To start, we already took my fuzz ball to the vet who is for now pretty stumped. While we are testing out a 10 day antibiotic treatment I figured I would look around to see if anyone else has ever seen or dealt with this sort of issue with their husky before. Just so I can a few more leads to follow, tests to run and so forth.

So my husky's name is Missy. She's roughly 6 years old and only maybe 51 lbs. She's rather tiny for her breed but a good weight for her size. About a month and a half ago we got her blood work done and all her shots like we do every year and her blood came back positive for lyme. After a quick check with the vet and showing no signs of symptoms we decided to hold off on any meds as they can make dogs sicker. We at least wanted to wait until we knew for sure the tests were positive (she said something about the blue dot test not being super accurate).

She was fine for a while, but had always suffered from general anxiety after leaving a two dog house when I moved out. We decided to get a puppy named Farlow who is a mutt. Around this time is when I started to notice a few small changes in her behavior. Nothing major but she became lazy and almost a bit spaced out. Walkies was her favorite thing but she was dragging behind and slowly plopping along behind me even going just a few yards around the block. She wasn't limping or sore, just very very slooooow.

I then noticed she wasn't really as active in general as she normally was. She's been spending a lot of time on the bed but not sleeping. Just staring and lazing about. The word walk used to get her up and moving, jumping around, play bowing and mooing at mommy to hurry up so we can go. For treats she would tap her feed, twirl around and rush through her commands so she could get a jerky strip of piece of chicken. Now some days I have to push her off the bed in the morning to go potty, and she slowly takes the treat to go chew it in the hallways very slowly. After nearly everything she does she goes right back up to the bed to lay down.

We went to the vet as I thought maybe the lyme was bringing her down. The vet doesn't think so, she has no sore joints or inflammation and other than being lazy she said she just looks like she feels crappy. No lumps or indents in her body, gums are pink, eyes are normal, ears, breath and bum check out, no swollen tummy or anything she can feel blockage wise. She's pooping, drinking and eating normally. The eating is a bit harder to tell as shes a grazer and always has been. Eating more like a cat than a dog. She will still take table scraps and eats rice and boiled chicken slowly but she keeps it all down. Her beggin' strips still get her slightly excited.

Blood work came back all normal with a few a bit lower on the normal end but still in the lines. She suggested we try switching food to see if she's not getting enough out of what we feed now and put her on a 10 day antibiotic to be safe with the lyme. That seems to be doing SOMETHING as she's playing with the puppy more and hardly ever drags on the walks. She's still likely to go upstairs and lay down rather than do anything but she has her moments at the dog park where she zips from one end to the other, or dirt wrestles with some dogs. A one mile walk is just fine and she's bouncing around when I come home but really that's it. She grew up with a greyhound who was lazy all day so sleeping a bit more than normal isn't SUPER strange but losing interest in almost all her favorite activities over a month is a little iffy. Missy also used to be a BIG talker, I mean all the time with the squeeky door whine when she wasn't getting attention, barking to go out for potties, barking just to..bark. Now she's quiet as a mouse...

She had a bit of greenish diarrhea today (almost full liquid, no chunks or blood though) which I might just chalk up to the new food we are slowly starting to add in..but it's a fact that might be important. The next step is ultra sounds, I'll be paying for peace of mind if I have too. Just want to know if there are any other things I should be checking for or trying. (Edit: The green poop might be from too much iron as she finished the end of her marrow bone last night which I normally give them for only 15 mins a day...and stole her brothers and ate all the marrow out of his too. I guess she knew she only had a few mins and raced the clock)

So...yea...lazy husky...thanks for any help you guys can give me!

she sounds depressed, which could actually be part of the lyme but could also be from so much change. It's possible that the lyme started it and then by getting a puppy and changing her food all mixed in that compounded it. When we first got our second dog my girl who is around the same age as yours now (7) she was 5ish at the time, would go off on her own for a long time. She just needed a break from the new and time to herself to decompress, mix that with lyme disease and it makes things come on faster. The thing with lyme is that it can have no symptoms, tons of symptoms, or a couple symptoms so getting her over that or tagging down that you received a false positive the first test would be my first goal. If she was still eating her old food and was having good bowel movements on it, I wouldn't have changed it until all else had been ruled out. It's hard to say with her being on new food if that is causing the greens or if the antibiotics are.

Welcome to the forum. I hope she gets to feeling better soon.

I had two dogs with Lyme Disease, and they both went down pretty much the same path. Our Shiba Inu got really slow and she'd take her time getting up. I really started to worry about her when she was lying in the back yard and didn't jump up to come inside when I opened the door like she normally does. She just turned her head to look at me. I rushed her to the vet and she tested positive for Lyme Disease. They put her on treatment and she quickly returned to her old self.

Fast forward several years, and I have a Siberian Husky that lived with my parents for a few months while we were in the process of a move. They live in rural northern Wisconsin and he contracted Lyme Disease. Same exact problems you're experiencing with your Husky. Really slow, kind of humdrum, but generally seemed like he was okay. I wanted him checked out anyway and he tested positive for Lyme Disease. He was put on treatment for it and immediately returned to his old self. Huskies don't show their pain like other breeds, so it's not surprising that he acted normally except for being a bit slow even though he was no doubt dealing with a lot of joint pain from the Lyme Disease.

Honestly, I would INSIST that your dog be treated for the Lyme Disease. And something else my vet told me is once they have Lyme, they'll always have it, and it may flare up from time to time. So you'll want to keep an eye on it.

Thanks guys!!

Missy is getting a little better every day, a bit more pep in her step. We even managed to go for a small brisk jog tonight. I've been trying to take JUST her out for a walk during the day like we used to, or a car ride together since she loves those. It could very well be depression since nothing else seems physically wrong with her. Though she seems to really love her new baby brother and plays with him pretty often the change might be hitting her as well as the lyme.

Either way we have another vet visit and I'll keep you guys posted. Knowing others have gone through the same thing with good outcomes makes me feel a lot better. I could break my arm and think it's not a big deal but sometimes if my pup sneeze the wrong way I'm a bit of a spaz.

I'm glad to hear she's getting better!