Arrow is making a speedy recovery.

Arrow wants a treat

She has ehrlichia, which is a tick-borne disease. Supposedly if you catch it in the acute stage, which it appears we did, antibiotics will cure it.

Your dogs don’t want ehrlichia, so check them for ticks.

It came on very quickly. One morning Arrow was running around with the other two dogs as I collected water samples. At the next stop she stood next to me until I let her back in the car. She wouldn’t even get out at the third stop.

At the Hahira veterinarian the next morning, they took blood samples twice, because they wanted to be sure what they saw. Almost no white blood cells. Life-threatening, they said.

So off to the referral vet in Tallahassee. Arrow hardly moved the whole way there, just lay with her head on the armrest.

After a week in Tallahassee, with her on three antibiotics and steroids, I brought her home. She sat up half the trip back, looking around. She keeps improving.

Just now she walked almost a mile and a half, trotting some of the way. She would have been happy to trot more, but the leash-holder wasn’t.

She’s completely herself, talking (I have to go out; a different dog wants to go out; I just want attention) and opinionated (she does not like the leash, and the other day she got loose and ran).

Next week we will get more tests and see if she’s well enough to let out without the leash.

Yes, we changed the tick prevention.

Moral: carefully check your dogs for ticks every day.

-jsq

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