[Emily V]

I have been using the raw diet on my dogs fro over 10 years and forums have been a lifesaver for me. I’m hoping you all can help with a mysterious lameness problem in our 2 year-old German shepherd. I’ll try to be as brief as possible here on the sequence of events that were observed:
1. Tsavo discovered a deer carcass in our woods and was chewing on the bones.
2. About a day later, he was slightly lame in his back leg. No physical causes were detected. he had some diarrhea.
3. The lameness moved to his left forefoot about two weeks later and became more pronounced. He would sometimes yip when jumping off the bed. The lameness would improve if he ran around but worsen when he was at rest or walking.
4. Tsavo then began marking in the house and the diarrhea increased.
5. X-rays indicated no issues. The vet confirmed Lymes and erlichia tick diseases were present so Tsavo was treated. It was discovered Tsavo also had crystals in his urine and he was also treated for that. He was also given a homeopathic liver cleanse. Most of the marking behavior and diarrhea disappeared, though he was still lame.
5. After some research, I began supplementing Tsavo with cranberry pills and ascorbic acid, thinking there was a remote chance that the lameness was caused by pain from urinary crystals. After two days, the lameness and marking issue were resolved.
6. A week later, my daughter discovered that Tsavo found an errant bone from the deer carcass and he was chewing on it. The next day, Tsavo had a slight limp in the same foot. He also had diarrhea. It’s been about three days and he currently is not marking, but the lameness is getting worse, despite my continued use of cranberry and ascorbic acid.

Help! What could the lameness be attributed to? I don’t think it’s related to Lymes or erlichiia because there was no relief after he was treated for those diseases….

[anonymous]

Of course it is related to Lyme disease or some other neurological disorder. See a specialist asap, the dog should be loaded up with antibiotics as much as possible (sometimes several times) as determined by the examining veterinarian. to kill the tick borne illnesses.
The damage may be done.
Supplements are a scam.
See an internal medicine veterinary specialist asap, the dog has to be correctly diagnosed first.
Dr Google doesn’t count .

[anonymous]

Ps: I know of what I speak. I lost a dog due to complications of Lyme disease.
Kidney disease. Yep, it happens.
Don’t be foolish, stop listening to homeopathic nonsense.

[pitlove]

Hi Emily-

Were any radiographs done on the hips to rule out HD? If not, you will want to get them done. 2 years of age is when they need to get radiographs anyway to check for hip health.

I would agree with anon though that complications from Lyme shouldn’t be ruled out.

[Cameron M]

Hi Emily,

I asm so sorry to hear about your dog’s problems! My little cocker spaniel gal (Coco) had Lyme markers present her last heartworm/lyme test last spring. I freaked out and studied up.

Here is the deal…studies claim that 90% of dogs infected with lyme do not present symptoms…in other words their bodies seem to handle the disease with no harm done. Now I caution this may not mean no harm done in the LONG TERM…you know…5-10 years out but it is encouraging nontheless.

Unfortunately the remaining 5-10% of the study dogs did have severe symptoms…lameness is definitely one of the symptoms!! And it comes on fairly quickly from what I read.

Kidney problems are also a major symptom of Lyme!!

Even though Coco appears to fall into the 90% of dogs with no symptoms I was not going to chance damage showing up years later ..here is the deal. My vet flat out said Lyme is a sneaky hider…think chickenpox then 40 years later you get shingles because the virus was “hidden” in the body still.

With Lyme bacteria you NEED to place the dog on antibiotics for at least a MONTH…the vet said two months is better and if your dog can handle it maybe even three months!!

Doxycycline is is perfferred choice. I put Coco on it for almost three months..she handled it just fine ( Ordered the pills through Allivet…much cheaper than other places. I hope I squeezed all the bacteria out..she is due for another test soon and I’ll report back.

Bottomline: As others have said to you…yes..organic is great…yep..I love homopathic when called for BUT your dog is showing severe symptoms…kidney and lameness. Do not mess around with this or you will damage your beloved dog. Get expert and aggressive vet advice..and hey..before going broke on tests and scans try the antibotic therapy 1st. Very little risk and if it doesn’t work you can always do the scans for other genetic laminess issues ( bad hips as mentioned above) that type issue usually can wait a few months and still be fixed. Destroyed kidneys from lyme can’t be fixed..so attack the life threatening stuff..

best of LUCK!! Please keep us posted Emily!

Cameron

[Cameron M]

Sorry for the poor grammer in my last post…still having my coffee:)

Forgot to add…attack this logically. Lets see: 1. Dog ate a dead deer bone…

2. Deer are major carriers of Lyme disease.

3. If the carcass was fresh enough I am guessing it is probably possible to contract Lyme through eating infected meat/bone marrow. ( if not through digestion then through small cuts in the mouth or mucus areas etc.)

4. You state the lyme tests came back positive ( along with another very serious tick illness)

5. Rapid onset of lameness which shifts …a major symptom of LYME!!!

6. Other potential causes of lameness usually do not shift around…meaning if it is the hind legs it stays the hind legs..other causes may PROGRESS to other body parts BUT again they usually don’t shift around.

7. You point out suspected kidney damage…another huge lyme symptom.

If I were a betting man…I’d say the odds of your dogs problems are caused by LYME and or the other tick born illness present…better yet a combo of both.

It doesn’t sound like you placed the dog on months long antibotic treatment because you haven’t mentioned it if you did.

Per vet guidelines 1 month treatment is bare minium…as stated in my last post 2 months is better and my vet said personally if it was his dog he would shoot for 3 months. The point is the longer on antibotics the better the result.

Good luck!!

P.S. The good news is if you get cracking and start treatment the odds of a successfully beating this are pretty good as long as the kidneys aren’t destroyed by the time you start. But as someone mentioned earlier…Lyme can be a killer…even in humans. My old neighbor in PA had lyme and almost died..the infection went into the spinal cord and then the brain. She was in the hospital on IV drip antibotics for weeks.( she is ok now and that was 5-7 years ago…whew!)

Cameron

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