My dog has Ehrlichia, still weak after antibiotics. Should I go to vet?

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

This could indicate that all dogs are infected. I suspect Obi was never cleared of the bacteria. It is more likely that all dogs were exposed to the same tick population and that is how they all got infected versus one dog infecting the rest. I recommend contacting your veterinarian and discussing if they would like to put all your dogs on the full 30 day course of doxycycline at this point.

Hello and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Soft stool is not something thought to be caused by erhlichia so I don't think it's related. Antibiotic use can definitely result in softer stool so if you've just finished the antibiotics you may want to introduce a probiotic. A bland diet of boiled chicken and sweet potato or rice may also help. If the softer stool persists or any other signs develop like vomiting, inappetance or lethargy then I would schedule a visit for Spock to see your veterinarian. I hope the diarrhea resolves quickly!

This can be a tricky situation. First of all, it needs to be determined if Paulina is experiencing recurrence of her initial Ehrlichia infection or if she is becoming reinfected with each outbreak. Unfortunately, this is exceptionally difficult to determine. The best thing you can do is to keep Paulina on a high quality flea and tick preventative (such as Nexgard, Bravecto or K9 Advantix II) regularly since Ehrlichia is a tick-borne disease. You can also take Paulina to her vet for CBC (complete blood cell count) monitoring every 1-3 months so that an outbreak can be treated before it becomes more severe. I hope this helps and that Paulina does not experience future recurrences of Ehrlichia!

That is a great question, and one that doesn't really have a crystal clear answer. If she was initially treated during the acute phase, its possible that that bacteria was completely eliminated. It is possible that the antibodies produced by her body may prevent a second infection, however there is no guarantee of this. If a second infection develops, it is more likely to be subclinical, and it may or may not ever progress to being chronic and symptomatic. Having said all of that, I wouldn't be overly stressed. Use a monthly tick prevention moving forward, and if she develops any symptoms of illness, take her to your vet. https://www.petcarerx.com/article/identify-ehrlichiosis-symptoms-at-all-3-stages-of-the-disease/1545 Thank you for asking PetCoach!

Erhlicha can be a tricky disease in that it can remain dormant in a dog and then suddenly cause issues like significant anemia. The safest route is to pursue the additional tests to see if Lola has an active infection.

What a beautiful girl! I'm not sure that the skin changes are related to the Ehrlichiosis, although sometimes you can see vasculitis. Occasionally low platelets (clotting cells) can also cause bruising that might look like dark spots. I'm assuming your vet saw her skin changes when she was diagnosed, but if not I'd recommend scheduling a recheck to make sure the skin is related. Otherwise successful recovery is mainly judged on clinical signs - as long as she's feeling good and her labs are normal nothing else is usually recommended. We usually don't recheck a test since many tests can remain positive for a long time following succesful treatment.