Reyna

Got the call from the vet a little bit ago. The Urine Protein:Creatinine Ratio (UPC) test shows that the level of protein in Reyna's urine is definitely higher than it should be; high enough that we need to start looking for the cause, but not quite high enough to put us in a panic. Apparently, there are a lot of things that could cause the abnormality (of course, because nothing can be simple). One possibility is ehrlichia, a tick-borne illness. Reyna had a low positive for ehrlichia last year but wasn't showing any symptoms, so we didn't worry about it since a low positive can indicate an old exposure/inactive infection. The vet thinks its possible that Reyna has been re-exposed and is reacting to that exposure. His recommendation was to put her on doxycycline for a month and then retest her urine. The problem with that plan is that Reyna always gets sick on antibiotics, so I don't want to give them to her unless we know there's a good reason. The vet is checking with the lab to see if they have enough blood for one more test. If not, we'll go by tomorrow so they can take some from Reyna. The lab will run a tick titer to see if her ehrlichia number has changed and become high enough to indicate an active infection. If yes, we'll treat. If no, I'm not sure what we'll do.