Hello Mrs. Graybeard.
I'm not sure where to post this message, but thought maybe you could see that it ends up in the right spot.
I had to put my dog to sleep this morning. She was an Australian Shepherd and only 6 years old. She suffered a catastrophic kidney failure that apparently was caused by Lyme disease. There were none of the standard Lyme symptoms, but she had tested possibly positive last spring for Lyme. The vet could not determine if it was a false positive test, though, so recommended we watch her rather than start an antibiotic regime that might not be necessary. Also, he said that dogs generally do not have the problems with Lyme that humans do, so we should have plenty of warning if she were to begin to develop symptoms. We took his advice.
Up until about 2 weeks ago, there were no obvious symptoms. Then she suddenly took a turn for the worse, and last night her kidneys gave up. The vet was shocked at the sequence of events and had no explanation. Looking back over the past couple of months, we now realize there were little things that we should have picked up on, but nothing really obvious.
The best guess is that she had what the vet called a silent infection. No outward symptoms, but present in her system and burrowing in.
I just wanted to pass this on as a heads up to others who have active dogs in Lyme disease country. It is well distributed here in Pennsylvania, and we have always tried to be careful because of that. But apparently it can sneak up on you with little or no warning. And dogs can have terrible problems because of it.
If your dog begins to change her eating habits, showing no interest in food sometimes, especially in the morning, take notice.
If she seems to have trouble chewing a dog biscuit or a favorite chew toy, take notice.
If she seems a little less active than usual, even if she is still playful and eager to romp, take notice.
And especially, if you notice a slight change in the smell of her breath, take notice.
These were all the symptoms we had to go on. We thought maybe she was just tired of her dog food and was holding out for goodies. We thought maybe her teeth needed a good cleaning which was why she was less interested in chewing hard things, so we took her in for a thorough dental check up. We thought maybe the cleaner teeth made her breathe smell differently. And we thought maybe she was finally growing more mature and was slowing down a little bit. You have to understand that Australian Shepherds are incredibly active dogs. We kept hoping she would slow down just a little, because she would run us ragged at times.
We were wrong, and the vet missed the clues also. And she died this morning because of it.
If you could help pass this warning on so other dogs do not end up in the same mess, I'd appreciate it.
Also, I wrote a little article in memory of Muffy and all the other dogs I've lived with in my life. We posted it this evening in our family website. If it would be alright with you and Graybeard, I'd like to pass on our URL. It might help others who have lost a dog.
www.curtis-corner.com/mark.htmThanks for your help
BlackHat
