Hi Laura: Though not encouraging, my experience with positive tests to Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF) in two dogs (ages 8 and 9) I believe were false positives. Both dogs ended up having cancer. Your dog, hopefully, is too young for cancer, maybe it is just RMSF. Though I too gave the antibiotic (Doxycycline) for RMSF it completely took my dogs' appetites. I would ask your vet to do an ultrasound to see if there are any masses, lungs, spleen, etc. I know this is not good news, but your guy's symptoms are a bit scary. Was his white blood count high? The ultrasound would pick up on masses that the x-rays would not. Best of luck!
Gail Miller Cynosure Bernese in Arkansas [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barry Arch" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Bernese Mountain Dog Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 5:30 PM Subject: sick berner > My name is Laura Arch and I've been a happy lurker for 3 years. Now I need > some help. My Jake is 3 yrs old and up till now very healthy. About a month > ago he stopped eating like the chow hound that he is. The vet could find > nothing wrong. I took him back and he had lost 6 lbs in 2 weeks.We ran lots > of tests, xrays and even a baruim swallow test as he seemed to have trouble > with swallowing. He has a low hematocrit, low red blood count and low normal > platlets. His titer for Rocky Mountain spotted fever came back elevated so > we are treating him empirically with antibiotics to see if this helps. He's > been on them for 3 days and his appitite now is completely gone. My vet > suggested taking him to the specialists in Greenville, SC in a few days if > we see no improvement. Has anyone had experience with this kind of > problem?Thanks in advance. > > Laura Arch > [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
