bleeding gums - lyme disease?

Question
Hello

My 10 year old female Portuguese Water Dog (Allie) has bleeding gums in her front upper teeth. She is also lethargic and has a temp of 103. She is drinking and eating sparingly (only because we pureed her food). They did a blood parasite screen (SNAP) and she tested positive for Lyme Disease only and the vet thinks this is the cause. He put her on prednisone and doxycycline. Here is my question: why is bleeding gums not a symptom of Lyme Disease in anything else I read?  Second question: He put her on just a 2 week course of antibiotics, and from what I am reading, she should be on antibiotics for at least 3 or 4 weeks. I don't want to come off as an expert (jerk) to my vet, so I'm asking for a 2nd opinion.

Answer
I am sorry to hear that she has contracted this dreaded disease. I have read many cases where the first diagnosis was of bad teeth (or a tooth), and then later changed to Lyme, so it is more common the we know.

The traditional treatment is a minimum of two weeks-14 days. Some dogs need longer treatment. Your vet will re-evaluate her in two weeks and then decide if she needs to be on the antibiotics longer.

At least he has her on the preferred drugs. The prednisone helps with the inflammation in her joints and of course the antibiotics are for the bacterium.

If she doesn't improve in the next few days you might want to call them and ask for another exam. There is another test that can be done as a follow up on the SNAP test but if the vet is sure it's Lyme, then the SNAP is fine.

I hope she gets well soon.