Hi, I'm new here and am desperately seeking some advice from someone who may have gone through what I am with my sweet pup. I have a 4 year old French mastiff named Zeus. In late July he started to get lethargic and having trouble getting around, I instantly thought hip dysplasia, and took him to the vet for x-rays. The vet in my little town did that, his hips were fine, did other tests and a blood profile, and said he showed a slight positive for ehrlichlia. I had never heard of this tick disease, he wears a seresto collar, and I've never once seen a tick on him in his 4 years. They prescribed him minocycline for 3 weeks. The first dosage 2x higher than the remaining 2. After the 2 weeks he was no better off, and I took him to another vet in a neighboring town who said his dosage was too low for his body weight, and increased the minocycline to 3 pills twice a day from his medication at the previous vet, and gave a depro-medrol injection. (8/19). He was getting around good, eating more and nearly seemed back to his old self throughout the course. On 8/23 I refilled the minocycline for 2 more weeks. He started to go downhill as the injection wore off. Took him back in on 9/12, they did another blood profile which showed normal on everything other than "GLOB" which was slightly high at 5.3 g/dl. The vet said it could possibly be cancer, but decided against aspiration on his lymph nodes which have been swollen from the start. He also did a parasite test and said he could possibly have hookworms, which was never tested before, gave him pyrantel and sent us on our way (no more antibiotics given for the ehrlichlia)..... he was still getting around good, and eating well a week later. The next week he went downhill again, worse than ever before, his joints were swollen, his appetite went down and back to the vet we went. This last visit (9/23) the vet said he heard a heart murmor now.....! He gave him an enroflox injection, dexamethasone injection, ciprofloxacin 500 mg tabs, doxycycline 100 mg caps.. told me he might die that night, and honestly needs to be in emergency care at Texas A&M. Now, 2 days later Zeus is doing better than he has since Aug, not eating dry kibble yet but has a bigger appetite, getting around well, and has his personality back. I'm just scared he will go downhill again. The vet said he may need antibiotics for the rest of his life. I'm not an expert by any means, only know my dog and what I've researched. I feel as though he never should have been taken off the antibiotics on 9/12, when his blood profile was still abnormal. Does anyone have any experience with this? The vet said he had not seen a case of ehrlichlia in 15 years....? I would greatly appreciate any help and advice given. Zeus is my baby, and I'm desperately seeking an answer to get him healthy.
Hello Alicia, I am sorry to hear of the health problems you are having with your Dogue. I'm afraid that your problem is too complex for any advice from me, but I didn't want you to feel that your post was ignored. I hope someone can suggest something that might help - it is horrible when a young dog seems not to be responding to treatment. Stay strong Zeus.
I can only echo what Carole has said - way out of my experience. I do hope you find some help. It's the worst when we know something is wrong and don't know how to help xx
Thank you both so very much! I'm hoping so as well, as the vet can't give me definite answers. I'm stressing and just wanting to do whatever I can for him. <3
I was just going to suggest moving the collar,both of the active ingredients (flumethrin and imidacloprid) are well known to cause severe reactions in some dogs. Just Google reactions to seresto collar. Read the 1 and 2 star ratings on Amazon (20%) for Seresto .. almost all 1 star ratings (14% and over 500 dog owners) reported serious side effects and most were neurological. Seresto caused seizures, lethargy, decreased appetite and allergic reaction which in many cases led to huge vet bills with no cure other than simply removing the Seresto collars. A two star rating as an example ... 91 of 104 people found the following review helpful 2.0 out of 5 stars Be very very careful with this collar By Joon August 3, 2014 Size: Large As a flea collar it works. Easy to use and at the end of the day not that expensive. However after my 2 yr old collie had worn it for a month he started to have increasingly worrying episodes of lethargy, lack of appetite and lack of thirst. He went from being the type of collie that was extremely happy and one you couldn't tire to being like an old dog, unable to even complete a 20 minute walk without having to lie down and rest taking an hour to complete a normal journey of 5 minutes. He went to the vets and was treated with steroids (in case it was a skin allergy) - lungworm treatment (test then proved negative) chest x rays and lung swabs and 2 lots of blood counts - nothing showed up. He seemed to pick up and then relapsed again today I got desperate and started reading on line and saw that there were many dogs with similar symptoms - the overall conclusion was that it was the collar. It might not be the case with your dog but its worth a try.
Having had personal experience - BAD experience, with the Seresto collar, I hoped that someone would agree with my suggestion about taking it off, so thank you Vee for filling in some of the gaps as to why I suggested taking it off.
I took the seresto collar off mid August along with his main collar when he wasn't feeling well figuring it might make him more comfortable. He has lots and lots of wrinkles . I haven't put it back on since.. I'm going to bring this up to my vet tomorrow when I take him back for his checkup. I will research this more tonight, and need to find out if the collar could have these long lasting effects on his lymph nodes, abnormal blood profile and stiff joints. I definitely will not be purchasing one again. Thank you all for your replies!!!! I never would have thought the collar could possibly do this to him.
Alicia - I do not want to say too much about the Seresto collar due to the problems it caused Pereg - and also me. And also the fact that I agreed with Bayer not to take legal action against them. I just asked them to put contra-indications and possible side effects on the instructions, both on the round label on the back of the sealed tin, also the instruction leaflers inside the tin. But yes, this collar can cause all those problems - hopefully once the chemicals in it leave his system he should be a lot better. Please do not blame your vet. Bayer did not give sufficient information about the collar in their instruction leaflets and although they promised, after what it did to Pereg and me that they would add contra-indications and posssible side-effects, I do not know whether they did. Yes, Pereg was severely epileptic but she was 100% normal inbetween episodes, and my vet, who is an expert on canine epilepsy and gives seminars on the subject, has said he would never have put a Seresto collar on her had Bayer given the correct information. I have copies of all the emails between Bayer's importers - their chief vet here in Israel - Bayer in Germany - and my vet. Copies of all emails were sent to me. I am not saying that it was the collar that caused the problems with Zeus - and I hope he is feeling better now. The problem is that too many vets think that a collar that lasts for eight months must be wonderful. It might be for some dogs but it is also not so wonderful on many dogs.
