Frontline's not working! Rocky Mountain Spotted fever

[willkatdawson]

I live on a horse farm in Georgia with my family. My sister has a home here too with her family. One of her dogs got very sick last week and of course they took her to the vet. After several days at the vet Iris passed. The vet sent off samples to a lab and the results just came back. She died of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever from a tick bite. The tick bites a rat carrying the disease and then bites the dog. All of our dogs are on frontline. Her vet said Frontline is no longer working, and to switch to Advantix. I ordered Advantix yesterday from Jeffers online, no script needed. Just thought I'd put this out there.

 

[EweSheep]

Are you sure that Frontline applied was not expired? Or is the company short changing their customers?

I hope she sue the company for the loss of her dog, it's ridiculous and giving her the false security.

 

[KristyHall]

Quote:

I am sorry to hear that. I have had rocky mountain spotted fever (only a few people get it each year and I happened to have be one of them, go figure) and it is miserable painful stuff. my fever shot up to 102-103 then would drop down to 100-101 and it would go like that for about a week then subside.
i thought i had the flu. took three bouts over a period of a couple of months (apparently it came and went in severity and the third bout i started getting the sores all over) before i mentioned the tick bite and the rash around it to my doctor who hit the of and chewed me out for not telling him. i was so sick and i get so many tick bites i didn't think about it.

i can see how it killed the dog, if it followed the pattern i had, the fever spike may have been what killed the dog.

 

[Matthew3590]

Quote:
Probably the area of ticks have grown immune to it. In my area the only thing that will stop them is frontline and advantix won't do squat.

 

[mulewagon]

Whatever you're using, you have to keep the dog dry for 48 hours, which is hard with an outside dog... We've noticed that this year, the Frontline is working for about 3 weeks, and then we're picking ticks off him again. We plan to apply it more often in the warm weather.

I've also gone back to dusting the doghouse with Sevin. There's just so many ticks this year!

 

[willkatdawson]

Quote:

I am sorry to hear that. I have had rocky mountain spotted fever (only a few people get it each year and I happened to have be one of them, go figure) and it is miserable painful stuff. my fever shot up to 102-103 then would drop down to 100-101 and it would go like that for about a week then subside.
i thought i had the flu. took three bouts over a period of a couple of months (apparently it came and went in severity and the third bout i started getting the sores all over) before i mentioned the tick bite and the rash around it to my doctor who hit the of and chewed me out for not telling him. i was so sick and i get so many tick bites i didn't think about it.

i can see how it killed the dog, if it followed the pattern i had, the fever spike may have been what killed the dog.

I am so sorry to hear you have gone through this. Yes, she did have a very high fever and her white cell count was through the roof. They thought it was leptospirosis because she is contantly killing possumms. Once again, thank goodness you are healthy again, and so sorry you were ill.

 

[willkatdawson]

Quote:
Probably the area of ticks have grown immune to it. In my area the only thing that will stop them is frontline and advantix won't do squat.

Oh great, we're not that far from you, so I hope it works here. Like all meds of this nature, the Advantix wasn't inexpensive, but my dogs are a very important part of why my chickens free range all day, not to mention we love them like they are family.

 

[KristyHall]

Quote:

I am sorry to hear that. I have had rocky mountain spotted fever (only a few people get it each year and I happened to have be one of them, go figure) and it is miserable painful stuff. my fever shot up to 102-103 then would drop down to 100-101 and it would go like that for about a week then subside.
i thought i had the flu. took three bouts over a period of a couple of months (apparently it came and went in severity and the third bout i started getting the sores all over) before i mentioned the tick bite and the rash around it to my doctor who hit the of and chewed me out for not telling him. i was so sick and i get so many tick bites i didn't think about it.

i can see how it killed the dog, if it followed the pattern i had, the fever spike may have been what killed the dog.

I am so sorry to hear you have gone through this. Yes, she did have a very high fever and her white cell count was through the roof. They thought it was leptospirosis because she is contantly killing possumms. Once again, thank goodness you are healthy again, and so sorry you were ill.

it's all right. heavy medicine and antibiotics later I am fine. i learned a valuable lesson about taking bites seriously.

what is leptospirosis?

 

[KristyHall]

Quote:
Probably the area of ticks have grown immune to it. In my area the only thing that will stop them is frontline and advantix won't do squat.

Oh great, we're not that far from you, so I hope it works here. Like all meds of this nature, the Advantix wasn't inexpensive, but my dogs are a very important part of why my chickens free range all day, not to mention we love them like they are family.

it's hard to put a value on such an important part of one's life. dogs are loyal, great companions and make farm life so much easier *pets her two dogs that are laying at her feet*

 

[willkatdawson]

Quote:
I am so sorry to hear you have gone through this. Yes, she did have a very high fever and her white cell count was through the roof. They thought it was leptospirosis because she is contantly killing possumms. Once again, thank goodness you are healthy again, and so sorry you were ill.

it's all right. heavy medicine and antibiotics later I am fine. i learned a valuable lesson about taking bites seriously.

what is leptospirosis?

It is a bacteria that is passed from a host (skunk, opposum, raccoon) in their urine. The host sheds the bacteria in their urine and the dogs get it by getting the bacteria in their eyes, mouth or wounds. Iris was a opposum killer. I bet she killed 30 in her lifetime. The vet was thinking leptospirosis because the symptoms were the same, but the tissue and blood samples came back RMS fever. It's a good thing really, because if it was Lep, Iris would have been sheding the bacteria in her urine and the other animals on our farm would be at risk. Oh, and just like RMS fever, lep can pass to humans.
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+1556&aid=454