Brannon74 has been nice enough to answer ?'s and give med advice pertaining to animals. This thread will stay at the top of the page.
Leave ?'s here, and he will answer them here.
Keep in mind he is busy at his clinic, so will answer ?'s when he has time.

this will be a good thread to have duane, thanks, and thanks brannon for the time to answer, by the way where are you located?

great idea and thanks for volunteering defiantly a needed thread….thanks Brannon74

lawton

Thanks Brandon. I love lawton, cool country.

thanks for doing this brandon, thats good country down there, i spent some time this winter down there killing hogs, and sounds like i have to go back acouple more time this month, i might need to get your number in case things go bad

All right Brandon, time to get to work, lol.

A good buddy and hunting partner of mine recently had a hound get sick. he was about two years old, male, and healthy, until about three weeks ago. the dog started acting goofy, and quit eating, and started having seizures. The local vets couldnt figure it out, and he died. We sent the dogs head to Michigan State University for testing, and havnt heard back. Well, the other day, a pup about 5 months old started with the same simptoms. If he makes it till tuesday he is going to MSU to see what they can figure out on the living puppy. At this point its not about saving the one puppy, but figuring out what it is and geting it under controll before it whipes out his own kennel.

We know its not rabies. We know its not distemper. I suggested Blastosis (sp?) which has the vets really scratching their heads, because all the simptoms are their, but they have never heard of it spreading dog to dog. But they all tell us the same thing, their experience with blasto is very limited. infact, they dont seem to know crap about it, lol, and these are exelent vets.

So, i guess any input you or anyone may have will help hopefully.

thanks.

jesse out of curiousity are these dogs related?

i had one do the same thing jesse and it ended up being menigitis

blasto can do just about anything, but is very rare. the chances of having 2 dogs w/ it is almost impossible.

Seizure at that age of 2 epilepsy would be the most common cause and is genetic.

as afar 5 month old. distemper would be high on my radar, as well as liver problems like shunts.

Hypoglycemia can cause seizure in a young dog like that also.

could very well be looking at different dz causeing simular symptoms.

tough to say w/o all the facts, blookwork and ect. sending the one off to MSU was a great idea.

If they are coon dogs you might look at this dz it is rare, but i have seen it in dogs used for coon hunting.

http://www.petwave.com/Dogs/Dog-Health-C...-Paralysis.aspx



tick born dz can cause simular type signs so if they had a heavy tick burden i would look at rocky moontian spotted fever, or erhlichia.

Definatly not ticks.

They are running dogs, not coon dogs. Never seen a coon, let alone chewed on one.

The pup we know is not distemper. the vet checked for it, and said he was clean. Plus, i have given these pups all their shots personaly.

They are not related to the best of my knowledge. I know they share some bloodlines, just not how sure how close.

we are all just scratching our heads, because no body can figure it out. Both dogs have the exact same simptoms.

Hopefully MSU can figure something out for us.

Thanks for the help, i will let you boys know how it turns out.

Jesse: This may be a dumb suggestion, but could it have something to do with flea/tick medication if they are on it?

flea and tick meds that have permethrins could cause the same issues. As well as any toxicity. Ivomec toxicity will cause seizures.

Brannon:
I hunt in an area with lots of ticks. I have my dog on Pet Armor (frontline's copycat). I check him regularly but he has black fur, so it is tough to find them all. I have been hearing a lot of stories lately about dogs getting lymes disease and getting put down because of how severe it gets.

What is the real deal on how concerned I should be? Do you recommend a different regiment of medicine, or other types of treatment to cut it off? He goes to the vet 2x a year and gets the blood work.

Make sure your vet runds a 3dx or 4dx hw test on your dog. 3dx tests for lyme and erhlichia. 4dx also tests for anaplasmosis. Those are all tick borne dz. I don't know how commom lyme is around cal. I know back east is a real issue. around here we see very little. We do see alot of erlichia though. I have seen rocky mountain spotted fever twice. Frontline is a good choice and kill ticks w/ about 12-24 hours which will prevent dz from spreading from tick to your dog. Pet armour has the same active ingediant, but not the same carrier as frontline. It will like work well, but they are not spending any money testing it. So i can't say for sure it will protect like frontline.