Anaplasmosis

[johann]

Anyone had their boxer treated for anaplasmosis? I live in a lyme/anaplasmosis endemic area. Johann's 4DX (lyme, anaplasmosis, heartworm, erlichiosis) test was positive last year, so we treated with 2 weeks of minocycline. For some reason we didn't do a recheck to make sure he was no longer infected.

He showed up as + for anaplasmosis again this year. I pulled many ticks off him last summer/fall, so it could be a new infection. He's not really symptomatic (was very sore last spring when we treated), but we are having a CBC done. He does have some mildly swollen lymph nodes that can be related according to our vet.

He was so miserable last year on the minocycline. We ended up at the ER vet twice for intractable vomiting. I hate to do that to him again.......

 

[whiskers]

Honestly if his CBC is normal and you aren't feeling like he's symptomatic, I wouldn't treat. They can still test positive for a long time afterwards.

If you do end up treating, I know they're the same family of drugs so maybe it doesn't matter... but any chance doxycycline would be easier on his stomach? I think it was last year that doxy was near impossible to get, but at least where I work, we're not having problems stocking it anymore.

 

[johann]

Honestly if his CBC is normal and you aren't feeling like he's symptomatic, I wouldn't treat. They can still test positive for a long time afterwards.

If you do end up treating, I know they're the same family of drugs so maybe it doesn't matter... but any chance doxycycline would be easier on his stomach? I think it was last year that doxy was near impossible to get, but at least where I work, we're not having problems stocking it anymore.

Thanks for your input. It's so hard to tell if he's symptomatic or just at his baseline lameness. Hopefully the CBC will be normal