I got a call from Dash's vet today. His test results have come back and one of the tests indicates that he's been exposed to Lyme Disease. This particular test gives false positives frequently, so the vet said there was no reason to get alarmed yet. She is going to contact Dash's oncologist to see whether he thought Dash should begin treatment even though he shows no symptoms yet. Evidently the veterinary community is not in agreement on whether a dog that is not showing symptoms of Lyme Disease should start taking doxycycline immediately. Some say yes, others say no. Ordinarily, I'd want to go ahead with antibiotics, just to be safe, but Dash has had a lot of Clavamox recently to treat his infected paw. You don't want to overdo antibiotics. One thing is certain. There are a ton of ticks in the park, so Dash could have easily been exposed.
It looks like our nice, mild weather isn't going to last very long. Even though yesterday was unusually cool for June, the temperature shot into the 90's today. That's Texas weather for you. It's always bouncing back and forth between extremes. It was kind of funny in a way that two days ago I was fixing the furnace so I could warm the house up a bit and today the air conditioner was running all day. At least the water bill was low this month. I hardly ran the sprinklers at all in May. I need to remember to get the roofers to come out again now that things have dried out. The patches they made earlier this Spring held up well during the May rains, but some additional areas of the original elastomeric coating have starting to bubble up. It is going to be a long, slow process to get a roof that I can completely depend on.
I've got a new business meeting on Friday with a potential website client. The project is for a small non-profit charity that doesn't have much of a budget. I promised one of my neighbors, who is involved with the charity, that I'd do the site, but otherwise I wouldn't be all that interested. I'll look on the bright side though. The simple site will be easy to design and it will give me another chance to polish my responsive design skills. Some of you will wonder why I never seem to be excited about work. Others of you who have been in advertising as long as I have will understand completely.
Since Dot and Dash have different vets now, I always have a chance to get a second opinion. I'll ask Dot's vet if she is at risk for Lyme Disease too when she goes for physical therapy tomorrow afternoon. Who knows. Maybe even Janet and I are at risk. Humans get Lyme Disease too. I had always thought that Lyme Disease was primarily a problem for people on the East Coast. I also thought that only deer ticks transmitted the disease. The disease is starting to creep into Texas though, so maybe I'm wrong on both counts. I'd never know if I had Lyme Disease anyway, since the most common symptoms are fatigue, muscle aches, and joint pain. This is the way I feel all the time.
Friday can't come soon enough this week. I'm tempted to go out for breakfast tomorrow morning and just pretend it's Friday. It's been a long week.
Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day |
Watch of the Day |
Posts
