Erlichia

I know way too much information about this tick borne disease now. Zio's symptoms began the Tuesday before the championships when he didn't eat his breakfast. He coughed some clear phlegm looking stuff while I was getting ready for work too. I couldn't even coax him to take a snack. When I came home from work, he was somewhat lethargic, his eyes looked a little dull, and he was still refusing to eat anything.

We headed to the vet Wednesday morning and his red blood count was okay, fecal float was clear, temperature was normal, and he did take a snack (although it took him a few minutes to decide to eat it). Dr Morey sent the blood sample off for lab work and got the results back in the early afternoon... low platelets. She had the lab run a tick panel since the alternatives were an auto-immune problem or cancer. She called late Wednesday to confirm Erlichia. He did finally eat Wednesday evening, but it took him a while.

He started on Doxycycline that evening and she said he would probably start feel better in 48 hours. We traveled to the championships Thursday and he loved being in the lanes at Purina as they were setting up, but he skipped his meals. He would take snacks though, so I gave him enough to keep some calories in him.

We held him out of racing Friday. He finally ate his morning meal over a period of three hours, picking at it now and then. He acted like he was feeling better, but it may have been being at a tournament that had him excited. I decided to try racing him in the first race Saturday to see how he acted and he ran a 4.0 in his first match! He again picked at his morning meal, but eventually ate it. By Sunday, he was eating twice a day again. I think he ran on heart and adrenalene all weekend and I'm proud of my little man.

We went for a follow up yesterday and his platelet count had only made a slight gain, so now he's on prednisone to jump start his marrow production while the doxy continues to do it's thing.

Ticks suck.... just saying.