How Obscure Is Babesiosis Really? Mika’s Story

When I was writing about Ted’s Babesiosis, I kept wondering how obscure this tick-borne disease really is.

How Obscure Is Babesiosis Really? Mika's Story

Mika was treated right around the corner, at a specialty hospital we used to go to.

Mika is a 6-year-old Great Dane. Beautiful, lovable, energetic. She was adopted from the US several years ago and only brought her family love and joy.

She ended up at the hospital because of lethargy and high fever.

Blood work showed low levels of all red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Mika’s bone marrow was doing its job, though, and the blood cell levels evened out relatively quickly on their own.

Mika’s liver and spleen were enlarged. Given her enlarged spleen, was she bleeding internally?

Mika was scheduled to have her spleen removed and liver biopsied.

However, neither the spleen or liver tissues showed any disease. Good news that Mika didn’t have nether hemangiosarcoma, hemangioma, or anything wrong with her liver. Perhaps it was just some bug she came down with and her immune system dealt with it?

Mika was in good shape and could return home.

A month later, however, Mika was back at the hospital with the same symptoms – fever and lethargy.

Mika was anemic and her bilirubin was elevated. What has been destroying Mika’s blood cells?

And there it reared its ugly head–Babesia gibsoni.

“Canine babesiosis is a tick borne disease caused by a protozoan blood parasite. Babesiosis is characterized by a hemolytic anemia, fever and splenomegaly. Some infections are subclinical while others are life threatening.” 

Finding the little buggers under the microscope is mostly sheer luck and not a good idea to rely on that for diagnosis. There are tests that are much more likely to be successful in diagnosing this, such as PCR assays.

Once she received the treatment, Mika recovered quickly and is doing well. She might have lost a perfectly good spleen but kept her life.

Perhaps Babesia should be higher on the differential diagnoses list.

Original story:
Well, now You Have Ticked Me Off

Categories: Babesiosis • Conditions • Infections • Real-life Stories • Tick-borne diseases

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Jana Rade

I am a graphic designer, dog health advocate, writer, and author. Jasmine, the Rottweiler of my life, was the largest female from her litter. We thought we were getting a healthy dog. Getting a puppy from a backyard breeder was our first mistake. Countless veterinary visits without a diagnosis or useful treatment later, I realized that I had to take Jasmine's health care in my own hands. I learned the hard way that merely seeing a vet is not always enough. There is more to finding a good vet than finding the closest clinic down the street. And, sadly, there is more to advocating for your dog's health than visiting a veterinarian. It should be enough, but it often is not. With Jasmine, it took five years to get a diagnosis. Unfortunately, other problems had snowballed for that in the meantime. Jasmine's health challenges became a crash course in understanding dog health issues and how to go about getting a proper diagnosis and treatment. I had to learn, and I had to learn fast. Helping others through my challenges and experience has become my mission and Jasmine's legacy. I now try to help people how to recognize and understand signs of illness in their dogs, how to work with their veterinarian, and when to seek a second opinion. My goal is to save others the steep curve of having to learn things the hard way as I did. That is the mission behind my blog and behind my writing. That is why I wrote Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog, which has turned out being an award-winning guide to dog owners. What I'm trying to share encompasses 20 years of experience.

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