My dog keeps getting Ehrlichia. How can I prevent future outbreaks?

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!

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.

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!

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

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.

Hello there! First of all a small correction- tick fever is caused by Erlichia and not by Babesia Gibsoni, although both conditions are tick born diseases and often cause almost similar symptoms and can even be found at the same time, they are not the same and treatment for each is different (B.Gibsoni is treated with Imidocrab). So it is important to make sure what was the diagnosis exactly. Tick fever can both reoccur if your dog gets infested with ticks again or can reappear spontaniously even if it has been treated for, this is especial true for chronic erlichiosis, your dog might need treatment from time to time (it has nothing to do with winter though). In chronic tick fever condition treatment might need to be given for more that 21 days and sometimes steroids needs to be prescribed as well.

Yes, that is basically all you can do now other than only leash walking so she does not get too excited and gets her blood pressure up and gets another nose bleed. While it looks like a lot of blood is lost, there is not and your dog will be fine. Just make sure she takes her doxycycline (or other medication prescribed) for the prescribed period and she should be fine.