Wahooooo!!!! First negative Leishmaniasis test!

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Carbon did a month-long treatment last fall (the famous 'butter ball' month) and this was our first test since then.

NEGATIVE!!!!! First negative test he's ever had!

Go Carbon!

I'm not sure what this means going forward - the vet is going to call me back tomorrow - but I'm definitely doing the happy dance for my Spanish gentleman.

Carbon: "Wait, what? I thought we were doing the Butter Ball Treatment again in August? I feel so cheated!"

 

[kateincornwall]

 

[Lisa]

Fantastic!!! Great news! You go, Carbon!!
(Maybe he could have just ONE butter ball in celebration? )

 

[Joy]

Great news!

 

[Jacqui-S]

Fabulous news!

 

[Atemas]

Excellent

 

[Cath]

What wonderful news

 

[MellowYellow]

Oh that is brilliant news!!!!!

 

[HAH]

This sounds excellent news!

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Thanks everyone (or as Carbon would say, "Muchísimas gracias")! I don't even know what it means really yet other than I am just so relieved to finally get a negative. Sometimes you don't know how worried you are about something until it lifts up off your shoulders a bit.

 

[Selina27]

Wonderful news.

 

[Boogie]

The lambies are a-dancing!

 

[Loraseal]

Fantastic news!

 

[Granca]

Go Carbon!

 

[Stacia]

Wonderful news, you must feel as if a load has been lifted.

 

[Oberon]

So great to hear!!! Woohoo!!!!!!!!!

< that is supposed to be a butter ball. I agree with Lisa - a celebratory butter ball is warranted.

 

[Lab_adore]

Brilliant news Emily

 

[snowbunny]

Fabulous! The first of many, I hope.

I'm sure you already know, but dogs who have had Leish are never considered "cured", just "in remission". The negative test means that the parasites aren't active. The Leishvet protocol recommends having continued tests every six months, and after three consecutive negative tests you can start to relax a little and revisit the daily use of allopurinol. Your vet may not follow these guidelines, of course.

Going forwards, you still need to keep in mind that, even if the Leish is not active, certain treatments can trigger it again. Steroids are one thing to be avoided if possible, off the top of my head. But there's every chance that it will remain inactive for the rest of his life, too!

 

[edzbird]

Marvellous news!

PeeEss - that's ab especially handsome photo of Carbon

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

dogs who have had Leish are never considered "cured", just "in remission".

Yes, I know this is controversial. Some say it's gone (which could be construed as 'cured') and some say it never goes away. At the end of the day, it's semantics except for (I believe) he can never have the Leish vaccine as he had/has Leish. This bothers me as I would like to return to Spain/France/Italy someday and when we do, I'll always be worried about him.

We'll keep getting the testing and keep an eye on everything else. His vet is very 'peace, love and granola', so I'll be interested to see what she says about the Alopurinol.

But for now, just happy that we finally FINALLY have one negative test. As much as he enjoyed those Milteforan butter balls and had zero side-effects, I was quite sure at the time that I'd gotten a bum batch and it would make no difference to his Leish status whatsoever. Very glad to have been wrong!