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Post by carsonsmom on Sept 13, 2006 15:30:43 GMT -5
Hello - I'm new to this group, and was wondering if anyone in the London area has had their greyhound tested for tick disease? And if so, what vet in the area might be up on this sort of thing? Thanks!
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Post by ontariogreys on Sept 13, 2006 20:59:06 GMT -5
Sorry I can not anwer for London, but my vet in Woodstock has done tick testing on my dogs, sent the bloodwork to a lab in Texas, the lab in Texas does not have special pricing so it more expensive I think it came to around $300 total, once the babesia came back as a low positive another lab in North Carolina was used to do dna testing on the babesia to determine whether it was an active infection, this was another $300 it was not really necessary but for my own piece of mind because Maya has an auto immune disease and blood clotting problems which I wanted to know for sure whether the babesia could possibly be the cause of and I was a bit concern that if I need to used prednisone that it could cause problems if the babesia was an active infection. Since I now know that the babesia is not an active infection if I need to use prednisone on her I know it is not going to cause complications If you can also get your own vet to draw blood and ship the blood yourself by courier to Protatek labs in Arizona they have special pricing just for greyhounds, If you contact Protatek they can explain how it must be packaged , this is the least expensive way to do, the tick panel would under $100 plus the courier fees and fees your vet charges for drawing and possibly packaging for you. Dr. Cynthia J. Holland ProtaTek Reference Laboratory 574 East Alamo Street, Suite 90 Chandler, AZ 85225 Tel: (480) 545-8499 Fax: (480) 545-8409 Another option is to contact GINA www.saveagrey.com to arrange to have bloodwork done and sent along at the same time as they are sending bloodwork to Arizona for their foster dogs. this reduces the cost of shipping but they do ask for a membership fee, so might cost slightly more but they can be of aid in the event you do have a positive reading in explaining how to treat, whether it is necessary to treat according to the titers, doasages, frequency, and how to obtain Imizol should the dog be babesia positive. They have been doing this testing for several years now on all their greyhounds so have a fair bit of experience in testing and treating various types of tick disease.
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Post by carsonsmom on Sept 14, 2006 9:11:49 GMT -5
Wow - thanks very much for all the information!
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Post by jiffer on Sept 15, 2006 12:40:04 GMT -5
Caronsmom, I had Icarus tested two years ago. My vet sent the blood to Protatek for me. If I remember correctly, I paid $150 total for the draw, testing and courier. I had the results in 4 days.
If you like, I can email you the forms which you bring to your vet.
ETA: My vet is Dr. Hoover at Northdale Animal Clinic ( Adelaide at Huron in London)
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