio previously, I would still treat this with Doxycycline for 4 to 6 weeks total treatment time. I hope this helps, please feel free to contact me with any further questions or concerns you may have. I am also available via consultation

2Pet Parents found this answer helpful

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