RE: Medication

Question
My dog was currently diagnosed with anaplasmosis and is on doxycycline two X per day 100 mg each pill. How long should he have to take this medicine for? Can you also tell me or give me a website that might be helpful in understanding this disease? The vet that I go to is not very informative, keeps charging me and I feel left in the dark. I want the best care for my dog, but I don't want to be taken advantage of. Also, my dog has a case of ear mites. Is it ok to give him tresaderm ear drops while he is on the doxycycline? If not, what is safe? I am sorry to be long-winded in my questions, but, I wanted to be informative on the information I am presenting. Thankyou so much for your concern for animals. Kristin

Answer
Hi Kristin,
You have a dog with a pretty serious disease here. Anaplamosis is a tick-borne disease that is common in the southern and eastern states. Doxycylcine is the drug of choice and the medication should be continued until it is gone. Some dogs respond in 48 hours to this drug and some need to be on it for as long as 30 days.

I found some links to sites that have short explanations about anaplasmosis.

http://www.dogsandticks.com/faqs-lyme-disease-dogs-tick-diseases/#faq16

is one of them. Here are some more:
http://vetext.unl.edu/FAQ/200609150.shtml

This one is more medical so I don't know if you will understand most of it but it is more comprehensive:

http://www.capcvet.org/recommendations/ehrlichia.html

I hope your dog will improve quickly on the doxycycline. You can use the tressaderm for his ear mites but a dose of Ivermectin is more potent. Ask you vet about some drops with Ivermectin in them. He may not want to inject him with it at this time due to the anaplasmosis but the drops shouldn't pose a problem. If so, I don't think tressaderm will be an issue. Just using mineral oil and swabbing out his ears well followed by a small amount of rubbing alcohol (70%) also works.  

Let me know how he is doing in a few weeks. Once this infection clears you need to have him on a very thorough tick prevention program.