[c-parrish]

Well, Casey went in to the E-Vet this morning because we woke up to find her right eye completely swollen shut with edema. No blood, no puss, no excess tears or anything. Further examination of her found that she had pinkish red spots speckling her skin where it is visble on her belly and in her armpits. After that, my fiance took her in as I had to get ready for work.

Here's the most recent things I can think of:

About two weeks ago she got her second tick of the season. Fiance forgot to do a tick check after visiting a forested dog park, so this tick was on her right cheek for about 48 hours...plenty of time to transmit something if there was anything to transmit. We live in Oregon, so tick-borne diseases are relatively rare. Shortly after the tick happened she got super stinky breath, which in general is not good.

Called the Holistic Vet (her regular vet). He agreed that Doxycycline would be a harsh treatment conclusion to jump to, so we decided on Oli-Vet (Olive Leaf capsules) to help her immune system kick any little buggies. The Oli-Vet was first administered yesterday around noon, and her evening dose was forgotten due to the fiance putting the pills where I couldn't see them.


The E-Vet this morning jumped to the conclusion that Casey was having an allergic reaction to the Oli-Vet. They decided initially on injected antibiotics and antihistamines, and to leave it at that. Called the Hollistic Vet and they have never heard of a dog reacting to Oli-Vet...when this info was passed on to the E-Vet, they then decided that maybe a round of Doxycycline would be a good idea. I'm totally appalled at the way they approached this.

They even tried to push abdominal x-rays because Casey is "skinny" and it "could be her liver or kidneys". I switched her food last week (we switch often and she is okay with it), but we had not fully adjusted to the new calorie content and makeup of the food. She is super sensitive to protein levels and adjusts her metabolism quickly based on them, but she is also sensitive to being fed too much food as well.


Anyways, they did some bloodwork and a U/A...for what, I'm unsure... and we will hear back about that on Sunday.

Now that she is on antibiotics I'm concerned about her intestinal flora since she is GI sensitive already. What kinds of probiotics do you guys recommend, besides plain yogurt?

 

[StellaLucyDesi]

I love Ark Naturals Gentle Digest probiotics. I buy mine from a local health food store and I order it online from www.onlynaturalpet.com. Another great thing to add is Solid Gold Seameal (this contains prozyme, an enzyme supplement), but this is not necessary.

 

[c-parrish]

Good to hear someone recommending Ark Natural's. My store carries all their products, including Gentle Digest, but I wasn't sure how much it was recommended. I was just wondering if there might be anything better out there.



Update on Casey:

The swelling is going down around her eye, but not totally gone. Her whole right side of her face, basically centralized around the tick bite site on her cheek, is still swollen. New thing that I noticed was that she has a dark pinkish red section of skin, similar to the spots on her abdomen, but right above the main part of her nose. She could have had that this morning though while I was still freaking out about the whole situation.

She has a prescription of Doxycycline for a week. Something tells me that this will not be enough and we'll have to go get more. Ugh...everything points to Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever from what I've seen, but who knows? Just waiting on the labs (CBC, UA, maybe something else).

In the meantime, she is just as crazy and active as ever. You wouldn't suspect anything cause she hardly ever stops for you to see her eye!

 

[c-parrish]

Good news, and not so good news.

The swelling has not gotten worse, but it has not gotten any better overnight.

In addition, she now has little hives-like bumps on the areas of her head that aren't swollen. Not very noticeable. Just looks like ruffled hair until you run your hand across it.

I really don't want to wait another day or two to find out what is going on! I'm so worried now that things aren't changing.
-------
Later today...

Based on recommendations from the vet, I gave Casey a loading dose of dog benadryl this morning. Within a half hour I noticed her eye starting to open up more again, and now the hives seem to be going down some as well.

Odd thing though...I noticed that some of the hives had opened up a little. I'm not sure it it was because of her scraping or scratching them, or if this was something else. I'm convinced that this had something to do with the tick bite due to the location it started, but it's responding like an allergy, so I'm wondering if it's an allergy to a bacteria that is attacking an immunosuppressed dog.

Primary searches for bacterial allergies bring up Staph infection hypersensitivity. Perhaps the beginning of a reaction? She wasn't losing hair or getting boils as far as I know, so this isn't certain. It might be a totally different bacteria that is taking advantage of her being down from the initial bite. Know of anything similar?

 

[bigozone]

3 days ago i noticed my little minpin buddy had a tick attached in the area of his front leg (arm pit area). i removed the tick using a heated mini-screwdriver to cause the tick to release ít's self from the dog. the tick had been attached for a few days judging from it's size.

now there is a small cyst-like bump where the bite occured. next i noticed that buddy's eyes were kinda swollen yesterday, so i gave him an IM shot of penicillin <sp>. through out the night his eyes have gotten worse and just now when he finally crawled out from his favorite hiding spot under my couch i was shocked to find his eyes totally shut due to the puss that had dried while he slept.

i've been using contact lens cleaner to help moisten the eyes and make it possible for the puss to be removed.

i'm going to try to get to a vet this morning to see what can be done to help him.

i just wanted to thank you for sharing your story and ask you and others who read this for additional input and suggestions.

thanks,
ken