As our readers may remember, Karma tested positive for Lyme Disease at 15 months old. The vet said he routinely tests for Lyme because so many dogs test positive but may not be showing symptoms.
For this reason, he believes that some symptoms (seizures was the example he used) are wrongly assigned to Lyme when it just so happens more comprehensive blood work was done when the dog presented with issues. In other words, you may only find out when something else is going on and then wrongly connect the two issues.
All that sounded logical and still does. So then I asked, “What do we do?” And this is where the opinions vary wildly.
He said that he doesn’t typically treat dogs that aren’t symptomatic. He also said that he doesn’t suggest the vaccine because he didn’t think it did enough (I don’t know which one was available at that time). We also discussed the fact that since Karma is so furry the odds of me finding a tick on him aren’t good so we switched him to separate products for heartworm prevention and flea and tick prevention. (After my own research, I chose K9 Advantix for flea and tick.)
Not being a vet myself I went along with it but continued to ask questions over the last two years. When you hang out at dog trials on weekends you soon amass quite the collection of Lyme and tick horror stories!
And that’s where my friend, Dr. Joellen Gregory, DVM, comes in. Joellen breeds Otterhounds (see photo!) and competes with her dogs in multiple activities including agility which is how we met. I took advantage of the waiting time at a trail to bend her ear about her opinions about Lyme.
Turns out she has a much different view and so Karma has an appointment with her at the Olney-Sandy Spring Veterinary Hosipital on Monday. Stay tuned! I intend to write about this journey in case it is helpful to anyone else out there.
i didn’t know Joellen was a vet! Definitely keep us posted. I probably don’t worry about it as much as i should but, knock on wood, i have never found a tick on any of my dogs?
[...] Dr. Joellen Gregory met us in reception and Karma was excited to see his “Aunt Joey.” We went on a quick tour of the impressive clinic that boasts its own lab, groomer, mini-store, multiple exam rooms, separate cat and dog kennels and an impressive collection of frozen sperm! The clinic hosts puppy classes and is situated on a beautiful wooded lot. [...]