- Today I have a very special guest
on the Wednesday Checkup.
Oh, it's the slobbery Bear.
Today we're sharing a story all about him.
I'm ready, Bear are you ready?
He's ready, be woo!
(relaxed music)
I wanna start off by telling you right away,
little Bear was diagnosed with Lyme disease.
(sad music)
Don't worry, he's fine, this story has a happy ending.
I just wanna tell you about the process.
How did Bear get diagnosed with Lyme Disease?
What I did to treat it.
I enrolled Bear in a training program to get him
to be hospital certified as a therapy dog,
because I think Bear is so doofy and cute,
he can bring a lot of happiness and joy
to those who are unfortunately spending
some significant amount of time in the hospital.
When bear came back from training,
he was due for his annual physical exam, some vaccinations.
I also needed a refill of his heartworm medication.
This is a monthly tab that you give to dogs
to prevent parasitic heart disease.
Before most vets will give the first prescription
of heartworm medication, they'll do a rapid test
to confirm the dog actively doesn't have that illness.
Because if they do, they need to get treated for it
before getting put on a preventive dosage.
What I didn't know was that when they did the rapid test,
it also included a rapid test for Lyme disease.
When the vet tech came back, they tell me
that Bear's positive for Lyme disease.
Bear is completely asymptomatic.
No joint issues, no joint pain, no limping,
he's happy-go-lucky, eating well, pooping well, peeing well,
everything was great, so it's probably a false positive.
But, 24 hours later, a new vet calls me
and says, "He is positive for Lyme disease."
When I asked some follow-up questions,
I wasn't quite happy with the responses I was getting.
The vet wasn't certain about what the test was looking for.
Was it antigen, viral load, antibodies?
He didn't have much experience with Lyme disease,
so I said, thank you, I'll make my own decision
and I'll follow up with the office.
I know when it comes to Lyme disease,
in humans it can be a very controversial topic.
I didn't know how controversial it was in animals.
Lyme disease is a tick-borne illness
that can be largely prevented by having proper
tick prevention methods in action.
Bear loves to run around in grass.
He grew up in upstate New York, which is a haven for ticks.
He has very thick, dense, brown fur,
so it's near impossible to see
if he has a tick on him to remove it.
In treating Lyme disease in humans,
I know the mainstay of treatment is antibiotics,
however, I didn't wanna subject Bear
to antibiotics unnecessarily.
So I decided to jump into the research
and see what I found when it comes to treating dogs
who weren't showing symptoms,
to see if it's even worthwhile to treat them.
And what I found really surprised me.
I'm not a vet.
I don't pretend to be a vet.
I'm not giving you advice
on what you should do with your dog.
It's simply me describing to you what I found
in quality veterinary literature.
In 2006, the American College
of Veterinary Internal Medicine, published a consensus
of what doctors, vets specifically,
thought about treating dogs with Lyme disease.
They did an update to this in 2018,
which is great, considering Bear was just diagnosed
with Lyme disease in 2019.
This is what it states, verbatim.
"The topic is still controversial.
"Four out of six doctors do not routinely recommend
"treatments for such dogs."
The majority of vets on this Internal Medicine Committee,
recommend against treating dogs with antibiotics
that just solely have a positive Lyme disease test,
but don't show any other symptoms,
and their urine studies are normal.
The reason why they say that,
"It promotes overuse of antibiotics.
"There's no data proving that treatment of healthy dogs
"is associated with decreased risk of illness."
Very important.
"Lyme may not be cleared from all tissues with treatment.
"Reinfection may commonly occur in dogs in endemic areas."
Now this consensus is very important.
I was able to make the decision to hold off
on treating Bear for Lyme disease.
However, fast forward a few weeks later,
Bear started limping and he started getting arthraglias,
which means pain in his joints.
So I knew it was time to start treating his Lyme disease,
because he was starting to get affected by it
and showing symptoms.
So I went to the vet, picked up the prescription
for doxycycline, which is the antibiotic of choice
in treating Lyme disease,
and it's a very long course,
it's actually a 30 day course of antibiotics.
Now, when you're giving a dog, or even a human
such a long course of antibiotics,
I think it's wise to get them on a probiotic
at the same time, so you're not completely
destroying the bacteria that's found in our gut,
or in the animal's gut.
And Bear did actually really well with the doxycycline.
He didn't have any side effects.
I was happy that I was able to get a treatment,
but not unnecessary treatment.
It's always good to become more informed
on the illness that you or your animal's
been diagnosed with, and then bring that information
to the doctor, or to another doctor for a second opinion.
It's been two months since we finished the antibiotics.
Bear's doing great.
He's happy, we're back in training mode.
He asked if we could open some packages on camera
for a Mail Time segment.
- Hi mailman! (screaming)
- What do you think about it?
Should we do it?
Should we do Mail Time?
Doesn't this face look like a face
that wants to do Mail Time?
Mail Time.
All right Bear, so we're gonna open some packages.
And I promise I'll give you whatever was yours, okay?
It's a letter, and,
a little badge, oh it's a little heart badge,
look at that.
Look how cute, Bear (laughs) that's not for you to eat.
Thank you so much, someone from the UK.
Bear this is the one with your name on it, are you ready?
Do, do, do, do, do, do, do.
Oh, it's a hide the hedgehog game.
Bear, catch.
(laughs)
All right, go play with your hedgehog, Bear.
Thank you for the hedgehog, Bear loves it.
I think, I think you...
(loud snap) (gasps)
Ow!
(screaming)
I sliced my finger open!
- [Dan] Should we get a doctor?
- I want you to pause the camera Dan, please.
- [Man] A few moments layer.
- Look, this is my own therapy dog.
(paper rustling)
It is a Connoisseur Tea Kit.
Ooh, some green tea.
Matcha.
I'm not gonna even try to pronounce that.
"Hey Dr. Mike, I'm happy to share a love of tea with you.
"Hopefully these are new editions to your cupboard."
Wow that's so cool, I'm excited to try these.
If you enjoyed this video with Bear on Lyme disease,
drop it down below in the comments.
But more importantly, if you want a video on Lyme disease
for humans, drop that below in the comments,
'cause I actually wanna do a video on Lyme disease,
and talk about some of the misinformation that's out there.
And if you wanna watch a fun and interesting video
at the same time, click here, and as always,
stay happy and healthy.
(relaxed music)