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12/31/10 at 11:23am
Thread Starter 

So my beloved 9 year old Alaskan sled dog has just been diagnosed with glaucoma plus there are other suspected illnesses. All this while I am 41+ wks pregnant waiting to meet our newest family member. She is on all sorts of medications oral and drops for her eyes and pain medications until we decide if the medication is helping enough to avoid surgery to remove the worst of the two eyes. 

 

She was in to see an opthamologist who suggested an ultrasound of her eyes which we did and did not show anything, so he further suggested an abdominal and chest ultrasound/xray respectively. Our family vet doesn't think we need to do this until after we see if the medication reduces the pressure in her eyes. 

 

Here's my concern, since she has a lot of goop coming from her eyes we called today to ask if any of this could be contagious to our other dog...or even to us. My vet wasn't in today due to the holiday but another vet called me from home to explain that since I declined blood work to rule out a number of diseases (I did not decline and was not offered this blood work), that she couldn't tell me if it was contagious or not. She read directly from the opthamologists report to my vet and indicated a number of diseases that it could be that could have been ruled out by blood work that can not now be done until monday as they are closed for the weekend. She also indicated that until we did this, she would advise that I not be anywhere near my dog and that my husband should be VERY cautious when touching her and administering drops etc as it could be transferable to our other dog, our daughter, us or more worrisome, our newborn. 

 

So here's my question...does anyone know anyting about any of these illnesses:

 

ehrlichosis

rocky mountain spotted fever

bartonella

leptospirosis

blastomycosis

lyme disease (though I do know about this one)

 

specifically I am looking for some good info about the transfer of these illnesses to other canines or humans. 

I've read on prognosis and am ready to deal with that part for my dog herself...and have had a number of good cries and anxiety attacks on that...now I'm trying to be sure to protect my family. She is currently being quarentined at my parents house, and being taken care of with every luxury possible, but I want her to be home where she is most content as she has lost most of her vision in both eyes at this point. 

 

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. Our vet is no longer one of my favourite people and due to her negligence, if our dog does test positive for any of these illnesses, we are going to be looking at a law suit. I'm not trying to overreact, I just feel as though she was very negligent in not telling me this before closing for a long weekend and putting my family at major risk. 

 

thanks for any advice...

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