Babesiosis, also known as scorched worm disease, is a pet after being bitten by ticks, the parasitic babes in the tick body into the pet's blood, resulting in fever, anemia, hemoglobinuria (that is, brown urine), jaundice and other symptoms. After infection with Babesia there will be a certain incubation period, generally about ten days, and the blood routine examination will find that the dog's red blood cells and platelet values are very low, and the blood smear can see the worm.
My dog was found by the foster care center on October 1, 2019 that he was not very fond of food, mentally weak, walked twice and lay down, taking the hospital to confirm the diagnosis of Babesiasis. After the end of the first treatment, the three times of recurrence within half a year, various treatment methods were used, and I wanted to share the experience of treatment and give the anxious owners a little reference.
The first time the dog went to the Northwest Agriculture and Forestry Animal Hospital for examination, the red blood cells were only 1.6, and the doctor recommended blood transfusion. But dogs weigh 50 kilograms, blood transfusions cost four or five dogs, and there is a risk of hemolysis, and the most important blood transfusion alone is 20,000 pieces. I decided to take it to fan family animal hospital, fan family said that red blood cells are too low, first give you an injection to try, go home to observe, if he can't stand this toxic night will not work. After the injection, my brother took him down for a walk, and the dog just lay on the ground and couldn't get up, and after ten minutes he slowly got up and went home. Everyone must pay attention: do not walk or walk at this time.
Fortunately, the dog survived the fight, and continued to use this method to treat, every day to fight anti-inflammatory and liver protection hanging bottles, every other day an injection to kill poison, the doctor also prescribed three injections is 8 hours after going home to beat themselves. I gave the doctor at home to replenish the blood liver essence and nutritional cream, the doctor said that as long as the dog is willing to eat, it is not taboo to give him everything to eat, the other day he did not eat much, I remembered that he used to love to eat butter, I gave him butter, and then ate beef, egg yolk. After a course of injections, I went to the examination and completely recovered.
After about forty days, I found that his gums were a little white, although he was eating and moving well, but I still decided to take him to check it, and once the examination found that it had recurred, I took him to FanJia Hospital to start a new round of treatment. At this time, I began to look up a lot of information about the disease. I know that the injection at that time was called Bernier, which was a common way to treat this disease, both Belgian and domestically produced in India. The Fan family played domestically. There were four dogs treated with me at the same time, another one had a recurrence, and one alaska had jaundice attached to it, the later of which is unknown. There is a side pastor who is also transferred to the hospital, there is a blood transfusion in the middle, there is no recurrence after treatment, there is a teddy, the third recurrence. Blood worm net this needle has great toxicity, especially the damage to the liver, so it is necessary to play liver protection and liver protection drugs.
In the middle, I was brought into the hospital for tests four or five times, and the results were normal. Years ago in order to prevent him from recurring in the Spring Festival, I took him to Xinong Hospital to test, red blood cells are 6.19 normal, but platelets are 136, some are low, blood smears do not see insects, but PCR is positive, the doctor said there are signs of recurrence, I really do not want to give the dog injections again, think that the needle is toxic, the doctor recommends taking a week of multicycline, and then check. This time it cost 6,000 yuan, and the doxycycline box said cough and asthma.
After eating a week and going to the recheck, the red blood cells dropped to 5.98, the platelets dropped to 86, the blood smear was an occasional insect, I decided to give him atovaquone, atovaquone domestic medicine called blood pet quinone, according to the weight of the dog to eat, three times a day, 8 hours apart, my dog to eat 30 tablets a day, to eat with azithromycin, we were in people's pharmacies to buy azithromycin, but he ate azithromycin on vomit, did not feed again, this time spent fifteen thousand.
The results of the two intermediate examinations were very good, and by March 17, I found that the dog's eye conjunctiva was a little whitish, and I took it to the hospital for examination, although the red blood cells were normal, but the platelets fell again, and the doctor asked me to go home for a week to see the situation. After three days, I really couldn't hold back, I felt that his urine had turned yellow, and I had taken him to the hospital. Red blood cells have dropped to 5.58, blood smears are occasional, at that time has seen a lot of information, and after consulting with the doctor, I think the dog has taken too much medicine, I went back to prepare to let him carry it himself, minimize his activity time, let his immunity come up to carry it for a week, a week of recheck, red blood cells and platelets are rising, blood smears are still occasional, and after a week of review, there have been no insects, and many indicators of blood routine have returned to normal.
In the past six months, I have been suffering, observing dogs every day like a nervous person, spending about 50,000 yuan, and learning a lot about scorched worms.
1. Deworming, I deworm on time every month, using Freon drops, but I often take dogs into the mountains, last year Xi'an ticks are also extraordinarily large, once went back to Duling Park, caught more than a dozen small ticks from him. It's not every tick bite that gets babes, there's a 15% chance. This time the dog was bitten by a tick may have been the time I took him to the back of Tang Yuan. The dog was so heavy that I used the biggest drop from Freon, either in small quantities or because I was resistant. Therefore, it is recommended that you not only drop enough amount, but also change the medicine from time to time.
2. Check. If you find that the dog is mentally weak, has a bad appetite, white gums and eye conjunctiva, and yellow urine, take it to the hospital for examination as soon as possible. Diagnosis of babesia is usually a blood routine, blood smear, and PCR. The red blood cell values and platelets of the infected dog's blood routine are very low, and the worms can be seen in the field of vision of the blood smear. PCR is the most sensitive test and can also confirm the specific type of worm. If you choose to play insecticidal injections, it is best to do biochemistry, look at liver indicators. I did not do PCR in the later stage, because the doctor said that some dogs will be immune to insects, PCR is definitely positive, but the dog itself has no symptoms, then this indicator does not have much significance, and it is still recommended that everyone do it in the early stage.
3. At present, there are three ways to treat this disease: (1) insecticidal needles, that is, Bernier. But this amount should be controlled very well, Ke Changfen has a paper on the treatment of 3.5mg per kilogram of body weight, according to the 1, 3, 7, 14, 28, 42 days of procedures injection, while oral doxycycline, each re-examination of blood smear, no worms after the stagnation injection of Bernier. The pathogen cannot be fully understood with this method, and the cured dog becomes a pathogen carrier and is prone to recurrence when its immunity is low. Bernier is very harmful to the liver of dogs, so when injected, liver protection drugs and nutrients should be used. If you cooperate with blood transfusion can improve this effect, so at that time, the doctor in Sinon asked me to transfuse blood, red blood cells are too low, direct injection is easy to make the dog die, after the blood transfusion the dog will be more resistant, these are all I know later.
(2) Atovaquone plus azithromycin. This program is the most expensive, many people on the Internet recommend, said that the harm is small and does not recur, I chose this when the dog relapsed for the third time, the reason why I did not choose this in the early stage is that the dog is too heavy and feels too expensive, and the second is that this medicine is not easy to buy. After the dog ate atovaquone and recurred, another doctor said that it was because I was eating domestically produced, the effect was not good, and it should be imported. Atovaquone should be eaten with something high in fat, better absorption, and with azithromycin, which can reduce the recurrence rate. But my dog threw up as soon as he ate azithromycin, and I didn't feed him. Atovaquone is eaten for ten days, and after ten days it has no effect and will develop resistance. In fact, atovaquone also has a recurrence rate, not as the Internet said that eating will not recur.
(3) Antibiotic therapy. It is three kinds of metronidazole, clindamycin, doxycycline three antibiotics to eat together. I gave the dog a week's worth of doxycycline when the dog showed signs of a relapse, and it relapsed. This method is also harmful to dogs, and eating too much will cause autoimmune hemolysis, which is also very troublesome. Doctors say that doxycycline is okay for eating when there are few insects, and eat it according to the amount of 12mg per kilogram for two weeks.
(4) Autoimmunity. When the dog had signs of recurrence for the fourth time, the doctor originally wanted to give two weeks of doxycycline, but before I read a paper, saying that if the dog can survive on its own immunity, then 3-6 months will recover, I decided to try it, this method is not suitable for dogs with the first onset. My experience is that when you first suspected that the dog had this disease, the dog was already dying, and the general red blood cell value had dropped below 3, and it was likely to be accompanied by other conditions, so the dog could not resist it. After many relapses tried various methods, the dog's indicators are only slightly reduced, and must be observed at any time to do testing. When my dog decided to use immunity to carry himself, the red blood cells were 5.71, and the doctor let me check once a week, and I basically went to the blood routine and blood smear in three or four days.
4． Different types of babesia treatments have different effects. At that time, because I didn't know much about this, I didn't pay attention to this, and Bernier was not very good for the effect of Gibez's babes, and it was ok for the big babes. The best treatment for Babesia gidsii is atovaquone and antibiotic therapy. If you choose this at the beginning, the possibility of recurrence is relatively small, but there are also many dogs with insecticidal needles, and I guess it is carried down by immunity later. As the dog's immunity strengthens, the dog itself will metabolize the worm body. So it's important to start by identifying the type of babesia and then taking the right medication.
5. Examination is essential, after one week after the end of treatment, the blood routine and blood smear should be reviewed, and if there are worms, continue to maintain the frequency of a weekly examination until there are no insects, and then recheck once a month. This can be the most accurate understanding of the dog's situation, because the three recurrences behind my dog did not show symptoms, his spirit is still very good, the amount of food is also very large, the urine color is normal, if it is not to check it, it will not be found.
6. The most important, the most important, be sure to rest, limit exercise. The only thing I didn't do during the first three dog relapses was rest and restrict exercise. My dog is very active, three or four hours a day, and I also like to walk my dog. At that time, thinking that the dog was happy to play, the immunity would come up, so I took him to run around and did not reduce the amount of exercise. When it came time to decide to let him carry it on his own, I didn't use any other medicines except blood tonics and immunity-boosting drugs, but just let him rest, that is, go to the toilet three times a day. Therefore, rest is crucial, and only if he saves a lot of physical strength can he fight the insects in his body.