Lyme

This pretty gal has lyme disease.

We used frontline for ticks but it stopped working so we went to K9Advantix and then that stopped working so then we went to Vectra 3D.
And yet she still got Lyme.

When Iz was a puppy she got a 2 part vaccine for lyme disease.
She recieved part 1 and became so ill that she had to be hospitalized for 4 days.
We almost lost her.
 The reason for making it 2 part we were assured is because it was easier on the dog that way.
Not so much for Izzy. We did not get part 2.
We also changed vets after this because the vet who gave her part 1 of the vaccine told us that it was mandatory to do part 2 no matter what. We didn't agree after our research.

The new vet we went to immediately after that incident told us that sometimes the vaccine can cause more havoc on a dogs system than actual lyme disease so she suggested we not do part 2.  This was told to us before we gave our opinion so we felt we were on the right track.
We had read that as well and felt we couldn't go through another hospitalization and the chance of her dying again.

Everyone was adamant to always keep her tick medicine up to date.
No problem we never planned not too.
Here in Loudoun county we have an enormous problem with ticks.
We felt that was easy to follow through on.
We do it faithfully on the 20th of the month. 
But so much for that security that you think you are getting from putting it on every month thinking your dog is safe from lyme.
Izzy is tick checked every day. We get a lot off her but they are dead so we hoped that was the medicine doing it's trick. Somehow, someway, we missed something I guess.

Miss Izzy is taking medication 2 times a day 12 hours apart. They told us about horrendous side effects. But the only thing that has changed since taking this medicine is that she is sleeping alot. I called the vet and asked if that was a side effect because that was not mentioned only scary ones. She said it was not. To just watch her. Great.

Then yesterday she turned a corner. She was her old self jumping and being full of energy again. Oh no, be careful what you wish for.
She brought me a ball to my desk at least 5 times yesterday to go play with her.
She sees me take my headset off my head and she gets so very excited....ball, ball, ball, throw it lady, throw it. Makes me laugh, but it's an excuse to walk away from the desk which I don't mind really.

I have to tell you that this all makes me sad that she had been feeling badly and we didn't even know. She didn't seem any different to us. Her naps have been longer but she hates the heat so we blamed that. She is feeling great now but she still hates to be outside in the afternoon sun so that is just normal for her. God I am feeling so guilty about this like I let her down and wasn't taking good care of her.
She didn't appear to have symptoms to us or the Vet. One symptom is sore joints and she may have had them how would we know until she limps? 
She sure didn't stop swimming that's for sure or running up our stairs.

The medication thankfully hasn't appeared to have any side effects as we were scared into believing would happen. We have her on probiotics as well so she doesn't have additional issues. She seems fine in fact.

And as she does every morning she came to work with me this morning and got on her bed by my desk and will be having her morning nap.

I wish I could join her in a morning nap don't you?