I previously had written a post on Canine Neospora in February of 2017 and thought it would be beneficial to bring up to date those Readers who are also, unfortunately, experienced with parasitical beef infections in their dogs. One of our veteran Irish Wolfhounds, age 9.5 years, who previously was diagnosed with Neospora in 2014, has again tested seropositive with a result of 1:800. This result shows that she has tested positive for the infection rather than a possible exposure to Neospora. We have begun a drug protocol of Clindamycin and will continue this antibiotic for at least eight weeks. However, due to her age, I am of the mindset to dose her for the remainder of her life.
It is important to share that my own valuable experience with this disease in two dogs over the years has revealed incongruities with most of the information disseminated on the Internet by veterinarian experts. It is very frustrating, to say the least, and often seems as if I am feeling my way through the dark.
To illustrate, one veterinarian website states that laboratory tests of Complete Blood Counts (CBC), Chemistries will likely indicate high levels of elevated plasma creatine kinase activity (CT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), protein, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) but also decreased eosinophils, neutrophils, macrophages, lymphocytes, and monocytes.
However, my hound's CBC, Chemistries, and Differentials results were within the normal range and were quite excellent for her age of 9.5 years save for her Neopsora IFA titer.
Other medical sites describe symptoms like lethargy, weight-loss or paralysis. Even more describe common symptoms as rigid contracture of the muscles, dermatitis, pneumonia, diffuse peritonitis with increasing amount of fluid in the abdomen. Additional sites describe symptoms such as circling, head tilt, rapid eye movement, head tremors, abnormal cranial nerve function, depressed reflexes, quadriplegia, and extreme cervical sensitivity. Lastly, but rarely, one or more discuss neospora-associated myocarditis. My frustration levels rise because my veteran female wolfhound had not displayed nearly all of these "typical" features since her first infection in 2014, except for myocarditis.
Instead, she has suffered trembling of the legs, weakness in the hindquarters and seizure activity, which after much investigation are all common with chronic and latent Neospora. In my opinion, she was subjected to the reactivation of a previous, dormant infection originally diagnosed in 2014 where her titer result was 1:1600 (Values with less than 200 indicate no detectable antibody.) She was treated, and since then she had been, for the most part, asymptomatic which is not unusual in older dogs. However, the latent, chronic infection over the past three years has resulted in what we believe are possibly multifocal brain lesions and or inflammation of the CNS, Granulomatous meningoencephalomyelitis (GME). Any such CNS diagnosis would require an MRI and cost roughly $3,000 in my region of the country, and when involving a 9.5-year-old Wolfhound, this is not a diagnosis that I need to have confirmed. Any possible treatment, such as immunosuppressive doses of prednisone, will require life-long therapy. I loathe prednisone and refuse to use it on any of our dogs unless it is a life or death situation on a younger animal. Note, however, that NCBI states that "Corticosteroids have been shown to worsen clinical disease in dogs with neosporosis, so they should not be administered."
I should also add that sources for the infection are not limited to bovines such as beef muscle, liver, brain and heart. Neospora caninum has been found in sheep, birds, deer, and rabbits. Reportedly, there is experimental evidence cited by Veterian Key that ingestion of infected chicken eggs by dogs may lead to Neospora oocyst shedding. This is an interesting turn as I know that Natural Rearing and or feeding raw foodstuffs menu usually contains whole eggs, in their shells and pulverized within a puree.
We are hoping for a functional recovery with the Clindamycin, and I will report as needed, especially if I obtain new information about sources of infection. For those who have questions, feel free to contact me via email.