Registered: Nov 2011
Location: Freeport,TX
Posts: 1907

One of my dogs was starting to graze quite a bit on grass…about a month later he did not look so good…
It seemed he was having symptoms of Parvo or Corona…lasted about a week and then it seemed like he was recovering…that lasted about a week and he started going downhill quick after that…both times he was slobbering like Parvo…
Long story short I had my wife take the dog to the Vet…the dog looked so bad I knew it probably wouldn’t make another day…I won’t spend a lot of money connecting this old dog to an IV and all that…if they think he should be put to sleep then we will do it…but for sure I wanted a blood sample and tested to see what is causing the illness on account I have never seen this in my dogs…
Our Vet is over an hour away on account they are reasonable about treatments and costs…I stay away from those around my area…
They performed a blood test and they saw extremely high calcium, high protein, and high Globulin…the Vet did some quick research, and she suspected a rare type of infection…
She thought Heterobilharzia Americana…she was extremely excited about her first case…she was not 100 percent sure, but she started treatment like it were…she sent off a sample to Texas A&M and it was confirmed…
On the way home the dog was better and looked like he would make it…that was Monday…today is Thursday and he is acting surprisingly good and he was able to get on top of the picnic table on his own…even acting all happy…I fed him raw hamburger and Church’s Fried Chicken for three days…this evening he is back on normal rations but I will supplement raw hamburger until his weight comes back…
Before going to the vet he wouldn’t eat a Ribeye that was left over…

The treat right now is 9 cc’s of liquid Panacur once a day for ten days…I did a search and another treatment is Praziquantel…I couldn’t find it in capsules so ordered it in a 50 gram container…when I finish with the Vet’s treatment I will retreat with Praziquantel after a few weeks after the dog is off Panacur…the treatments are wormers…

According to the available data, the illness is more common along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts…A few cases as far as Kansas have been documented…

Raccoons are the natural definitive host for Heterobilharzia Americana. Dogs can also serve as a definitive host. Dogs acquire infections when cercariae of H. Americana penetrate the skin while dogs are swimming or wading in contaminated fresh water sources.

Has anyone else experienced this with their dogs?

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Registered: Dec 2003
Location: Sheridan, WY
Posts: 1147

You had left over ribeye?

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: Freeport,TX
Posts: 1907

quote:

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Originally posted by houndsound
You had left over ribeye?

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Registered: Jun 2012
Location: Virginia
Posts: 231

How high was your dogs Calcium and how old is it? Any radiogtahs or quick ultrasound done?

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I don’t know all tests performed... I didn’t mention high BUN as well...

The calcium showed to max out on analysis because it had the greater than sign>...the number was greater than 16.0 mg/dl...

I’m not at home to find his birth date but he is over 9 years old...

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Registered: Jun 2013
Location: Pilot,Va.
Posts: 132

Thanks for posting info on this disease . It will help a lot of us and our vets if more hounds contact this disease . I hope your hound will recover fully . Thanks again .

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Registered: Jun 2013
Location: Pilot,Va.
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Thanks for posting info on this disease . It will help a lot of us and our vets if more hounds contact this disease . I hope your hound will recover fully . Thanks again .

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Registered: Aug 2014
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If Racoons are the carrier, most competition dogs will be fine.

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: Freeport,TX
Posts: 1907

There isn’t much data on this illness...
What I have observed cannot be considered as symptoms of this disease...but then again it could be...just something to think about...

Out of all my dogs, this dog started eating certain grasses from my backyard for past 6 months or so...the other 7 dogs have not any more than usual...

This dogs stool looked somewhat normal most of that time...

About a month go I noticed he had lost a little weight and his stomach looked somewhat swollen...around that time he started favoring his hips like he had a mild case of hip displasia...
I was thinking dog food and/or age related issues at the time or possibly cancer...

Soon after he started slobbering like parvovirus or coronavirus symptoms...
3 or 4 days later it cleared up and he seemed to be recuperating...

A week later he started slobbering again and this time he lost a lot of weight...

My wife takes him to the vet for me and my instructions were to have stool and blood samples drawn and analyzed even if the Vet says it would be best to put him down...
I insisted on this analysis because I had heard dogs could get infected with covid 19, or, maybe it could be something else just as unusual...either way I wanted to know what was happening to my dog...of all my years of being around dogs I have never seen anything like this illness before...

The Veterinarians did some excellent troubleshooting for never seeing this illness before in their practice...

By the looks of it this illness is easy to treat...it’s best if it is caught and treated early because it seems it could cause permanent damage if not...my dog would have died if not treated...

Hopefully sharing this information could possibly help someone else if they happen to encounter this illness with one of their dogs...

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: Freeport,TX
Posts: 1907

Monday ole Tiger looked like he wouldn’t make it another day...by Thursday he had a firm stool and was acting pretty good and Friday he is moving around like he wants to go hunting...

He has 4 more days of Panacur to take and he should be fine...I will post post again if there are changes...

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

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Registered: Aug 2013
Location: Seneca, Mo
Posts: 5823

Glad yours is doing better. I hope he makes a full recovery!
A couple of years ago a friend of ours in Kansas dog was diagnosed with this ( Schistosomiasis) being sick off and on for probably a year. Various vets had treated tried treating the dog but none ever came up with the right diagnosis until he finally took him to KU. His local vets were trying to treat like it was a tick disease with doxycycline or maybe low thyroid, allergies ect, the more common things they run into. His got some better after treatment but long term damage had already been done by the time the diagnosis was made and he later died from it. This parasite that enters through the skin and travels through to the lungs. Strangely part of its lifecycle involves a snail.
I've wandered if one reason it is not more common is the prevalence of the use of fenbendazole (Panacure) in hounds.
His dog had started out not acting right and slick treeing then got worse, he was a very accomplished dog not a pup so he knew something wasn't right health wise early on. This is definitely one to remember if anyone has a sick dog that a vet can't pinpoint diagnosis on to suggest testing for. Sometimes we have to think outside the box.

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Registered: Feb 2007
Location: Pomeroy, Ohio
Posts: 2834

Did your dog get dehydrated when he was sick?

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: Freeport,TX
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The Vet never did say... I would say the dog was dehydrated because he had diarrhea and wasn’t eating...the Vet was more worried about the dogs tremors he was starting to have...she said the tremors were a sign of high calcium in the blood...

when my wife left to the veterinary clinic the dog didn’t have the strength to sit up...

the first treatment was given by the vet and we saw improvement within an hour...when my wife pulled up with the dog he was sitting up...that in itself seemed miraculous to us...

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

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Registered: Feb 2007
Location: Pomeroy, Ohio
Posts: 2834

I lost a very nice 6 month old pup a few years ago with what sounds like very similar symptoms. Wish My vet would have been able to diagnose it like yours did.

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Reuben.
Praziquantel is readily available in caplets from any animal supply as Fish Tapes . Comes in two sizes and way cheaper then dog ones.
I read your story.
I had an older dog die last summer. She had Lymes so I just credited to that reason that it finally got her.
She grazed a lot when left out of her kennel. This was for over a year though. Most vets pass it off(grass eating) and there is no information that definitely gives a reason . Could not take the heat.
A year a go she started getting lethargic and off her feed losing weight. I brought her in for the winter. Fed her cooked chicken ,ham, hot dogs. She finally went back on regular feed. I put her back in her kennel in the spring. She seemed okay but I still couldn't keep weight on her. Then in June/July she went back to heavy grass eating ,lethargic, not eating. Drank normal water amount.
Couldn't get Vet help because getting appointments was near impossible last summer.
I left the old girl roam the yard until she quietly laid down on the porch in front of the house door and passed.
She never displayed slobbering. .
So whether it was same as your dog or Lymes. I will never know.
But certainly would had tried that worming schedule.
Article I pasted below states Definitive treatment included praziquantel and fenbendazole.
One year too late for me.But your information will be stored in my memory .Never heard of it.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20002553/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12126129/


Causation
The life cycle of H. americana is indirect and involves a snail. The egg of H. americana is passed in the feces of the dog and hatches almost immediately in water. The immature form swims around until it finds a snail. The immature form enters the snail where it matures into an infective form. These forms leave their snail host and swim in search of a dog or raccoon. But, they only leave the snail early in the morning. These forms only have one day in which to find a host before they die.

Upon entering a dog, the infective forms enter the veins in the skin and are then carried to the heart and lungs. By several routes, they migrate to the veins of the intestine and liver where they mature. A bulkier male worm mates with the very slender and petite female. She then moves into smaller veins and lays her eggs and then leaves. The eggs are then passed in the feces.

Fenbendazole (Panacur) given once a day for ten days or praziquantel (Droncit) given two to three times a day for three days have been effective treatments.
Sometimes repeated in three weeks. In many instances, the use of this medication results in complete resolution.

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Last edited by benderb4 on 04-12-2021 at 02:46 AM

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quote:

---

Originally posted by benderb4
Reuben.
Praziquantel is readily available in caplets from any animal supply as Fish Tapes . Comes in two sizes and way cheaper then dog ones.
I read your story.
I had an older dog die last summer. She had Lymes so I just credited to that reason that it finally got her.
She grazed a lot when left out of her kennel. This was for over a year though. Most vets pass it off(grass eating) and there is no information that definitely gives a reason . Could not take the heat.
A year a go she started getting lethargic and off her feed losing weight. I brought her in for the winter. Fed her cooked chicken ,ham, hot dogs. She finally went back on regular feed. I put her back in her kennel in the spring. She seemed okay but I still couldn't keep weight on her. Then in June/July she went back to heavy grass eating ,lethargic, not eating. Drank normal water amount.
Couldn't get Vet help because getting appointments was near impossible last summer.
I left the old girl roam the yard until she quietly laid down on the porch in front of the house door and passed.
She never displayed slobbering. .
So whether it was same as your dog or Lymes. I will never know.
But certainly would had tried that worming schedule.
Article I pasted below states Definitive treatment included praziquantel and fenbendazole.
One year too late for me.But your information will be stored in my memory .Never heard of it.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20002553/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12126129/


Causation
The life cycle of H. americana is indirect and involves a snail. The egg of H. americana is passed in the feces of the dog and hatches almost immediately in water. The immature form swims around until it finds a snail. The immature form enters the snail where it matures into an infective form. These forms leave their snail host and swim in search of a dog or raccoon. But, they only leave the snail early in the morning. These forms only have one day in which to find a host before they die.

Upon entering a dog, the infective forms enter the veins in the skin and are then carried to the heart and lungs. By several routes, they migrate to the veins of the intestine and liver where they mature. A bulkier male worm mates with the very slender and petite female. She then moves into smaller veins and lays her eggs and then leaves. The eggs are then passed in the feces.

---

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

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Registered: May 2008
Location: lenoir nc
Posts: 307

Hey Reuben I had a dog with all these symptoms except his white blood cell count was 4x's what it should have been. Do you know what your dogs count was? To make a really long story short my dog was down for 4 months of wormer, antibiotics, and various other things the dog survived but hasn't hunted since. Never was the same dog afterwards so he's just a sorry ol yard dog now but he's pretty to look at his sorry carcus.

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The blood cell counts were in the normal range and he was not running a fever...

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

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Registered: Nov 2011
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The blood cell counts were in the normal range and he was not running a fever...

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

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Registered: May 2008
Location: lenoir nc
Posts: 307

Thanks may not be the same thing but mine was running fever and white blood test was 52,000 and should have been around 17000. Went from 67lbs to 29 lbs of weight. The vet said he had some kind of infection he thought but couldn't find anything. Spent 1200$ and just when I thought he'd die a friend told me bout LA 200 and I'm not saying that's what saved him but I went to TSP and bought a 30$ bottle and give 1.5cc a day for 3 days and he finally started eating and more active. Still don't know what it was but I think the fever maybe fried his brain but he won't hunt no more just Like's to hang out with me... but that's ok maybe if ol sasquatch come for one night all I have to do is outrun ol Django! Lol

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Took Tiger to the vet today...he’s gained 7 pounds in ten days...in two weeks he will start with 11 cc’s of panacur per day for 10 days and she said the dog should recover and will probably die of other causes...

The vet said that the second round of panacur as making sure that the difference stages of the parasite do not respond the same to the wormer...she said we are making sure the dog gets cleared of the parasite...

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

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Registered: Nov 2011
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Tiger is supposed to start his second round of panacur for ten days on May 5th...

The first round saved his life but he plateaued...he eats very little and I have to mix it with something like chicken and gravy for him to eat...still eating lots of grass but has firm stool...

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

Last edited by Reuben on 05-02-2021 at 03:27 AM

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The dog started going down pretty quick...I drove to the Vet and told her I wanted to try praziquantel on account I read it had been used in treating dogs with this illness...I ordered my own but is on back order...48 pills at $264.00, I was given a 120.00 discount she also said start the 11 cc’s of panacur per day for ten days...

The praziquantel...take 8-34 mg tablets every 8 hours until used up...two full days...

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

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Registered: Nov 2011
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Tiger finished his praziquantel tabs this morning at 5 am...
He still needs to finish his daily panacur he is taking for ten days straight at 11 cc’s per dose...

At this time he will not eat dog food...he is eating raw hamburger 73/30 and loves it...also eating raw beef liver and likes it better than hamburger...if this doesn’t cure him I will ask the vet if they want Tiger for experimenting in finding a cure if not I will keep him until he needs to be put down...

I don’t think the panacur is working... I am hoping the praziquantel will cure him...

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: Freeport,TX
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Praziquantel...Tiger was taking over 2 times the amount that is given to a dog to treat tape worms...not just once but every 8 hours for 48 hours...which was a total of 6 times...adding to that he is on panacur...11 cc’s per day for 10 days...

The dog is getting better by leaps and bounds...time will tell if the illness has been eradicated...

Here is my point...many say, do not exceed recommended dosages on wormers...especially ivermectin...

Not giving enough will create immunity in the worms in my opinion...

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

Last edited by Reuben on 05-06-2021 at 06:33 PM

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