My gal friend the vet is not always real prompt checking her e-mail, and I think her server's real spotty, as well.....looks like my inquiry finally came up,....here's what she wrote:


Erlichia is a very bad disease that can vary in symptoms from being totally without symptoms to fatal. It was first called Tropical Canine Pancytopenia and came to this country with dogs brought home from Southeast Asia during the Vietnam war time. When I get a pos. on a blood test I usually run a complete panel of blood work to evaluate kidney and liver function. A round of Doxycycline at that time is always indicated or the older drug Tetracycline is also effective. "Tick Fever" has become the current nick name for this disease. The dog you described might be suffering from blood cell break down and severe anemia or a number of other problems. Blood transfusions are often indicated. B 12 injections and steroids do help. Unfortunately, The prognosis must be very guarded to poor at this time. Animals that do survive the hard battle are often sick for 4 to 6 weeks and require more than 1 blood transfusion so it is very important to do both a major and minor cross match each time and not transfuse from the same donor if at all possible. good luck with this one.

It's good to hear that things are looking up, and I hope that will continue to be the case.

GTC


Last edited by crossfireoops; 03/15/17.
Member, Clan of the Border Rats
-- “Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.”- Mark Twain