"Causes of death by ehrlichia are usually due to internal hemorrhage including hemorrhage into the brain, severe autoimmune disease, multiple secondary infections due to a compromised immune system or complete failure of one or more internal organs such as heart, liver, spleen, etc."

I copied this information for hound owners to read and reflect on it as a potential cause of death for some hounds!

It seems that most are familiar with coccidia and parvo, as well as various worms.

The ehrlichiosis problem seems to be one which is growing, so I thought sharing this information may be appropriate, considering the fact that some folks have lost hounds, & are not sure why!

Important reading about treatment:

"While doxycycline is frequently used to treat Lyme disease other drugs have been used. Amoxicillin is a recent trend in the treatment of Lyme disease but has no effect whatsoever on ehrlichiosis. As both Lyme disease and ehrlichiosis share some signs a misdiagnosis of ehrlichia as Lyme disease could prove fatal to both dogs and humans if not treated with the proper drug."

Check With Your Vet, but I believe the proper treatment for an average hound is 1 1/2 Doxycycline pills per day for 30 days.

If you would like to read more...copy and paste the link below.

http://chien-noir.com/ehrlichiosis.html#What

I hope this may be helpful, may save a few hounds, & also help hound owners to learn a little more about what's out there that can be harmful to our hounds!

Allan Bishop
(Jabber Jaw)

BTT

Allen -
I dealt with this disease several years ago and it's tough. I found Hellums bred and line bred dogs are most suspect to it of exposed. Liquor dogs, Julys and more open crossed hounds didn't seem to get it. The key is keep ticks off them as that is how it spreads. Tetracycline is the best antibiotic to use for it. Hope this helps!