Im sorry to hear your dog was ill and you both had to go through so much. You need to remember that Medicine is a practice, it is not perfect, and some dogs just like some people respond better to some things and not to others.Vet medicine uses base lines for treating animals of the same breed, sometimes this is helpful and sometimes not. Your dog could have gotten into something tainted, and it could have even been a number of things going on at once, and not just the tick this is why tests are done and are so important. Im not denying you your experience, sometimes us owners have a sixth sense about our pets, but all too often owners come into the vets with preconceived notions about what is going on with their pet and they are way off. I have had a hard time with a bad vet myself, he cost me over two grand and as a direct result of his actions my dog lives in chronic pain, so I know how you feel.I hope your dog is better and that everyone bounces back from this ordeal,if you dont trucst your vet go get another, but I would ask your vet to help you understand his treatment protocol before going elsewhere. Good Luck

I'm so sorry you went through that, but I am relieved to read that your dog has made a complete recovery.

Even human doctors sometimes have a hard time diagnosing and accepting tick borne diseases. I had to put up a good argument to my doctor when I wanted to get the prophylactic antibiotic treatement after finding a tick & bullseye rash on myself. He wanted me to wait 6 months or so to see if I developed symtopms first! I understand the argument against overmedicating, I am surrounded by people with antibiotic-resistant bugs every day. I guess the same thing can happen with animals eventually, although your dog was symptomatic and clearly needed the drugs.

I don't know about you, but in my area the routine tick tests don't include Rocky Mtn spotted fever, so if your dog tested negative for the others I could see why your vet would begin to look at other pathologies to explain your dog's symptoms. Don't be too hard on your vet. Human doctors have the advantage of having patients with the ability to tell them how they feel. Vets don't have that luxury, so they do the best they can with the science that's available.

I am sorry your dog went through that. I had RMSF myself, and can say with a great deal of certainty that it is a miserable experience if that is indeed what he had. Your vet may not have tested for RMSF at first because vomiting and neurologic signs are not classic for the disease- I'd be thinking other things first as well, especially if he didn't have a fever or enlarged lymph nodes. It's certainly possible he had RMSF- the testing is impossible to interpret because of the timing of the first titer. Or he could have had a different disease like anaplasmosis like you mentioned that responded to doxy, or he could have just gotten over whatever it was he had (that happens sometimes too). In any case, I am glad he is better now. And I certainly appreciate the warning about being proactive in your pets' medical care. The vet can't do it all. If you hadn't taken him in to the ICU, I'm sure he would have died. Some people just take home the meds and never ask the vet what is supposed to happen, how soon to expect a recovery or improvement, what to do if the condition worsens, or anything; they just give the pills while the animal dies. I am glad you had the sense to do otherwise.

I just found a study that says that neurologic signs and vomiting are not as uncommon as I thought in RMSF. It happens about 30% of the time. I had not seen either symptom in the cases I have seen, except the expected stupor that comes with very high fevers, but no vomiting. I'll keep that in mind- we have a lot of RMSF here.