Did giving my dog two antibiotics worsen his severe illness?

I am sorry to hear about your loss and my thoughts are with you. Generalized edema could have been caused by a lack of albumin in blood due to albumin losing enteropathy from kidneys. This condition can be secondary to a kidney disease due to the infection disease (from ticks). I understand that the mechanism is not easy to understand but can lead to severe consequences. Anemia in Scooby case was not that severe and possibly another cause could have been present (as your veterinarian is suspecting). Unfortunately I do not think steroids could have helped much and modify clinical worsening. Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

Hello there! First of all a small correction- tick fever is caused by Erlichia and not by Babesia Gibsoni, although both conditions are tick born diseases and often cause almost similar symptoms and can even be found at the same time, they are not the same and treatment for each is different (B.Gibsoni is treated with Imidocrab). So it is important to make sure what was the diagnosis exactly. Tick fever can both reoccur if your dog gets infested with ticks again or can reappear spontaniously even if it has been treated for, this is especial true for chronic erlichiosis, your dog might need treatment from time to time (it has nothing to do with winter though). In chronic tick fever condition treatment might need to be given for more that 21 days and sometimes steroids needs to be prescribed as well.

Hi there, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Diarrhea is not typically a symptom of tickborne disease so this is probably unrelated. Sometimes diarrhea can be a result of antibiotics, but usually it starts earlier in the course of treatment, so the timing doesn't seem related to that either. More likely she got into something that upset her tummy. As long as she's feeling fine, probiotics are a great idea, and you can feed a bland diet of boiled chicken with white rice for a few days. Once her stools improve, mix the rice/chicken mixture with her kibble to gradually switch her back. If the diarrhea doesn't improve over the next few days, and certainly if she starts acting sick (decreased appetite, vomiting, lethargy, etc), then a vet visit is in order. Hope this helps!

Poor guy. I highly suspect that Ghost may have a tick borne disease that was transmitted when the ticks were feeding on him. I would highly recommend taking him back to your vet for a tick titer test to check for these diseases and also get him started on antibiotics (i.e. Doxycycline is the antibiotic of choice for tick related diseases) right away! If he is still not able to recover well wthin 24 hrs of starting the antibiotics, then you should consider having him hospitalized with IV fluids and around the clock care. His condiiton is not good and I would err on the side of caution. I am so sorry that Ghost is so ill, and I sincerlely hope he is able to make a full and speedy recovery soon. Best wishes and take care.

No, doxycycline can commonly cause vomiting and diarrhea with no appetite, but unless there was an acute allergic reaction it does not cause death. If the MRSA spread to the blood stream and she became septic, then this can be fatal as the infection took over her body. I am sorry for your loss.

Hello, I am so sorry for your loss. Please, either way don’t beat yourself up about what could or couldn’t have happened. Just learn from this and contact a vet just in case, anytime something is given/eaten that shouldn’t be. Even if all you get is piece of mind, you won’t have to wonder. I can not find that specific name in a formulary but if it was doxycycline, that should not have caused an issue. If it was doxydyl (deracoxib), that would have been a very high dose and could have caused some life threatening issues. Even then, it may have been unrelated to medication or even the treated infection so it is important not to blame yourselves for the unknown.

His chances of recovery to an acceptable level of independence are very very small at this stage. I recommend you discuss euthanasia with your family and your vet in order to free him from further discomfort